Low frequency oscillations due to the lack of damping may occur in power systems under normal operation and will cause system instability. These oscillations are essentially nonlinear power responses which are difficult to extract the inherent characteristics by the time domain method. This paper aims to analyze nonlinear power responses by using the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) which is a time-frequency signal processing method which comprises steps of the empirical mode decomposition and the Hilbert transform. Dynamic power system responses, including generator output power and line power are to be processed by the HHT and a set of intrinsic mode functions and the associated Hilbert spectrum are obtained. The generator with most effects on the system will be accordingly found out through the time-frequency analysis and the power system stabilizer will be placed at the generator. Numerical results from a sample power system are demonstrated to show the validity of the time-frequency approach in the study of power system low frequency oscillations.
