IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution

Research Article

Model-based tuning approach for multi-band

power system stabilisers PSS4B using an
improved modal performance index

ISSN 1751-8687
Received on 9th December 2014
Revised on 16th June 2015
Accepted on 24th June 2015
doi: 10.1049/iet-gtd.2014.1176
www.ietdl.org

Dmitry Rimorov 1 , Innocent Kamwa 2, Gza Jos 1

1

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McGill University, 3480 University street, Montreal, QC, Canada, H3A 0E9
Institut de recherche dHydro-Qubec, 1800 Boulevard Lionel-Boulet, Varennes, QC, Canada, J3X 1S1
E-mail: dmitry.rimorov@mail.mcgill.ca

Abstract: Multi-band power system stabilisers (MB-PSSs) PSS4B (IEEE standard 421.5-2005) are advanced power system
damping controllers that have evident advantages over conventional PSSs in damping low-frequency oscillatory modes.
However, finding optimal settings for such controllers is challenging due to the increased complexity of the PSS4B
structure. This study describes a methodology for MB-PSS parameter optimisation based on an improved modal
performance index as a measure of the controllers stabilising effect. The tuning problem is formulated as a non-linear
constrained optimisation search method: proposed modal performance index is chosen as an objective function to be
minimised, while properly selected constraints ensure stability of the closed-loop system and robustness of the
proposed design. The methodology is demonstrated on a benchmark system that is based on an existing network.
Comparative analysis between the MB-PSSs with optimised settings and speed-based PSS1A-type stabilisers designed
using the conventional methods show the practicality and effectiveness of the proposed methodology. The
implemented approach has an advantage of being scalable and suitable for the model-based tuning of feedback
controller of general structure. Additionally, several performance metrics and non-linear simulations in the
ElectroMagnetic Transient Program (EMTP) software confirm superior characteristics of PSS4B.

Introduction

Small-signal instability in modern power systems occurs mostly in

the form of oscillations, which are the result of fast control
systems action and weak inter-ties between large areas [1]. Power
system stabilisers (PSSs) are considered one of the most efcient
and cost-effective ways to deal with damping of such oscillations.
However, traditional PSSs dened in IEEE standard 421.5 lack
sufcient damping of very slow oscillatory modes with frequency
range of 0.010.05 Hz, which are referred as global modes. Such
modes have a detrimental effect on frequency control, especially
during load-generation imbalance [2].
The need for improving the damping of low-frequency inter-area
and global modes led to the development of multi-band (MB)-PSSs
(PSS4B). PSS4B consists of three bands (Fig. 1) that correspond to a
specic frequency range each [low (typically 0.010.1 Hz),
intermediate (0.11 Hz) and high (110 Hz)]. A single band is
comprised of two branches consisting of lead-lag blocks and one
exible block, which can either be a wash-out block, another
lead-lag or a constant gain. Since their introduction in [2],
considerable amount of work has been done that shows the
advantages of this type of stabilisers over other commonly used
PSSs (PSS1A, PSS2B etc.) [36]. However, lack of systematic
tuning procedures is seen as a major barrier against a widespread
adoption of the new PSS structure. Previous attempts have often
resulted in poor or unrealistic settings even when the authors were
able to demonstrate the superior performance of 4B over other
types of PSSs.
The authors in [2] argue that PSS4B structure allows for tuning each
band similar to conventional PSSs, but it is not clear how the damping
torque approach, frequency response-based techniques or
eigenvalue-based methodologies for instance [7, 8], should be
implemented to tune 4B-type stabilisers. Complications arise from
the fact that PSS4B is of higher order than the conventional
stabilisers. Also, tuning each band independently is problematic,
since they tend to interfere with each other. Hammer [5] attempts to

IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2015, Vol. 9, Iss. 15, pp. 21352143
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2015

tune each band separately using the root-locus technique and phase
compensation approach. The resulting settings contain negative
band gains and show poor performance during non-linear simulations.
In reality, exibility of the PSS4B in terms of large number of
parameters options and range available to ne tune the behaviour
to suit any specic context has the side effect of a more
complicated tuning irrespective of the approach adopted, with little
initial clue to what a good set of parameters may be.
To simplify the problem, the order of PSS4B can be deliberately
reduced by establishing simple relations between bands parameters
[2, 9]. Each band is represented as a band-pass lter that can be
described with just two parameters: band central frequency and
band central gain (Fig. 2).
This representation allows for a relatively straightforward but
somewhat crude design approach based on Bode plots: the
MB-PSS is tuned so that gain increase is ensured from low to high
band and the controller provides proper phase leading over the
range of frequencies [3].
Another set of methods that attracts the most attention regarding
MB-PSS parameter tuning is based on heuristic optimisation
algorithms. Authors in [10] propose a combination of culture,
particle swarm optimisation and co-evolutionary algorithms for
MB-PSS tuning problem. The integral of time multiplied absolute
error of the machine speed is used as an objective function. An
evolutionary particle swarm optimisation algorithm is used in [11]
to maximise the sum of the relative damping and uncertainties
robustness index. Sumanbabu et al. [12] use bacterial foraging
algorithm for simultaneous tuning of MB-PSSs in multi-machine
systems; same objective function as in [10] is implemented. A
methodology to simultaneously tune MB-PSSs using reduced
network equivalents and differential evolution optimiser is
proposed in [13]; weighted sum of speed deviations for different
operating conditions is used as an objective function. Yan-Feng
et al. [14] present a decentralised coordinated damping control
scheme that is based on Prony analysis identication and utilises
genetic algorithm to tune MB-PSSs and achieve uniform damping.

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Fig. 1 General structure of the MB PSS4B

The majority of the heuristic optimisation methods considers

PSS4B as a high-order conventional speed-based PSS and does
not utilise the inherent advantages of the MB structure. As a
result, reported settings are mostly not practical. For instance, the
optimisation procedure in [10] is performed assuming constant
value of all denominator time constants set equal to 0.01 s for the
low-, intermediate- and high-frequency bands which are
counterintuitive since by denition, these bandpass lters should
be centred around well-separated centre frequencies. As a result of
these wrong assumptions, the optimised PSS4B shows
intermediate frequency band with smaller time constants than the
high-frequency band. Also, the phase angle frequency response of
the optimised PSS4B ips to 180 at 7 Hz which makes the PSS
sensitive to instability at torsional modes. Authors in [13]
represent each band as a conventional PSS. As a result, the
properties of the MB structure are not preserved. Particularly,
bands are not symmetric and their respective gains are
unrealistically small.
Finally, a non-linear constrained optimisation approach has been
shown to be effective for designing robust damping controllers
[1517]. The main challenge for this set of methods is to dene a
performance measure that could quantify the controller effect.
Authors in [18] suggested a modal performance index that can be
derived analytically from a linearised model of a power system.
This study further develops this approach to formulate a
methodology for optimal placement and tuning of PSS4B
controllers.
The study is structured as follows: Section 2 describes the
analytical derivation of the modal performance index and proposes

index modications to improve its performance; Section 3

provides the formulation of the non-linear constrained optimisation
problem and tuning approach; Section 4 validates the performance
of the proposed methodology and presents the main results of the
study and Section 5 summarises the main results of the study.

Modal performance index

2.1

Initial formulation

The modal performance measure proposed in [18] calculates the

energy under the modied envelopes of poorly damped and/or
unstable modes:




2
2  



s , v = sk + vk e 2s3k T / s2k +v2k 1 ,
C
k
k
2s3k

(1)

where lk = k + jk is the eigenvalue associated with an unstable/

poorly damped mode k and T is the system response time horizon
(typically 5 s). The modal performance index takes into account
the contribution of a given mode k to the output signal and can be
found as follows:



p
m



s ,v
R2ikj ,
Jk = C
k
k

(2)

i=1 j=1

where Rikj is a residue of kth mode in the transfer function between

input j and output i, m and p are the number of inputs and outputs,
respectively. Further modication to improve modal performance
measure proposes dividing the frequency range into three bands
low, intermediate and high, respectively and assigning different
weights to each band.
Hence, a practical formulation of the modal performance index is
as follows:
JSM =

Fig. 2 Simplied representation of the MB-PSS

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vk [i

Wi Jk ,


i [ low, int, high ,

(3)

where Wi are weighting factors associated with different frequency

ranges. The choice of particular values for Wi depends on design
requirements for the controller.

IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2015, Vol. 9, Iss. 15, pp. 21352143
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2015

2.2 Shortcomings of the proposed index as a modal

performance measure
Consider the modal performance measure (1) expressed in terms of
the oscillation frequency and damping ratio:

z ,v
C
k
k




1 z2k  2z2 vg T /
1z2k
k k

e
=
g
2z2k vk

(4)

Here, the original formulation has been modied to present a power

of for the oscillation frequency; the purpose of this modication
will become apparent later. The initial modal performance measure
corresponds


 to = 1. Now, assuming that k is constant and
z , v is an explicit function of only damping ratio (i.e.
C
k
k
eigenvalues move tothe
left parallel to the real axis if damping



z and its derivative for two different
ratio is increased), C
k

measure makes it less robust, especially towards lower frequencies

of oscillation. While it is possible to deal with these problems by
choosing appropriate weighting factors, the described effects are
quite subtle and greatly complicate such approach. Furthermore,
adjusting weighting factors tends to affect the whole frequency
range, rather than individual modes.
2.3 Proposed modifications for the modal performance
measure index
To reduce the negative effects of the performance index described
above and account for the model errors associated with
identication, the following modications are proposed to render a
more robust modal performance measure:
Use the values of below 1; = 0.20.4 have been found to give
good results, as can be inferred from Fig. 3.
Eliminate the residues magnitudes from (2).

frequencies can be plotted (Fig. 3).

Several conclusions can be drawn from the plots:
The proposed performance measure-based optimisation tends to
favour higher frequency modes, since their measure decreases
faster than that of low-frequency modes.
For two modes with approximately same frequencies, the mode
with higher damping ratio will have a higher rate of the measure
decrease.
These two factors present a detrimental effect on the optimisation
procedure, which can vary from insignicant to quite substantial.
Consider, for instance, a case with a lightly damped inter-area
mode and a local mode that is fairly well damped. Applying the
performance measure-based optimisation will result in the further
damping improvement of the local mode at the expense of the
inter-area mode. This behaviour is especially undesirable for
tuning PSS4B, since they are expected to be effective in damping
low-frequency modes.
Changing to the values less than 1 makes the performance
measure


more uniform for different frequencies (Fig. 3).
z , v is still a monotonically decreasing function of damping
C
k
k
ratio, that is proposed changes preserve the expected behaviour of
the modal measure.
The tuning methodology described later relies on low-order black
box models obtained using system identication (SI) methods.
Depending on the type of the excitation signal, such models can
contain dominant local modes that have higher participation
factors (residues) than inter-area modes, which are often harder to
excite. Subsequent tuning of the damping controller may render it
too aggressive towards dominant local modes, while failing to
provide adequate damping to slower modes. That is the presence
of the residues in the formulation of the original performance

Thus, the modied selected index is expressed as follows:

JMSM =

vk [i

Wi





s ,v ,
C
k


i [ low, int, high (5)

Optimisation formulation and methodology

The proposed simplied structure of the MB-PSS discussed earlier

(Fig. 2) is well suited for the implementation of the modal
performance measure. Each band is represented as a differential
lter and can be described using just two parameters: band central
gain K(B) and central frequency F(B). This is done by establishing
simple relations between the band parameters that can be found in
[2, 9].
3.1

Objective function

The objective is to minimise the formulated modied modal

performance index (5)



minimise JMSM
3.2

(6)

Constraints

3.2.1 Stability and sufcient damping constraint: The

original stability constraint from [19] is translated into a constraint
that not only ensures stability of the closed-loop system, but also
sufcient damping for considered modes:


min zk zmin ,

k = 1, . . . , n,

(7)

Fig. 3 Performance measure and its derivative as a function of damping ratio

IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2015, Vol. 9, Iss. 15, pp. 21352143
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2015

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where min is the minimum level of sufcient damping (chosen to be

0.010.05,

 n is the number of modes considered. Using
 [20]),
f (x) = min zk zmin as performance index has been suggested
in [21] for optimisation-based conventional PSS tuning, but the
constraint (7) shows that this later approach is a special case of the
more general framework adopted here.
3.2.2 Robustness constraints: The issue of the robust design is
tackled using the notions of sensitivity and complementary
sensitivity functions and their respective innity norms (peaks).
The sensitivity function is


1
S(s) = I + G(s)H(s)

(8)

Complementary sensitivity function can be found as follows:

T (s) = S(s)G(s)H(s),

(9)

where G(s) and H(s) are plant and controller transfer functions,
respectively.
The peaks (i.e. innity norms) of the functions (8) and (9) are
related to the generalised concept of multi-variable gain and phase
margins [19]:


MS = S jv 1


MT = T jv 1

(10)

MS 2

(12)

MT 1.25

(13)

Upper boundaries are chosen to ensure the gain and phase margin
criteria [19, 22].
3.2.3 Design parameters limitations: In order to ensure
proper band frequency separation and gain limitation, the
following constraints are introduced for each band:
K(B)min K(B) K(B)max

(14)

F(B)min F(B) F(B)max

(15)

Choice of the initial point

The feasible space of the formulated optimisation problem is not

convex and has multiple local minima. To avoid solutions that
bear no practical meaning, proper initial points must be provided.
Various strategies can be used, among them:
Using reported settings from other publications.
Using simple considerations based on root-locus technique or/and
Bode plots.
For the case of retrotting the system with PSS4B, initial settings
can be chosen as to match frequency response of conventional PSSs
installed in the system.

3.4

System models for the optimisation procedure

In order to calculate the proposed performance index, representative

linearised system models are required. Theoretically, a variety of
linearisation methods exists, but SI methods have been proven to
be especially suitable for the design procedure described in this
study. The application of SI methods for large sparse power

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x (t) = Ax(t) + Bu(t)

y(t) = Cx(t) + Du(t)

(16)

The state-space model of the form (16) is usually obtained through

simulating system response to a carefully chosen input signal.
Typically, the model is associated with an inputoutput pair of a
dynamic device (generator, FACTS etc.) but also contains the
dynamics of the rest of the system. It is desirable to maintain a
low order of the identied model to avoid computational modes
inherent to the identication algorithms. However, model order
must be sufcient to ensure satisfactory accuracy. Finding an
acceptable system order is thus often a compromise. Depending on
the algorithm applied, singular value decomposition of certain
matrices can provide information regarding the appropriate order
of the identied system [24].
3.5

Proposed methodology

The methodology of optimal siting and tuning of PSS4B that

constitutes the proposed search method applied in the study is
described next:

(11)

As shown in [19, 22], stable and robust performance of the feedback

controller in the presence of the model uncertainty is guaranteed if
the maximum peaks of sensitivity functions are sufciently small.
The following constraints are implemented to bound (10) and (11):

3.3

systems is extensively discussed in [23]. The result of utilising SI

is usually a low-order model in state-space form (14) with
properly identied input and output signals, to which a designed
feedback controller can be readily applied:

1. Identify areas containing modes that violate constraint (7).

2. Obtain linearised models of identied system areas in the form of
(16). Once the candidate area is chosen and analysed, various
techniques can be used to identify the best candidate generators
for installing PSS4B. In the study, a simple residue analysis is
followed since modes residues bear information about
controllability and observability of the modes (Table 2). Other
methods of optimal placing can be used, including those based on
minimum singular values or Hankel singular values [25].
3. The further process of PSS4B tuning is as follows:
Obtain a linearised model of the rst candidate generator in the
form of (16).
Apply PSS4B in feedback to the obtained model.
Perform the non-linear constrained optimisation with the
objective function (6) and constraints (7), (12)(15) on the
closed-loop system.
Validate the performance with frequency response methods and
non-linear simulations. Some ne tuning may be needed to
improve the response. The parameters initially assumed 0 can
be adjusted for that purpose.
Apply same procedure on the next generator and repeat until the
desired performance is achieved.
Fig. 4 shows the owchart of the proposed methodology.

Results and discussion

4.1

System benchmark linear analysis

A benchmark system recently approved as an IEEE test system and

described in [26] has been implemented in the Electromagnetic
Transient software EMTP-RV. The model comprises 14 generators
grouped in ve areas. The data for different operating conditions,
generators parameters and associated control settings are provided
in [26]. The benchmark was specically designed for damping
controllers tuning purposes. Without PSSs, some of the modes are
unstable. It also contains a description and data for conventional
PSSs PSS1A tuned using a frequency response-based method,
which utilises the synthesised P Vr characteristics of each
generator, resulting in robust settings.
For the sake of the discussion, the model has been augmented with
generic models of turbines and governor control systems.
The study considers a problem of retrotting the benchmark
system with PSS4B-type stabilisers. Area 4, which contains four

IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2015, Vol. 9, Iss. 15, pp. 21352143
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2015

generators (SPS4, TPS4, CPS4 and GPS4), exhibits strong

oscillatory behaviour and is open-loop unstable; thus it was chosen
as the candidate area for demonstration purposes.
The system was linearised for peak load conditions. The resulting
model is eighth-order multiple-input and multiple-output system
with four inputs (generators voltage references) and four outputs
(generators speeds). Eigenvalue analysis of the model revealed
three local modes one of them being unstable and others not
being sufciently damped and one inter-area mode (Table 1, no
PSS column).
Controllability/observability analysis summary is shown in Fig. 5.
This information is typically enough to dene the order of generators
to apply feedback controllers.
4.2

Optimal design parameters and robustness metrics

For the purpose of the study, all four generators in the area have been
equipped with PSS4B tuned according to Fig. 4. Table 3 shows the
effects of the applied stabilisers on both local and inter-area modes.
Superior performance of PSS4B over PSS1A in damping both local
and inter-area modes can be readily seen.
PSS4B settings for all generators in the area can be found in
Table 2.
To elaborate on the comparative analysis between the
conventional PSS and PSS4B, numerical values for the robustness
metrics (10) and (11) are shown in Table 3. Additionally, a new
measure to quantify the controller energy is shown [19, 27]:



MU = H jv S jv 1

Fig. 4 PSS4B optimal siting and tuning methodology: a owchart

Table 1 Mode damping: comparison between different types of PSS

Modes

local

inter-area

No PSS

PSS4B

PSS1A (settings
from [26])

f, Hz

f, Hz

f, Hz

1.505
1.329
1.236
0.338

0.0069
0.034
0.042
0.108

1.524
1.138
1.039
0.526

0.318
0.226
0.261
0.436

1.49
1.256
1.158
0.311

0.123
0.168
0.191
0.359

(17)

Peaks Ms and MT quantify worst-case performance of the feedback

controller, and their low values (around 1) ensure proper phase
and gain margins and thus stable and robust performance [22]. In
this regard, both PSS4B and PSS1A show adequate characteristics,
aside from the case of TPS4, where the value of Ms for PSS1A is
slightly higher than 2.
The value of MU has its peak in the high-frequency range
(Fig. 6b), which helps explain high-frequency oscillations of PSS
output signal following a fault near GPS4 (Fig. 6a). This effect is
not observed in the PSS4B output, since its settings cause gain
attenuation effectively after 10 Hz. In reality, the undesirable
effects of such phenomenon include higher rates of PSS saturation,
decrease in the stabilising effect of the controller and noisy PSS
output.
Results of Fig. 7 aim to underscore the advantages of the proposed
modications to the modal performance index. In this case, the linear
model of the generator GPS4 that contains two dominant modes
local and inter-area has been used. PSS4B tuning is performed
using the original and the proposed performance indices. The
parameters of low and intermediate bands are xed to decrease the
degrees of freedom for the optimisation search and to highlight a

Fig. 5 Observability/controllability metrics for area 4

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& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2015

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Table 2 PSS4B parameters for area 4

Gen

SPS4
CPS4
TPS4
GPS4

Low

Intermediate

High

FL

KL

TL5, TL11

TL6, TL12

FI

KI

TI5, TI11

TI6, TI12

FH

KH

TH5, TH11

TH6, TH12

0.025
0.025
0.02
0.025

25
15
12
9

0.193
0.085
0.1
0.145

0.049
0.017
0.005
0.005

0.33
0.433
0.22
0.3

36.4
30
27.86
10

0.17
0.034
0.1
0.1

0.0013
0.006
0.0015
0.006

8.5
5.02
4.8
5.49

55
63
55.18
17

0.046
0.118
0.17
0.04

0.01
0.0057
0.002
0.006

Table 3 Robustness metrics: comparison between different types of

PSS
Generator

MT

MS

application of the proposed modication results in a behaviour

desired for PSS4B, namely, sufcient damping of the
lower-frequency mode.

MU

PSS4B

PSS1A

PSS4B

PSS1A

PSS4B

PSS1A

4.3

1.47
1.198
1.59
1.2

1
1
2.04
1.369

1.05
0.876
0.88
0.37

1.07
0.777
1.05
0.37

160.2
238.94
423.8
29.5

293.63
2933.7
8714.4
806

In order to conrm adequate performance of the proposed PSS4B

settings following a system contingency, a set of large-signal
assessments have been performed. A set of disturbances used for
this type of validation is shown in Table 4.

trade-off in the multi-modal scenarios. Both searches are performed

using the same initial conditions and values of constraints. The
performance of the original index clearly identies its bias towards
local modes, as was explained in Section 2.2. On the other hand,

4.3.1 Contingencies C1C4: effect of PSS4B on local

modes: A cleared fault near the generator bus tends to excite a
local generator mode in the post-disturbance state. Comparative
analysis in Fig. 8 aims to show controllers ability to effectively

SPS4
CPS4
TPS4
GPS4

Non-linear simulations

Fig. 6 Controller output characteristics

a PSS output for GPS4 following a disturbance: PSS1A vs. PSS4B
b Magnitude of MU

Fig. 7 Root-locus plot for the original and proposed modal performance indices

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& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2015

Table 4 Large-signal tests on the benchmark system

Contingency
C1
C2
C3
C4
C5
C6

Description
three-phase short circuit at the bus 407 (HV side of generator SPS4), cleared after ten cycles, no equipment outage
three-phase short circuit at the bus 408 (HV side of generator CPS4), cleared after ten cycles, no equipment outage
three-phase short circuit at the bus 410 (HV side of generator TPS4), cleared after ten cycles, no equipment outage
three-phase short circuit at the bus 405 (HV side of generator GPS4), cleared after ten cycles, no equipment outage
three-phase short circuit on the tie-line between buses 415 and 416 followed by line outage after ten cycles
generation loss following a fault

Fig. 8 Generators responses following disturbances C1C4

a C1/SPS4
b C2/CPS4
c C3/TPS4
d C4/GPS4

Fig. 9 Generators responses following contingency C5

a C1/SPS4
b C2/CPS4
c C3/TPS4
d C4/GPS4

IET Gener. Transm. Distrib., 2015, Vol. 9, Iss. 15, pp. 21352143
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2015

2141

Fig. 10 Average sum of generators speed responses following a generator loss: comparison between PSS1A and PSS4B

damp local modes of oscillation, while reecting on the effects of

controller output saturation.
As can be seen from Fig. 8 and Tables 1 and 3, proposed settings
allow PSS4B to match and even outperform PSS1A in damping local
modes, while not degrading robustness. This result is actually
beyond expectations, since main design purpose is typically to
match the performance of PSS4B to that of conventional
speed-based stabilisers in the local mode frequency range.
4.3.2 Contingency C5: inter-area mode: Tie-line outage
following a fault results in equivalent impedance increase of the
inter-area path. This in turn degrades the damping of the inter-area
mode, which becomes visible in the system response, as conrmed
in Fig. 9. As expected from the discussion of Table 3, PSS4B
provides substantial damping to this mode, signicantly surpassing
damping characteristics of PSS1A.
4.3.3 Contingency C6: generation loss as a trigger of global
mode: Global oscillation mode is characterised by all the
machines in the system swinging in phase at a very low frequency
(in the range of 0.010.05 Hz). The undesirable effects of such
phenomenon on frequency control require it to be damped as
much as possible. However, as was mentioned before,
conventional stabilisers often fail to provide adequate phase
compensation to damp oscillations at such low frequencies.
Fig. 10 demonstrates the average sum of speed deviations of all
the generators with different PSSs in the system after generator
TPS4 has been tripped. A load/generation imbalance is often the
only way to observe the behaviour of the global mode. As a
consequence, this mode is typically not excited during the
identication and thus is not present in the system model.
Therefore, model-based parameter optimisation is not capable of
providing adequate settings of the PSS4B low-frequency bands,
and manual tuning based on actual system response is often
required. Fig. 10 and Table 2 show that centring MB-PSS
low-frequency bands around 0.025 Hz in this case signicantly
improves the damping of the global mode.

Conclusions

A methodology for robust tuning of PSS4B type PSSs using the

modied modal performance index is described. The analytically
derived measure is based on calculating the modied energy under
the envelopes of oscillatory modes. The tuning procedure is based
on a non-linear constrained search and requires minimisation of
the proposed index, while ensuring stable and robust solution
through appropriately chosen constraints. Suitable initial points
and trust regions for optimised parameters result in settings that
are sound and utilise inherent advantages of the PSS4B MB
structure: band symmetry; sufcient separation of band central

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frequencies and subsequently improved selectivity in each

frequency range; washout capabilities and gain attenuation at high
frequencies. The optimisation procedure is coupled with residue
analysis and SI methods to formulate a comprehensive approach
towards PSS4B optimal siting and tuning. The application of the
proposed methodology to a retrotting problem in a representative
benchmark system results in robust PSS4B settings that are
demonstrated to increase damping of global, inter-area and local
modes signicantly.
The proposed methodology realises sequential tuning of damping
controllers and thus introduces an issue of their interaction. It can,
however, be modied for coordinated design of multiple PSSs, at
the expense of increased computational burden for SI and
non-linear optimisation solution search. Further modications can
include developing proper modelling approaches towards global
modes to successfully apply the described methodology for their
damping.

Acknowledgments

Authors would like to thank Luc Grin-Lajoie from HQ

Transnergie for his useful suggestions and assistance in setting
up EMTP-RV simulations.

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