ECEN 460

Power System Operation and Control

Spring 2025
Lecture 2: Electric Grid History, Review of
Phasors, Complex Power, Three-Phase
Prof. Tom Overbye
Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Texas A&M University
overbye@tamu.edu
Announcements
• Please read Chapters 1, 2; start doing book probs. 2.4, 2.9, 2.14, 2.28, 2.51
• Labs will start next week (January 22 or 24)
– Lab 1 is posted on Canvas (use the updated version from January 14)
• Of course, no class next Monday (Jan. 20) because of the campus holiday
• Free educational version of PowerWorld and books cases is at
www.powerworld.com/gloveroverbyesarma
• ERCOT-Texas A&M Smart Grid Center (SGC) Power Engineering
Information Session on Jan. 23, 4 to 6 pm in Zach 298-299 (Chevon Rooms)
– Sign up at forms.gle/fx69XhkYKi81QpQX7
– Registration closes on January 22 but might close earlier if we hit capacity so sign up
early! A pizza dinner will be provided
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Announcements, cont.
• I will be giving a public webinar on Wednesday January 22 at 3pm Central
titled, “High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) E3 Impacts on
Large-Scale Electric Grids”
• Feel free to attend if you are interested in this topic; it is related to ECEN
460, but is not a ECEN 460 topic
• Free registration is required with more details at

smartgridcenter.tamu.edu/2025/01/07/webinar-on-1-22-2025/

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US Generation (November 2024) by Fuel Type

The sources variety

substantially by state

Image Source: www.eia.gov/electricity/data/eia860m/ 5

Loads
• Can range in size from less than one watt to 10’s of MW.
• Loads are usually aggregated.
• The aggregate load changes with time, with strong daily, weekly and
seasonal cycles.

ComEd Yearly Load

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Example: Southwest Power Pool Monthly Load

SPP Load Data Source: marketplace.spp.org

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ERCOT Loads
• Public information about the ERCOT grid is available at
www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards
– This includes the current load and the Major fuels for heating in the US
6-day forecast for loads
• The ERCOT load tends to be highest
in the summer due to air conditioner
use; however, it can be high in the
winter also when it is cold because of
the large amount of electric heating
in Texas (and the rest of the south)

https://www.seealliance.org/map-of-the-month-february/
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Transmission and Distribution
• Goal is to move electric power from generation to load with low losses.
• Less losses at higher voltages (S=VI* and I2R losses), but more difficult to
insulate.
• Typical high voltage transmission voltages are 765, 500, 345, 230, 161,
138 and 69 kV.
• Lower voltage lines are used for distribution (12.4 or 13.8 kV).
• Typical losses are about 3 to 5% in transmission and 10 to 15% in the
distribution system.

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Transmission & Distribution
• Transmission • Distribution
– networked connections – radial connections
– power can be supplied from – power moves in one direction only
multiple sources – typically lower voltages, below 100 kV
– typically higher voltages, above – the source of most black-outs, but these are
100 kV local
– mostly overhead, with some – Most new construction is underground,
underground in urban areas especially in suburban and urban locations
– Often source of large-scale
blackouts

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Three Phase Transmission Line

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Transformers
• Transformers provide an easily means for changing ac voltage levels
– Power flow through transformers is bi-directional
• Heating is a major concern that can
quickly lead to loss of transformer
life (and occasionally explosions!)
• High voltage transformers
(say 230 kV and up) are large,
heavy, and difficult to replace

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Components Join Together at a Bus

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 Energy Economics
• Electric generating technologies involve a tradeoff between fixed costs
(costs to build them) and operating costs
• Nuclear and solar high fixed costs, but low operating costs (though cost of solar has
decreased substantially recently)
• Natural gas/oil have low fixed costs but can have higher operating costs (dependent
upon fuel prices)
• Coal, wind, hydro are in between
• Also the units capacity factor is important to determining the
ultimate cost of electricity

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 Natural Gas Prices 1997 to 2024
This graph is not adjusted for
inflation (i.e., it is in current dollars)

Marginal cost for natural gas fired electricity price in $/MWh is about 7-10
times gas price; Henry Hub is a gas pipeline located in Erath, Louisiana.
Source: fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MHHNGSP
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US Natural Gas Prices Adjusted for Inflation

Image source: www.macrotrends.net/2478/natural-gas-prices-historical-chart

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 Brief History of Electric Power
• First real practical uses of electricity began with the telegraph (1860's) and
then arc lighting in the 1870’s
• Early 1880’s – Edison introduced Pearl Street dc system in Manhattan
supplying 59 customers
• 1884 – Sprague produces practical dc motor
• 1885 – invention of transformer
• Mid 1880’s – Westinghouse/Tesla introduce rival ac system
• Late 1880’s – Tesla invents ac induction motor
• 1893 – Three-phase transmission line at 2.3 kV

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 History, cont’d
• 1896 – ac lines deliver electricity from hydro generation at Niagara Falls to
Buffalo, 20 miles away; also 30kV line in Germany
• Early 1900’s – Private utilities supply all customers in area (city);
recognized as a natural monopoly; states step in to begin regulation
• 1918: Charles Fortescue, “Method of Symmetrical Coordinates applied to
the Solution of Polyphase Networks,”
• By 1920’s – Large interstate holding companies control most electricity
systems
• 1930’s – Electric utilities established as vertical monopolies

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ComEd Control Center: Circa 1920

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History, cont’d
• Map of which states had the most electric generation in 1921

The invention of self-starting

synchronous machines in 1916
led to motorized clocks, which
led to time error correction

• 1927: PJM formed with three utilities

• 1933: Tennessee Valley Authority
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 History, cont’d
• Frequency standardized in the 1930’s
• Short circuit analysis done using a dc calculating power (since
1920’s); power flows determined using network analyzers
– In mid 1950’s there were 50 network analyzer installations in North
America
• Transmission voltages up to 345 kV by 1949
• During 1940’s to 1960’s utilities gradually interconnected their
systems so by 1970 transmission lines crisscrossed North
America, with voltages up to 765 kV

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Southeast Texas Grid, 1943

Bryan and College

Station evidently
had no lines at or
above 22 kV!

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Historical Electric Utility Organization
• Traditionally electric utilities were vertical monopolies; within a particular
geographic market, they had an exclusive franchise
– This has changed in many places around the country

In return for this exclusive

franchise, the utility had the
obligation to serve all
existing and future customers
at rates determined jointly by
utility and regulators.

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History, cont’d
• 1956: James Ward and Harry Hale, “Digital Computer Solution of Power
Flow Problems”
– Power flow and load flow have been used interchangeably since at least the 1950’s ;
1960’s: Sparsity develops, power flow by Newton’s method
• Northeast blackout of 1965 affects over 30 million people
• 1969: First 765 kV transmission in US
• 1970’s brought inflation, increased fossil-fuel prices, calls for
conservation and growing environmental concerns
• Increasing rates replaced decreasing ones
• As a result, U.S. Congress passed Public Utilities Regulator Policies Act
(PURPA) in 1978, which mandated utilities must purchase power from
independent generators located in their service territory (modified 2005) 24
Utility Control Centers: Early 1960’s and 1988

Left Image Source: G.W. Stagg, M. Adibi, M. Laughton, J.E. Van Ness, A.J. Wood, “Thirty Years of Power Industry
Computer Applications,” IEEE Computer Applications in Power, April 1994, pp. 43-49

Right Image Source: J.N. Wrubel, R. Hoffman, “The New Energy Management System at PSE&G,” IEEE Computer Applications in Power, July 1988, pp. 12-15
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 History, cont’d
• Major opening of industry to competition occurred as a result of National
Energy Policy Act of 1992
• This act mandated that utilities provide “nondiscriminatory” access to the
high voltage transmission
• Goal was to set up true competition in generation
• Result over the last few years has been a dramatic restructuring of electric
utility industry (for better or worse!)
• Energy Bill 2005 repealed PUHCA; modified PURPA
• Electric grid restructuring took place in the 1990’s into the 2000’s
– Goal has been to reduce rates through the introduction of competition and consumer
choice
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Historical State Variation in Electric Rates

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 August 14th, 2003 Blackout

Above image from energy.gov, August 14, 2003

Blackout Final Report

I will talk about this event and the 2021 Texas one later in the course 28
The Smart Grid
• The term “Smart Grid” dates officially to the 2007 “Energy Independence
and Security Act”, Title 13 (“Smart Grid”)
• Use of digital information and control techniques
• Dynamic grid optimization with cyber-security
• Deployment of distributed resources including
• Customer participation and smart appliances
• Integration of storage including PHEVs
• Development of interoperability standards

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 Renewable Portfolio Standards (November 2022)

TX is now 10 GW by
2025 which we’ve
met a number of
times over

Image source: http://www.dsireusa.org/

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In the News! ERCOT Issues Regional
Transmission Plan
• In December 2024 ERCOT issued their regional transmission plan,
looking at electric grid needs in Texas from 2026 to 2030
– It is available at
www.ercot.com/mp/data-products/data-product-details?id=pg7-048-m
• ERCOT is experiencing unprecedented growth in its electric load, with
projects now showing a potential load in 2030 of 150 GW, up from the
maximum load of 85 GW experienced in summer 2023
• This will require the construction of large amounts of new transmission,
including the potential to add a new 765 kV backbone to their grid
• Note that on page 4 the software they used to do much of this analysis is
the same tool that we’ll be using here in 460, including in the labs
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 For reference, Centerpoint’s max
A Few ERCOT Plan Figures electric load is about 20 GW

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Simple Power System and Complications
• Every power system has three major components
– generation: source of power, ideally with a specified
voltage and frequency
– load: consumes power; ideally with a constant resistive
value
– transmission system: transmits power; ideally as a
perfect conductor

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Complications
• No ideal voltage sources exist
• Loads are seldom constant
• Transmission system has resistance, inductance,
capacitance and flow limitations
• Simple system has no redundancy so power system
will not work if any component fails

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Notation - Power
• Power: Instantaneous consumption of energy
• Power Units
– Watts = voltage x current for dc (W)
– kW – 1 x 103 Watt
– MW – 1 x 106 Watt
– GW – 1 x 109 Watt
• Installed U.S. generation capacity is about 1300 GW ( about 3 kW per
person)

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Estimated Maximum Loads for ERCOT Entities

Source: www.ercot.com/gridinfo/load
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Notation - Energy
• Energy: Integration of power over time; energy is what people really want
from a power system
• Energy Units
– Joule = 1 Watt-second (J)
– kWh = Kilowatthour (3.6 x 106 J)
– Btu = 1055 J; 1 MBtu=0.292 MWh
– One gallon of gas has about 0.125 MBtu (36.5 kWh);
• U.S. electric energy consumption is about 3600 billion kWh (about 13,333
kWh per person, which means on average we each use 1.5 kW of power
continuously)

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Review of Phasors

v(t) = Vmax cos(wt + qv) Euler's Identity: e j cos  j sin 

i(t) = Imax cos(wt + qI)
Phasor notation is developed by rewriting
Root Mean Square (RMS)
voltage of sinusoid using Euler's identity
v(t )  2 V cos( t  V )
T
1 2 Vmax
v(t ) dt  v(t )  2 V Re  e j ( t V ) 
T0 2
(Note: V is the RMS voltage)

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Phasor Representation, cont’d
The RMS, cosine-referenced voltage phasor is:
V  V e jV V V
v(t )  Re 2 Ve j t e jV
V  V cosV  j V sin V
I  I cos I  j I sin  I

(Note: Some texts use “boldface” type for complex numbers, or “bars on the top”)

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Advantages of Phasor Analysis
Device Time Analysis Phasor
Resistor v(t ) Ri (t ) V RI
di (t )
Inductor v(t ) L V  j LI
dt
1t 1
Capacitor 
C0
i (t ) dt  v (0) V 
j C
I

Z = Impedance R  jX  Z 
R = Resistance
X = Reactance (Note: Z is a complex number
X but not a phasor)
Z = R2  X 2  =arctan( )
R

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RL Circuit Example

V (t )  2 100cos( t  30 )
f  60Hz
R  4 X  L  3
Z  42  32  5   36.9
V 10030
I  
Z 536.9
 20  6.9 Amps
i(t)  20 2 cos( t  6.9 )

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Complex Power
Power
p (t )  v(t ) i (t )
v(t) = Vmax cos( t  V )
i (t) = I max cos( t   I )
1
cos cos   [cos(   )  cos(   )]
2
1
p (t )  Vmax I max [cos(V   I ) 
2
cos(2 t  V   I )]

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Complex Power, cont’d
Average Power
1
p (t )  Vmax I max [cos(V   I )  cos(2t  V   I )]
2
T
1
Pavg  p (t )dt
T0
1
 Vmax I max cos(V   I )
2
 V I cos(V   I )

Power Factor Angle =  =V   I

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Complex Power
S  V I  cos(V   I )  j sin(V   I ) 
 P  jQ
(Note: S is a complex number but not a phasor)
 V I*
P = Real Power (W, kW, MW)
Q = Reactive Power (var, kvar, Mvar)
S = Complex power (VA, kVA, MVA)
Power Factor (pf) = cos
If current leads voltage then pf is leading
If current lags voltage then pf is lagging
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Complex Power, cont’d
Relationships between real, reactive and complex power
P  S cos 

Q  S sin   S 1  pf 2

Example: A load draws 100 kW with a leading pf of 0.85.

What are  (power factor angle), Q and S ?
  -cos  1 0.85   31.8
100kW
S   117.6 kVA
0.85
Q  117.6sin( 31.8 )  62.0 kVar
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Conservation of Power
• At every node (bus) in the system
– Sum of real power into node must equal zero
– Sum of reactive power into node must equal zero
• This is a direct consequence of Kirchhoff’s current law, which states
that the total current into each node must equal zero.
– Conservation of power follows since S = VI*

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Conversation of Power Example

Earlier we found I = 20-6.9 amps

S  V I *  10030 206.9  200036.9 VA

  36.9 pf = 0.8 lagging
SR  VR I *  4 20  6.9 206.9
2
PR  1600W  I R (QR 0)
SL  VL I *  3 j 20  6.9 206.9
2
Q L  1200 var  I X (PL 0)
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Power Consumption in Devices
Resistors only consume real power
2
PResistor  I Resistor R
Inductors only consume reactive power
2
Q Inductor  I Inductor X L
Capacitors only generate reactive power
2 1
QCapacitor  I Capacitor X C XC 
C
2
VCapacitor
QCapacitor  (Note-some define X C negative)
XC
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Example

First solve the basic circuit

400000 V
I  4000 Amps
1000 
V  400000  (5  j 40) 4000
 42000  j16000 44.920.8 kV
S  V I * 44.9k20.8 4000
 17.9820.8 MVA 16.8  j 6.4 MVA
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Example, cont’d

Now add additional reactive

power load and resolve

Z Load  70.7 pf 0.7 lagging

I  564  45 Amps
V  59.713.6 kV
S  33.758.6 MVA 17.6  j 28.8 MVA

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Power System Notation
• Power system components are usually shown as oneline diagrams
Previous circuit redrawn
17.6 MW 16.0 MW
28.8 MVR -16.0 MVR

59.7 kV 40.0 kV

17.6 MW 16.0 MW
28.8 MVR
16.0 MVR

Arrows are
Generators are Transmission lines are
used to
shown as circles shown as a single line
show loads
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Reactive Compensation
• Key idea of reactive compensation is to supply reactive power locally. In
the previous example this can be done by adding a 16 Mvar capacitor at
the load
16.8 MW 16.0 MW Power engineers think of
6.4 MVR 0.0 MVR capacitors in terms of how
44.94 kV 40.0 kV much reactive power they
can supply at a specified
16.8 MW 16.0 MW (rated) voltage; not in terms
6.4 MVR 16.0 MVR of Farads
16.0 MVR

Compensated circuit is identical to first example with

just real power load
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Reactive Compensation, cont’d
• Reactive compensation decreased the line flow from 564 Amps to 400
Amps. This has advantages
– Lines losses, which are equal to I2 R decrease
– Lower current allows utility to use small wires, or alternatively, supply more load
over the same wires
– Voltage drop on the line is less
• Reactive compensation is used extensively by utilities
• Capacitors can be used to “correct” a load’s power factor to an arbitrary
value.

53
Power Factor Correction Example
Assume we have 100 kVA load with pf=0.8 lagging,
and would like to correct the pf to 0.95 lagging
S  80  j 60 kVA   cos  1 0.8  36.9
PF of 0.95 requires desired  cos  1 0.95  18.2
Snew 80  j (60  Q cap )
60 - Qcap
tan18.2  60  Qcap 26.3 kvar
80
Qcap 33.7 kvar

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Distribution System Capacitors

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