Handbook of Power Systems Engineering with Power Electronics Applications

Book Preface

This book is a revision of ‘Handbook of Power System Engineering’ originally published in 2007. Further to various additional revisions on previous chapters 1–24, new chapters 25–28 for power electronics applications have been prepared. The preface for the original version is first quoted.This book deals with the art and science of power systems engineering for those engineers who work in electricity related industries such as power utilities, manufacturing enterprises, engineering companies, or for students of electrical engineering in universities and colleges. Each engineer’s relationship with power system engineering is extremely varied, depending on the types of companies they work for and their positions. We expect readers to study the characteristics of power systems theoretically as a multi dimensional concept by means of this book, regardless of readers’ business roles or specialties.

We have endeavoured to deal with the following three points as major features of the book:

First, as listed in the Contents, the book covers the theories of several subsystems, such as generating plants, transmission lines and substations, total network control, equipment-based local control, protection, and so on, as well as phenomena ranging from power (fundamental) frequency to lightning and switching surges, as the integrally unified art and science of power systems. Any equipment in a power system network plays its role by closely linking with all other equipment, and any theory, technology or phenomenon of one network is only a viewpoint of the profound dynamic behaviour of the network. This is the reason why we have covered different categories of theories combined in a single hierarchy in this book.

Secondly, readers can learn about the essential dynamics of power systems mostly through mathematical approaches. We explain our approach by starting from physically understandable equations and then move on to the final solutions that illustrate actual phenomena, and never skip explanations or adopt half-measures in the derivations.

Another point here is the difference in meaning between ‘pure mathematically solvable’ and ‘engineering analytically solvable’. For example, a person (even if expert in transient analysis) cannot derive transient voltage and current solutions of a simple circuit with only a few LCR constants connected in series or parallel because the equational process is too complicated, except in special cases. Therefore only solutions of special cases are demonstrated in books on transient analysis. However, engineers often have to find solutions of such circuits by manual calculation. As they usually know the actual values of LCR constants in such cases, they can derive ‘exact solutions’ by theoretically justified approximation. Also, an appropriate approximation is an important technique to find the correct solution. Readers will also find such approximation techniques in this book.

Thirdly, the book deals with scientific theories of power system networks that will essentially never change. We intentionally excluded descriptions of advanced technologies, expecting such technologies to continue to advance year by year.

In recent years, analytical computation or simulation of the behaviour of large power system or complicated circuits has been executed by the application of powerful computers with outstanding software. However, it is quite easy to mishandle the analysis or the results because of the number of so many influential parameters. In this book, most of the theoretical explanation is based on typical simple circuits with one or two generators and one or two transmission lines. Precise understanding of the phenomena in such simple systems must always be the basis of understanding actual large systems and the incidents that may occur on them. This is the reason why power system behaviour is studied using small models.

The new chapters 25–28 are arranged for power electronic applications but from four different viewpoints. These are: the theory of induction generators/motors (chapter 25), fundamental characteristics of various power electronic devices (chapter 26), power electronic circuits and control theories (chapter 27) and finally various applications of power electronics focusing on power system engineering and some industrial load applications (chapter 28). The author intended to describe these four different layered subjects all together in this book, because, the author believes, most of existing books for power electronics applications usually discusses only two or three subjects, omitting the other closely related ones. In particular, chapter 25 for induction machines may be helpful for readers who are already familiar with power electronic applications.