IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - May/June 2014 - 50

Project Timeline
Many different groups were involved at various stages.
Below is a brief summary of events.

1997
The Western Systems Coordinating Council (WSCC)
institutes a requirement that all generators greater than
10 MW be tested to confirm the data used
to represent them in dynamic simulations.
2001
The BPA begins using phasor measurement unit (PMU)
recordings for validating power plant governor response
of hydroelectric generators in its service territory,
including Dalles, John Day, and Grand Coulee.
2005
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation
requires power plant owners to provide power
plant data for dynamic simulation.
2006
Calpine Corporation's Hermiston power plant serves as
the first example of deferred staged testing by using
PMU-based model validation techniques.
2011
Production-grade power plant model validation tools are
available under the North American Synchrophasor
Initiative (NASPI) and the Western Interconnection
Synchrophasor Program (WISP).
2012
The BPA/UW-developed technique is
used to supplement baseline
testing at the Columbia generating
station (shown on the left).
2012
The BPA enters discussions with Salt River Power,
Southern California Edison, and Pacific Gas and Electric,
with the intent to expand the model validation
technique across WECC.

1996
Engineers observe significant differences between
simulations and actual data recorded during major
disturbances on the Western Interconnection.
1999
The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) begins a
project on using disturbance data for power plant
model validation.
2003
The BPA and TransAlta use
disturbance recordings to
supplement baseline tests at
Centralia 750-MW steam
generators (shown on the right).
2006
The Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC)
approves a WECC generating unit model validation
policy that requires power plant operators to present
evidence that their plant models are accurate every five
years.
2007
NERC starts the development of standards that will
require the power plant owners to perform periodic
model validation, and endorses using disturbance
recordings as a viable approach for model validation.
2011
The BPA collaborates with the University of WisconsinMadison (UW) and the Consortium for Electric
Reliability Technology Solutions (CERTS) to enhance
model validation techniques.
2012
The BPA begins working with the
Utility Wind Integration Group,
the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory, and the Electric Power
Research Institute (EPRI) on using
disturbance recordings for model
validation of wind generation plants.

figure 6. The DOE-CERTS/BPA project timeline.

and bPa team. The partners will need to continue to
work together to improve the project, including automating the model validation processes and streamlining data
management. Steve yang, an engineer performing model
validation studies at the bPa, describes his vision of the
project as follows: "i arrive at work and find an e-mail
message from the WiSP server about an underfrequency
event that occurred earlier. i start the power plant model
validation application, and within minutes i get a report
on the dynamic performance of the entire bPa generating
50

ieee power & energy magazine

fleet during the event. i notice that one plant responded
differently from what was expected. i pull out a report on
that plant's performance over the past ten disturbances to
find out when the response changed, and i run sensitivity
analyses of possible controller failures. i e-mail the report
to the plant operator, asking to confirm my findings. This
helps us resolve any issues at their initial stages, stopping
them at the source and keeping them from escalating into
costly and time-consuming problems that affect the system's reliability."
may/june 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - May/June 2014