Fault tolerant emergency control to preserve power system stability

•This paper introduces a method for fault-masking and system reconfiguration in power transmission systems.•The reconfiguration is obtained using a virtual actuator concept, which covers Lure type systems.•The reconfiguration guarantees stability, locally recovers performance and has a wide-area communication delay compensation.•The reconfiguration relies on the solution of a linear matrix inequality.

This paper introduces a method for fault-masking and system reconfiguration in power transmission systems. The paper demonstrates how faults are handled by reconfiguring remaining controls through utilisation of wide-area measurement in real time. It is shown how reconfiguration can be obtained using a virtual actuator concept, which covers Lure-type systems. The paper shows the steps needed to calculate a virtual actuator, which relies on the solution of a linear matrix inequality. The solution is shown to work with existing controls by adding a compensation signal. Simulation results of a benchmark system show ability of the reconfiguration to maintain stability.