IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 9, No.

3, August

1994

1285

DETECTION OF TRANSIENTLY CHAOTIC SWINGS IN POWER

SYSTEMS USING REAL-TIME PHASOR MEASUREMENTS
Chih-Wen Liu

J a m e s S. T h o r p

Cornell University
Ithaca, N.Y. 14853

Jin Lu
ORA Coporation
Ithaca, NY 14850

Abstract
In this paper, the concepts of transiently chaotic swings and
windowed Lyapunov exponents in power system dynamics
are described. An efficient computer method to detect a
transiently chaotic swing from a set of real-time phasor measurements is presented. The method estimates the largest
windowed Lyapunov exponent, A[NATl as a detection index.
In simulation results, it is shown that the proposed method
has the potential to detect a transiently chaotic swing and
the estimated X/NA?l can be used as an on-line stability index to predict multi-swing transient instability.

Introduction

Electric power systems in this country are undergoing significant changes. Due to ever-incresasing environmental and
economical pressures, it becomes extremely difficult to construct new transmission or generation facilities. As a result
of the limited power supply and steady growth of load demand, power systems are increasing susceptible to abnormal
conditions following a severe disturbance. Therefore, the operating point is pushed closer to the stability boundary and
the issue of maneuvering a system to a more secure operating condition by on-line stability monitoring and control becomes a critical task. With t,he advent of recently advanced
phasor measurement techniques[3], there are possibilities for
developing new approaches to assessing power system dynamics in a real-time enviroment[l][2][13]. For example, realtime phasor measurements promise to be used in detection of
transient instability for out-of-step relaying or control[l][4].
More specifically, use can be made of these measurements
to determine whether a given in-progress transient swing
is one from which the system will or will not recover and
promptly initiate necessary relaying function such as outof-step blocking and triping, load shedding and restoration,
dynamic braking and modulation of HVDC link power flow.
For the purpose of achieving a more secure real-time operation of a power system under stressed condition, we need to
develop methods that can assess on-line opearting conditions
and produce necessary information for controls in time.

Robert J . Thomas, Hsiao-Dong Chiang

Cornell University
Ithaca, N.Y. 14853

The discovery of complicated dynamical behavior(chaos)

in the two-generator system[8][5] and the randomness of trajetories near stability boundary in the Florida-Georgia twomachine equivalent system[7] together with the availability
of real-time phasor angle measurement motivate our investigation of on-line detection techniques of transiently chaotic
swings(transient chaos) in power system dynamics. Our focus will be on developing computation algorithm to detect
transient chaos following a severe disturbance. We first define the concepts of transiently chaotic swings in section 2,
and then briefly describe the techniques of phasor measurement in section 3. In section 4, we describe how to use the
measurements to detect transiently chaotic swings. Finally,
simulation results are shown to demonstrate the effectiveness
of the proposed method.

Transiently Chaotic Swings

In the context of nonlinear dynamics, chaos means long-term

irregular or random but bounded trajectories in a deterministic dynamical system which are very sensitive to initial condition(S.1.C.). In other words, a trajectory which is chaotic is
unpredictable, even though the trajectory envolves according to deterministic equations. Since the discovery(within
the last three decades) of chaos, chaotic dynamics has become one of the most exciting topics in nonlinear system research and has far-reaching consequences in many branches
of science, for example, fluids near the oneset of turbulence,
laser, chemical reactions and classical many-body systems
etc. So far, due to theoretical results and t+ availability of
high-speed but inexpensive computer systems, it has become
clear that chaos is abundant in nature.
For power system dynamics, the numerical discovery of
chaos is a recent affair[8][5][6]. Since the major characteristic
of chaos is unpredictability, chaos is definitely not an allowed
pheonomena from a dynamic security point of view. In particular, when a power swing is chaotic following a large disturbance, it can be mistaken as a stable one by classical first
swing criterion, but it might randomly give rise to a loss of
synchronism. On the other hand, the broad-band spectrum
property of a chaotic power swing will cause harmonic problems. In the case of transient stability problem, the former
93 SM 526-4 PWRS A paper recommended and approved
situation is preferred to the latter situation. In this paper,
by the IEEE Power System Engineering Committee of
the IEEE Power Engineering Society for presentation
we consider on-line detection of transiently chaotic swings
at the IEEEIPES lgg3 Summer Meeting* Vancouver* B'c' ' which are conceptly different from the traditional definition
Canada, July 18-22, 1993. Manuscript submitted Dec. of chaos in the nonlinear texts. Now we give a definition of
3 0 , 1992 made available for printing Kay 3 , 1993.
transient chaotic swings(transient chaos) as follows:
PRINTED IN USA

0885-8950/94/$04.00 0 1993 IEEE

1286

Definition of transient chaos: Given an observation

window, a transient swing is defined as transient
chaos if and only if the characteristic of the transient swing is the same as that of chaos over the
entire window.

Xi < 0.
Using the Lyapunov exponents quantitity, we can redefne
transient chaos in a more precise way:

The above definition is conceptual. It can be made precise

by the introduction of the Lyapunov exponents.
Lyapunov exponents can be used to measure the sensitive
dependence on initial states for chaotic systems. Lyapunov
exponents are measures of the rate of divergence (or convergence) of trajectories which are initially infinitesimally s e p
arated. A mathematical definition of Lyapunov exponents
can be made in terms of the variational equation of nonlinear dynamical system ,x = f(z). First we differentiate
equation i. = f ( z ) with respect to initial point,zo to get

as:

Dz,i

Dlf(dt(zo))Dz, d t ( Z O ) ,
Dlodto(zO) = I ,
t (zo)

(1)

where $ t ( z ~is) the solution of 3 = f(z) from 2 0 .

Defining D , , # J ~ ( ~=O@) t ( z o ) ,rewrite Eqn.1 as

Eqn.2 is the so-called variational equation which is a linear

time-varying equation describing the evolution of @t(zo).
Let mi(b), i = 1, 2, ..., n, be the eigenvalues of @t(zo).
A precise definition of Lyapunov exponents is given, X i ,
i = 1 , 2 , . ..,n by the following equation:

From this definition, it is intuitive that the Lyapunov exponents represent the average rate of expansion or contraction of volume of the i-th dimension in R" phase space on
the attractor. That is, if it is positive, then the difference between initial conditions will expand in a particular direction
along the trajectory. Otherwise, the difference will contract
in a particular direction along the trajectory. For a stable
steady-state behavior, contraction must outweigh expansion;
so
Xi < 0.

cy=,

The Lyapunov exponents of a chaotic trajectory have at

least one positive X i which corresponds to the sensitive dependence feature. So, the largest Lyapunov exponent, X i ,
where we order Xi in a desending way, of a chaotic trajectory must be positive. This feature distinguishes chaos from
the other types of steady-state behaviors. For the other types
of steady-state behavior, equilibrium points and periodic solution, all Lyapunov exponents are negative. Let us illustrate the possible types of Lyapunov exponents of chaos in
three-dimensional and four-dimensional systems. In a threedimensional case, the only possibility for the Lyapunov exponents is of type (+$,-), that is, XI > 0, &=O, and A3 < 0. In
a four dimensional case, there are two possible cases: (+,O,-,) and (+,+,O,-). The latter case is so-called hyperchaos. The
possible types of Lyapunov exponents in higher dimensional
systems can be derived in a similar way with the constraint

of

Given an observation window NAT, the windowed

Lyapunov exponents, X i N A T ] , i = 1, . . . ,n are defined
1

X ~ N P T I :=

ln(lmi(t)l),

(4)

where mi(t) is the same as that of Eqn.(B). A transient swing is said to be transient chaos over the window if and only if it'has at least one positive X i N A q .
Remark 1: A,easy consequence of the definition is that as
NAT -+ 00, X i N A T ] + X i . so, if a swing is chaotic, then it
must be transiently chaotic. However,the reverse statement
is not true in general.
Remark 2: A transiently chaotic swing has the characteristics of broad-band power spectrum and intrinsic unpredictability over the window, since these properties are natural consequences of having positive windowed Lyapunov exponents which account for the extreme sensitivity to initial
conditions.
Remark 3: One advantage of using windowed Lyapunov exponents is that in the case of transient stability it is useful to
calculate windowed Lyapunov exponents for a small window
to study the nature of short-term swing.

Real-Time Phasor Measurements

Microprocessor-based relays obtain lower level signals from

the current and voltage transducers, sample the current and
voltage signals, perform calculations on the samples, and
reach relaying decisions. There are a number of algorithms
that have been developed for protection of transmission lines,
power transformers, and buses[9],[?]. For the purpose of
the measurement systems of interest here, the Fourier-type
algorithms are most important. That is, the Fourier-type
algorithms are necessary to produce the desired measurements.Let y(t) represent a voltage or current in sine-cosine
)
noiselike signals.
form where ~ ( trepresents
y(t)

= Y, coswot

+ Y, sin wot + c ( t )

(5)

Estimates of the values Y, and Y, can be obtained with

a Fourier calculation where there are N samples per cycle(or half-cycle) of the fundamental frequency wo(the nominal power system frequency, 50 or 60 Hz)[9].

Yc =

N-I

y(nAT)cos wonAT

(6)

n=O

y(nAT)sin wonAT

(7)

ll=O

If y ( t ) is a pure sinusoid, which equals cos(wot+6), the complex number Y , computed from Eqns.(6) and (7), has the

1287
angle 6. If y ( t ) is a bus voltage then the resulting complex
voltage phasor can be thought as the state of the system
for many applications. As the window of N samples moves
in time [the sums in Eqns.(t) and (7) taken from n = k to
n = N k - 11 the angle of Y rotates. A reference angle can
be established and the calculations can be made recursively
by writing the equation where 4 equals W O A T and Y Lis the
phasor computed using N sample values ending at sample L .

The recursive calculation is computationally efficient since

only one multiplication is performed in Eqn.(8). Even more
importantly, if the sign9 y(t) is a pure sinusoid at the nominal frequency W O , then Y Lis stationary in phase with a phase
angle equal to the angle 6 a t the instant a t which the recursion was begun. If the frequency is WO plus Aw (the power
system is off-nominal frequency because of a generation-load
imbalance), the computed phasor rotates at a rate Aw providing a highly accurate frequency measurement device[?].
That is, the frequency can be measured by watching the
computed phasor rotate. It is assumed that the sampling
rate is fixed, i.e., A T equals
Currently one limiting factor to this technology is the
availability of an accurate sampling clock synchronism system. The use of a navigation broadcast system such as the
Global Positioning System(GPS) has made it possible to produce synchronizing pulses once every second with accuracy
of 1 psec. With such accuracy it is possible to obtain accurate voltage phasor measurements during fast changes of
system operation such as transient swings.

E.

, where t denotes transpose, k = 0,1,. , N , A T is the sainpling period, N A T is the length of the measurement window,
and m is the number of generators under study.
Step 1 :Using {6(kAT)}and {o(kAT)} to identify the classical swing equations.
Step 2: Estimating A/,q
from the identified classical
swing equations. Using the sign of the estimated XiNaTl
as a detection index.

Explanation of Step 1:Assuming that the system consists of m generators, the classical swing equations are of the
forms:

6;.

-(Pi

Mi

- Diwi -

EiEjBij sin(6, - ~ 5 ~ )
j=1

EiE,Gi, cos(& - 4 ) )

(9)

3=1

a(,)

where 6, is the i-th component of

and P,,D,,B,,, GI,,
M,, E, are real power injections, damping, , susceptance,
conductance, moment of inertial and constant voltage of
D, = Mt '
generator 1 , respectively. BY setting P, =

9,

d,

and G,, = E 1 ~ , G ' 3 , then P,,D,,B,, and G,,

B,,
are system parameters to be estimated by means of minimizing the following sum of squared errors:
E t E B,L ,

N-1

Detection
of
Chaotic Swings

Transiently

From section 2, one knows that a swing is transiently chaotic

if and only if there exist at least one positive windowed Lyapunov exponents. Let AtNaTl be the largest windowed Lyapunov exponent. Then it is enough and computational efficient to employ A],/
as the detection index, since it dominates the property of sensitivity to initial conditions. More
specifically, if the sign of the calculated XiNaTl is positive,
then the swing is identified as transiently chaotic and larger
implies more sensitivity to initial condiquantity of X~N,q
tions. Based on the above concepts, a two-step computation
algorithm is developed to detect transiently chaotic swings.:

where
m

ei(kAT)

= ii(kAT) - Pi

+ Diwi + C B i j
j=1
m

sin(& - 6,)

+ C G i j cos(6i - Sj)

(11)

j=1

and &(kAT) can be approximated by the consecutive frequency measurements:

Cornput at ion Algori t hrn

We assume that the power system is equipped with phasor measurement device at each generator and the transient
post-fault dynamics is governed by the classical swing equations. The post-fault time variation of generator angles and
frequencies with respect to center of angle are obtained from
Eqn.8. These real-time phasor measurements are communicated to control center to perform detection task. The
algorithm is outlined as follows:
Given a set of angle measurement vector {6(kAT)} =
((Si(kAT), ..., Sm(kAT))}t and a set of frequency mea, ,wm(kAT)}t
surement vector {w(kAT)} = { ( w l ( k A T )...

The summation ranges from 0 to N - 1, because &(NAT)

is not available in Eqn.12. The solution to this linear leastsquare error problem can be approached by solving normal
equation derived from Eqn.lO.[l2]
Explanation of Step 2: Let = j ( 6 ) be the identified
swing equation from step 1. The corresponding variational
equation can be found from Eqn.2. Randomly choose an
initial perturbation As(0) near to initial measurement angle
vector a(0). Set A$(') = A$(O),u(') = A$(O)/llA6(O)ll, and
6 ( O ) = 6(0), where 11 0 11 is Euclidean 2-norm. Integrate the

1288
variational equation from

U()

for A T seconds t o obtain

where @AT(.) is the one-step, AT, transition matrix of the

variational equations of the identified swing equations. Let
dAT)= A6(AT)/llA8(AT)ll be the normalized version of
Ad(AT). Integrate the variational equation from dAT)for
A T seconds again to obtain
A8(2AT)= @AT(b(AT))uL(AT)
where

is the next sampling measurement. Repeat this

Figure 1: Three Machine System

integration/normalization procedure over the whole window

N times. Then the estimated largest windowed Lyapunov

exponent is computed as follows:

k=l

Practical Considerations
1.Reference Frame:In the transient case, each rotor angle is compared with the center of angle(C0A) reference for
transient chaos detection. In a real-time enviroment it is
impossible t o acquire all angle measurements in a short period of time. On the other hand, our objective is not t o
determine the stability of the whole system, but to detect
transient chaos for relay and controller decisions in related
areas. Therefore, only nearby unit angles are required t o
compute a local COA t o decide if any action should be
initiated in this part of the network.
2. Length of the W i n d o w NAT: Since we want to detect transiently chaotic swing as early as possible, the window should be chosen as short as possible from this point.
On the other hand, we need enough measurements to idenTherefore,
tify the system and obtain more accurate A],[.
there is a trade-off between these things. A reasonable choice
is that the dimension of normal equations, which equals t o
N , is about twice than the number of unknown parameters.
3. Noise: Due t o the inevitible presence of noise in measurements and numerical computation, it is safer to choose
a threshhold value y t o compare wit,h ifNAT1.
That is, if
> y, then the swing is transiently chaotic or else it
is not. Usually y can be chosen by hypothesis testing.

;\tNAT1
5

Simulation Results

The proposed method was applied to a three machine system

with lossless transmission lines. The reduced network representted by only connections with internal machine nodes
is shown in Fig.1. The first case consists of two machines
with high damping and the rest one is treated as slack or a
machine with an almost infinte capacity t o absorb or supply
power to the system. The second case is a special threemachine system without damping and two machines have
larger inertias than the rest one, but no machine is treated
as slack. The simulated phasor measurements are obtained
from direct integration of the classical swing equations. The

measurements are assumed to be obtained at a rate of once

every O.Olsec, although the real-time phasor measurements
are performed constantly at a sampling rate, say, 12 times
per cycle(1/720 sec)[9]. At a rate of 0.01 sec there is overlap
in the raw data used for consecutive phasor estimates. The
measurement window, N A T , is set t o be 1 sec and and the
threshhold value, y,is set t o be zero.

Case 1:
In this first case, machine 3 is treated as slack bus. The
classical swing equations describing the post-fault system are
as follows:

The system parameters are set t o be Pi = 0.59739,& =

l.O,&
= 0 . 5 , P ~ = 0.89739,&
= 1.0,& = 0.3 and
BIZ= I321 = 0.1 By [5], the system has chaotic swings with
the above specified parameters. The simulated time response
of angles and angular frequencies of two machines are integrated from four initial conditions, deviated from equilibrium
point, which model 4 different disturbances. Appling the
proposed method t o the simulated measurements, we obtain
the estimated system parameters and XtlJecl, shown in table
1. From the table, we conclude the first two swings caused
by disturbances 1 and 2 are transiently-chaotic swings over
l(sec.) window by the positive sign of X~l,e,l. Fig.2-5 show
the swing curves of angular frequency of machine 1 corresponding to four disturbances over 20 seconds from direct
integrations. From Fig.2 and Fig.3, we can see the transiently chaotic time-behavior and sensitive dependence on
the initial conditions of transient swings caused by disturbance 1 and 2. From Fig.4 and Fig.5, however, we cant find
the similar characteristics from transient swings caused by
disturbance 3 and 4. It should be noted that the method
is applied t o a smaller measurement window, 1 sec, but the
conclusions of the nature of the transient swings still hold for
a larger simulation window, 20 sec. These results show the
effectiveness of using the sign of AflSec1 as a detection index.

1289

11
0

"

"

'
14

"

10

12

"

16

IS

'

20

sec

Figure 2: Transiently chaotic time-behavior and sensitive dependence on t h e initial conditions of transiently
chaotic swing of angular frequency of machine 1 caused
by disturbance 1. T h e solid curve and dotted curve
are integrated from two close initial conditions:solid
curve:(2.6 0.1 1.4 1.5),dotted curve:(2.8 0.1 1.4 1.5)
Table 1:Estimated System Parameters and

'0

10

12

14

'

16

'

18

20

105

Figure 3: Transiently chaotic time-behavior and sensitive dependence on t h e initial conditions of transiently
chaotic swing of angular frequency of machine 1 caused
by disturbance 2. T h e solid curve and dotted curve
are integrated from two close initial conditions: solid
curve:(2.8 0.1 0.5 0.8),dotted curve:(3.0 0.1 0.5 0.8)

..

(1.2,0.1,1.4,0.5) Dl = 0.50
disturbance 4:
"tsecl
= -0.11
initial condition=
I 3 2 = 0.09
(0.2,0.1,0.5,0.8) D1 = 0.49

8 2

= 0.34

4 = 0.58

B2l

= 0.09

4 = 0.89

8 1 3 = 0.98 B23 = 0.99

D 2 = 0.3
Bzl = 0.09

DLturburo 3

ais

.. ..

0.1

In this second case, machine 1 and machine 2 have larger

inertials than machine 3, i.e., M 1 - a,M2 =
with
A?fl,A?2
,and M3 of order 1. c is a small positive number.
Under the assumptions of conservative of energy and momentum , the system can be described by the following reduced swing equations, for more details see [6]

&

83

= w3
= A - E 1 2 s i n ( ( l + p1)61
- 813 sin(& - 63)
= P3 - 8 3 1 sin(& - 61)

LA
j 3

w1

832

sin(pl61

0.3

+~ ~ 3 6 3 )

+ (I + cp3)53)

-a35
0

#'

10

12

14

16

18

20

Ec

(15)

In our simulation, A , P3, 8 1 2 , B13, &I and B32 are unknown system parameters to be estimated and 6 = 0.01, p i =
= p3 = M2 = 0.707 are known parameters. This sysMZ
tem was shown theoretically to exist chaotic motions using Melikov's theorem[6]. In our simulation, we obtained
the simulated measurements by integrating Eqn.15 using
the parameter values PI = 0.59739, P 3 = 0.89739,
=
1.0, 8 1 3 = 0.001, 8 3 1 = 0.1, 8 3 2 = 1.0 and initial condition

..

'%,

Figure 4: Nonchaotic time-behavior and correlative dependence on the initial condions of angular frequency of
machine 1 caused by disturbance 3. T h e solid curve and
dotted curve are integrated from two close initial conditions: solid curve:(1.2 0.1 1.4 0.5),dotted curve:(1.4 0.1
1.4 1.5)

1290
1.8,

1.6
1.4

1.2

0.6
a4

az
0

10

12

14

16

18

U)

Figure 5: Nonchaotic time-behavior a n d correlative dependence o n the initial conditions of angular frequency
of machine 1 caused by disturbance 4. The solid curve
and dotted curve are integrated from two close initial
conditions: solid curve:(0.2 0.1 0.5 0.8),dotted curve:(0.4

Figure 6 : Transiently chaotic time-behavior of angle of

three-machine system integrated from initial condition
(0.3,0.0,0.3,0.0), simulation time=150sec
as

0.1 0.5 0.8)

a4
a3

(61(0),w1(0), 63(0),w3(0) = (0.3,0.0,0.3,0.0). The method

was used on these simulated measuremeyts. The estimated
are PI = 0.5878, P3 = 0.8988, B 1 2 =
parameters and i/lsec]
1.0051,813 = 0.1507, &1 = 0.0957,&2 = 1.0051 and
itlsec1
= 0.2168. From the positive sign of the estimated
i/13ec1
= 0.2168, we conclude the swing caused by initial condition (0.3,0.0,0.3,0.0), which is deviated from equilibrium
point, is transiently chaotic. It is meaningful to note that if
one integrates this system from initial point (0.3 ,O. 0,O.3,O. 0)
over a longer period, then one finds that the angles oscillate quitely chaotically very long shown in Fig.6 and Fig.7.
One finds, surprisingly, the system suddenly loses stability
after around 200sec shown in Fig.8. This phenomena demonstrates that transient chaos is not necessarily chaos(since
chaos is a bounded behavior) and suggests that transient
chaos has a close relationship with long-t,erm instability. In
this simple numerical test, the presented method shows that
the transient chaos is identified over a short window, 1 sec.
If transient*chaos would cause long-term instability, then the
estimated XiNaT1 can be used as transient stability index to
predict long-term instability over a short time period.

ai

.a:

-az
-a3
-a4

-as
0

0.2

0.4

a6

0.8

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

Figure 7: 2-dimensional projection on t h e plane (63, us)

of transiently chaotic trajectory of three-machine system
i n t e g n t e d from initial condion (0.3,0.0,0.3,0.0), simulation time=150sec
6

4-

Conclusions

In this paper, we introduce the concepts of transiently

chaotic swing and windowed Lyapunov exponents t,o power
system dynamics. More specifically, it is the first proposal to use the estimat,ed the largest windowed Lyapunov
exponent,itNATl, as on-line detection index. An efficient
computation algorithm, which is appropriate for power systems, to estimate XiNATl is proposed. Two illustrative numerical examples demonstrate the potential of the method
to detect transiently chaotic swings and even to predict longterm instability in a very short observation window of realtime measurements. More future work is needed to apply

8 :I
0

Figure 8: Sudden loss of bound of transiently chaotic

swing integrated from initial condition (0.3,0.0,0.3,0.0),
simulation time=250sec

1291

the method t o real power systems.

References
[l] J.S. Thorp, A.G. Phadke, S.H. Horowit,z and M.M. Be-

govic,Some Applications of Phasor Measurements t o

Adaptive Protection, IEEE Trans. on Power Systems,
vo1.3, No.2 pp.791-798, May, 1988.
[2] J.S. Thorp,Control of Electric Power Systems using
Real-Time Measurements, IEEE Control Systems Magazine, pp.39-45, Jan., 1989.
[3] Working Group H-7 of the Relaying Channels, Subcommittee of the IEEE Power System Relaying, Working Group Report, Synchronized Sampling and Phasor
Measurements for Relaying and Control, to appear in
IEEE Tran. on Power Systems.
[4] Bih-Yuan Ku, Jin Lu, Robert J. Thomas and James S.
Thorp, Real-Time prediction of Power System Transient
Stability Swings Using On-line Phasor Measurements,
submitted t.0 1993 PICA conference.
[5] Fathi M.A. Salam, Shi Bai, and Shixiong Guo Chaotic
Dynamics Even in The Highly Damped Swing Equations
of Power Systems, Conference on Decision and Control,
pp.681-683, Dec., 1988.
[6] N.Kopel1 and R.B.Washburn,Chaotic motions in the
two degree- of-freedom swing equations,IEEE Trans. on
Circuit and Systems, Vol. CAS-29, pp. 738-746, Nov.,
1982.
[7] M. Varghese and J.S. Thorp,An Analysis of Truncated
Fractal Growths in the Stability Boundaries of ThreeNode Swing Equations, IEEE Tram Circuit and Systems, vo1.35, No.7, pp.825-834, July, 1988.
[8] Hsiao-Dong Chiang, Chih-Wen Liu, P.P. Varaiya, Felix
F. Wu and Mark G. Lauby,Chaos in a Simple Power
System, IEEE Winter Power Meet,ing, Feb.1992. Meeting).
[9] A.G. Phadke and J.S. Thorp, Computer Relaying for
Power Systems, Research Studies Press, 1988.
[lo] T.S. Parker and L.O. Chua, Practical Numerical Al-

gorithms for Chaotic Systems, New York, NY:SpringerVerlag, 1989.

[ll] J. Guckenheimer and P.Holmes, Nonlinear Oscillations,
Dynamical Systems and Bifirrcations of Vector Fields,

New York, NY:Springer-Verlag, 1986, Second printing.

[12] Gene H. Golub and Charles F. Van Loan, hfatrir Cornputations, second edition, The Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1989.
[13] C. Counan, M. Trotignon, E. Corradi, B. Bort,oni, M.
Stubbe and J. Deuse, Major Incidents on the French
Elect,ric System: Pot,ent,ially and Curative Mea.sures
Studies 92 SM 432-5 PWRS.

Chih-Wen Liu received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Nat,ional Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan,
in 1987. He received M.S. degree in Elert,rical Engineering
from Cornell University in 1992. Current,ly, he works toward
the Ph.D. degree a t Cornell. His research interest,s include

analysis of complicated behavior of power systems, control

of power systems using real-time measurements.

James. S. Thorp (S58, M63, SM80, F89) received

the B.E.E., M.S and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. In 1962 he joined the faculty at Cornell,
where he is currently a Professor of Electrical Engineering.
In 1976-1977 he was a Faculty Intern at the American Electric Power Service Corporation, NY, where he is currently a
consultant. In 1988 he was an Overseas Fellow at Churchill
College, Cambridge, England. He is a member of the IEEE
Power System Relaying Committee, Chairman of a Working
Group on Feasibility of Adaptive Protection and Control
and a member of CIGRE Working Groups on Digital Prctection.

Jin Lu received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical

engineering from Nanjing Institute of Technology, Nanjing,
P.R.China, in 1982 and 1985, respectively. He received the
Ph.D. degree in the Department of Electrical Engineering,
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, in 1990. He is currently an electrical engineer in ORA corporation, a computer
software firm. His research interests are in the areas of control and optimization of large scale systems with emphasis
on power systems.
Robert J . Thomas (S66, M73, SM82) was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1942. He received the B.S.E.E., M.S.E.E.,
and Ph.D. degrees from Wayne State University in 1968,
1969, and 1973 respectively. He is currently a Professor of
Electrical Engineering a t Cornell University. His research
interests include analysis and control of large-scale power
systems.
Hsiao-Dong Chjang received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering and computer science from the University
of California at Berkeley in 1986, and then worked at the
Pacific Gas and Electricity Company on a special project.
He joined the Cornell faculty in 1987. He was a recipient of
the Engineering Research Initiation Award( 1988) from the
National Science Foundation. His research interests include
power systems, nonlinear systems, optimization theory and
neural networks.

1292
W e would

DISCUSSION
VITALY A. FAYBISOVICH, The R.E.M.
Co., I n c . , L o s A n g e l e s , CA. :

on

the

a p p r e c i a t e t h e a u t h o r s comments
above o b s e r v a t i o n s and q u e s t i o n .

Engineering
Manuscript received August 11, 1993.

T h i s paper c o v e r s v e r y f a s c i n a t i n g p r a c t i c a l
and t h e o r e t i c a l q u e s t i o n a b o u t real t i m e
i d e n t i f i c a t i o n of t h e t r a n s i e n t l y c h a o t i c
s w i n g s (TCS) i n power s y s t e m s . I t i n i t i a t e s
a t least t w o q u e s t i o n s :
1. F o r w h i c h

be

observed

real c o n d i t i o n s t h e
i n power s y s t e m ?

2 . Can t h e TCS be i d e n t i f i e d
proposed algorithms?

TCS may

by t h e

From o u r p o i n t of v i e w t h e TCS is t h e
r e s u l t of n o n l i n e a r o s c i l l a t i o n s i n t h e
m u l t i v a r i a b l e low damped s t a b l e s y s t e m
operating very close t o t h e s t a b i l i t y
b o u n d a r y . I n t h e a b s e n c e o f random
factors t h i s systems behavior i s f u l l y
d e t e r m i n i s t i c a n d c a n be p r e d i c t e d . The
c h a o s f e a t u r e s are a r i s i n g d u e t h e random
d i s t u r b a n c e s o f dynamic p r o c e s s w h i c h i s v e r y
s e n s i t i v e t o small v a r i a t i o n s of t h e i n i t i a l
c o n d i t i o n s , etc.
I n t h e r e a l power s y s t e m t h o s e random
d i s t u r b a n c e s are p r o d u c e d b y v a r i a t i o n of
l o a d s and g e n e r a t o r s o u t p u t . I n s i m u l a t i o n
s t u d y t h e main s o u r c e o f s u c h random b e h a v i o r
are e r r o r s o f n u m e r i c a l i n t e g r a t i o n . If
real power s y s t e m i s o p e r a t i n g w i t h t h e
r e a s o n a b l e r e s e r v e of s t a b i l i t y ( a b o u t
10-15%) t h e TCS i s u n l i k e l y .
I n t h e classical swing e q u a t i o n s t h e a n g l e
and frequency of t h e e l e c t r o m o t i v e f o r c e
behind g e n e r a t o r s t r a n s i e n t r e a c t a n c e are
u s e d . From t h e r e a l t i m e p h a s o r m e a s u r e m e n t s
t h e a n g l e and frequency a t t h e g e n e r a t o r s
b u s are d e f i n e d . T h o s e sets are two
d i f f e r e n t s e t s . For t h i s r e a s o n t h e p r o p o s e d
a l g o r i t h m c a n t be u s e d for t h e r e a l t i m e
TCS i d e n t i f i c a t i o n .

C.-W. Liu, J. S. Thorp, J. Lu, R. J. Thomas, and H.-D. Chiang:

The authors thank the discussers for their interest on this paper.
Mr. Faybisovichs Observations and questions are important.
We agree that some transiently chaotic swings (TCS) result from
multivariable low damped stable system operating very close to
the stability boundary, for example, Case 2 in the simulation
results of the paper. There are, however, some other cases which
can exhibit TCS with high damping like Case 1 in the simulation
results. Moreover, it should be noted that TCS like chaos is
product of complex intrinsic features of deterministic nonlinear
system. Usually the onset of non-empty transversality of stable
manifold and unstable manifold of invariant set in system may
cause TCS [p. 188,1].TCS is not product of external disturbances
in system like load fluctuations. We also agree the real-time
phasor measurements of the angles and frequencies at the
generators bus are different from the angles and frequencies of
the electromotive force behind generators transient reactance.
But we dont agree that the proposed algorithm cant be used
for real-time TCS identification. The reason is that the two sets
of angles and frequencies mentioned above can be related by
static transient reactances and this relationship can be regarded
as invertible change of coordinates which will not change the
sign of A[NATlused as a detection index of TCS.
Reference
[ 11 J. Guckenheimer and P. Holmes, Nonlinear Oscillations,

Dynamical Systems and Bifurcations of Vector Fields, New

York, NY: Springer-Verlag, 1986, second printing.
Manuscript received September 29, 1993.