PSO Tuned Power System Stabilizers for Damping Small Signal Oscillations in Saudi National Grid

This paper proposes the application of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) technique to tune Power System Stabilizers (PSS) for damping small signal oscillations in the high-voltage transmission network of the Western Region of Saudi Arabia. The system has six thermal generating stations and works at 380 kV, 230 kV, and 132 kV transmission voltage levels. The excitation systems are of IEEE type 1. This iterative process aims to fine tune the parameters of controllers to achieve the desired damping for the targeted oscillation modes. The preliminary investigations indicate that the system damping against three-phase short circuits is significantly better with PSO tuned PSS when compared to the conventional PSS.