4 On the Ability of Automatic Generation Control to Manage Critical Situations in Power Systems with Participation of Wind Power Plants Parks Suad S. Halilˇ cevi´ c and Claudio Moraga Abstract. The purpose of this work is design an automatic starter for the synchronizing equip- ment (SE ) in power systems. Such a starter leads to a faster and secure decision concerning the introduction (i.e., a parallel switch) of a ready reserve generator to the power system as a type of ancillary service. The applied method is based on a hybrid neural model (HNM). The HNM consists of a feedforward, three-layer neural network using neurons with a sigmoid activation, and a perceptron with a biased hard limiter. The adopted HNM is excited by signals of the generator’s operating status, current load regime, and an available power of the wind power plant park ( W PPP). The logical decision-making is used to find out the actual load regime and the available power from W PPP relevant to building of HNM’s input. The automatic starter of the SE enables a reduction of the time spent in seeing whether or not the rescue action will imply resorting to the ready reserve power. Such a reduction is certainly a contribution to the efforts of preserving a power system’s integrity during the critical situations (e. g. generating unit/area outages). HNM has the ability to recognize the crisis symptoms immediately, and to consequently suggest an introduction of the ready-reserve (RR) generator (a supplemental reserve) through SE . 4.1 Introduction Synchronization of machines and the parallel switching of power systems is always a very important and sensitive step to change the conditions of a power systems work. At the time of closing the parallel switch (circuit breaker) a minimum of en- ergy transfer is desired [1]. To have that condition realized, one must satisfy the conditions in which it is possible to get the machines run in parallel. Whether the synchronism conditions are fulfilled or not is a process that can be done by either the electromechanical or electronic synchronizing equipment (SE ). There are two ways of paralleling power systems: that based on the attended synchroscope-furnished stations, and that designed as a remote synchronism indica- tor, the information registered by the latter, forwarded to the operator through special communication channels. Today, however, with large interconnected power systems and new competitive environment for electricity, paralleling is very frequently a task for the system’s operator and demands a great attention. Nowadays, SE is set into operation by the system operator. However, utilization of real-time rating systems and integration with existing utility communication net-