COVARIANT DIFFERENTIALS LEAD TO THE DESIGN OF A NOVEL SELF-TUNING POWER-SYSTEM STABILIZER

Application of differential geometry to study the dynamics of electric al machines by Gabriel Kron evoked only theoretical interest among the power system engineers and was considered hardly suitable for any pra ctical use. Extension of Kron's work led to a physical understanding o f the processes governing the small oscillation instability in power s ystem. This in turn has made it possible to design a self-tuning Power System Stabilizer to contain the oscillatory instability over arm ext ended range of system and operating conditions. This paper briefly rec ounts the history of this development and touches upon the essential d esign features of the stabilizer. It presents some results from simula tion studies, laboratory experiments and recently conducted field tria ls at actual plants-all of which help to establish the efficacy of the proposed stabilizer and corroborate the theoretical findings.