Comparison of three Under-Frequency Load Shedding Schemes referring to the Power System of Sri Lanka

To cater the consumers with high quality electricity, a reliable Power System (PS) is a must. Recently several major changes have been taken place in the PS of Sri Lanka. Today the PS of Sri Lanka, that operates under Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is comprised with 3 numbers of coal Power Plants (PPs), each having a generation capacity of 300 MW, a combined cycle PP (Yugadanavi) and considerably extended transmission network [1], [2]. To maintain the stability of a PS, the balance between power generation and consumption (demand) is a must. In any event, the first few seconds of frequency degradation and recovery after a major generator trip is essentially be accomplished by governor control. When the PS‟s self-regulation is insufficient to establish a stable state, the system frequency (SF) will continue to drop until it is arrested by automatic under-frequency load shedding (UFLS) to re-establish the load-generation balance within the time constraints necessary to avoid system collapse [3], [4]. Therefore it has become necessary to review the performance of the present CEB LS Scheme (LSS) and suggest amendments where necessary. This paper proposes two LSSs which can address the recent changes taken place in the Sri Lanka PS while maintaining stability. Having simulated the PS of Sri Lanka, performance comparison of the CEB LSS which is being implemented in Sri Lanka and the proposed LSSs (PLSSs) are presented. Results show that the LSS should exclusively be specific for a particular PS. It depends on factors such as electrical PS practice, regulations, largest generator capacity, electricity consumption pattern etc.