Analysis of Power System Electromagnetic Transients Using the Finite Element Technique

In this paper, a numerical model for the analysis of electromagnetic transients in a power system, based on the finite element technique, was developed. The simplicity of the finite element technique is manifested in the fact that the problem of solving any mathematically described phenomena in an area is reduced to solving those same phenomena in a small part of that area, i.e., finite elements. Based on appropriate mathematical models, numerical models of the synchronous generator and other parts of the power system have been developed. System of differential equations of each power system element have been included in the numerical model in such a way that we employ numerical integration of the differential equations using the generalized trapezoidal rule (theta-method) and reduce it to a system of algebraic equations in each time step. In a practical sense, this method enables a very simple solution to the problem of a real power system, i.e., a system with many generators, transformers, transmission lines and other elements. The accuracy of the developed numerical model for the analysis of electromagnetic transients in a power system has been confirmed by comparing the calculated results with the results obtained using the EMTP software (version 3.3) package.