A Visual Simulation Environment for Teaching Power System Stability

Abstract

Computer-mediated teaching can be very effective in enhancing students' understanding of concepts and increasing their involvement in the classroom. This paper presents an interactive visual simulation tool to assist instructors in demonstrating power system stability phenomena. Power flow computations, used to initialise the simulation, are carried out using Matlab, whereas the simulation is implemented using Simulink. The Graphical User Interface (GUI), which controls the whole program and is constructed using C#, provides the capability to change system parameters/operating points interactively. To further the grasp of stability notions and reinforce the sense of seamless photorealistic interaction with the simulation, visual animation illustrating the synchronous generator along with virtual analogue meters, represented as ActiveX controls to portray inherent machine variables, are constructed. Several test cases, which cover various power system stability events, are described and analysed.