Design of decentralised output feedback TCSC damping controllers by using simulated annealing

A novel method for the design of output feedback controllers for thyristor controlled series compensators (TCSCs) in a meshed power system is developed in the paper. The selection of the output feedback gains for the TCSC controllers is formulated as an optimisation problem and the simulated annealing (SA) algorithm is used to find the solution. Using this method, the conflicting design objectives, such as the improvement in the damping of the critical modes, any deterioration of the damping of the non critical modes and the saturation of the controller actuators, can be simultaneously considered. It is also shown that the proposed SA algorithm can be used to design robust controllers which satisfy the required performance criteria over several operating conditions. The proposed control scheme can be easily implemented as only the measurable signals local to each TCSC location are used to control the TCSCs (decentralised control).