Accurate modelling of discrete AGC controllers for interconnected power systems

This paper deals with the modeling of discrete automatic gain control (AGC) controllers for an interconnected power system. The AGC supplementary controllers continuously try to reduce the ACE signal to zero by sending control commands/signals to the speed governor set points. Typically, control signals are sent in the form of discrete control pulses to adjust the generating unit outputs in discrete steps. However, in the preceding AGC studies, ZOH circuit has been misplaced in discrete supplementary controller models. Therefore, control signals feed to the speed governor set points no longer remains in discrete mode or in other words, controller action no longer remains in discrete steps. Therefore, the results and inferences drawn in these studies are erroneous and unrealistic. This paper presents the realistic model of discrete AGC controllers and removes the anomaly in existing works. Furthermore, it is also discovered that inappropriate selection of sampling period of ACE signal degrades the system dynamic performance or even cause system instability. Surprisingly, no proper guidelines/method has been provided yet to select the appropriate sampling period of ACE signals for discrete AGC operation. Here, a maiden attempt has been made to obtain the suitable values of ACE signal&s sampling periods using Shannon&s sampling theorem.