754

2017 International Conference on Computation of Power, Energy, Information and Communication (ICCPEIC)

Application of synchrophasor measurements using

PMU for modern power systems monitoring and
control

Gunvant C. Patil, ME Student A. G. Thosar, Professor

Department of Electrical Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering
Government College of Engineering, Aurangabad Government College of Engineering, Aurangabad
Aurangabad, India Aurangabad, India
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract— synchrophasor measurement technology has analysis using synchrophasor data collected from PMUs
become a mature technology with deployment of large throughout the system. Here synchrophasor technology has
number of PMUs in many major power systems across the proved its potential over conventional SCADA technology
globe in last two decades. The driving force behind the which is summarized in table 1. PMU is the most
innovation of PMUs is that, the occurrence of major commonly used device for synchronized phasor
blackouts in many power systems around the world. This measurements. The PMU provides the time-synchronized
paper provides a brief introduction to PMU and measurement from dispersed power system with
synchrophasor measurement technology and the synchronizing pulses obtained from GPS clock. With the
applications of these measurements for improved
advent of GPS technology the synchronization accuracy
monitoring, protection and control of power system. Also the
achieved of order of 1 micro-second. That has improved
superiority of PMU based synchrophasor technology over
conventional SCADA technology is discussed. Industry is state estimation accuracy and wide-area situational
now focusing on synchrophasor-based applications for awareness in near real-time. Synchrophasor data provided
improved monitoring and control of power system, which by the PMUs show the power system operators what is
are discussed in brief in section-IV. Some international happening on the grid in real-time using various key
standards governing synchrophasor measurements in power indicators and parameters of power systems state. So, the
system and PMU interoperability are listed in section-V. effective visualization and monitoring of wide area
This paper help readers to understand synchrophasor network in real-time is possible with synchrophasor
measurement technology, its superiority over conventional technology. This paper is organized as follows. In section-
SCADA system and present research focus on application of II the concept of phasor and synchrophasors is explained.
synchronized measurement in improving power system Functional architecture of generic PMU is discussed in
reliability. section-III. Section-IV provides brief discussion on
application of synchrophasor measurement in improved
Keywords- Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU), Supervisory monitoring and control of power system. Some
Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA), Global Positioning international standards governing synchrophasor
System (GPS), Frequency Monitoring Network (FNET), measurement in power system and PMUs interoperability
Phasor Data Concentrator (PDC), Synchrophasor, Wide Area are listed in section-V. In section-VI conclusions are
Measurement Technology (WAMS), Energy Management
drawn and references are listed at the end.
System (EMS), Distributed Generation (DGs).
A. PMU Vs SCADA
I. INTRODUCTION
Phasor data and applications are valuable for grid
The synchrophasor technology has been evolving from reliability because they give power grid operators and
1980s at faster rate and has become a mature technology to engineer a deep insight into what is happening on the grid
date. Conventional SCADA system used in power system in real-time with high accuracy, over a geographically
monitoring and control has slower in time of operation, as wide-spread system in time synchronized mode. Present
it takes much time (sometimes even few minutes) to scan SCADA systems observe grid conditions every 4 to 6
system state once. It updates the system state every few second (sometimes even takes few minutes), which is very
minute which might fails to capture system dynamics slow to track dynamic phenomenon happening on the grid.
events. In case of stressed system condition or severe SCADA do not monitor key parameters such as phase
disturbance operator would fail to take proper control angles and also data are not consistently time-
action and that may leads to whole system collapse. This is synchronized and time-aligned and not shared widely
the main reason behind many blackouts happened in past. across the grid. Thus SCADA does not give power grid
It was better understood by doing post-disturbance event operators real-time, wide area visibility into what is
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Gunvant C. Patil et al: APPLICATION OF SYNCHROPHASOR MEASUREMENTS USING PMU FOR MODERN POWER
SYSTEMS MONITORING AND CONTROL

happening across a region or interconnection [1]. The lack Fig.1. Mathematically sinusoidal signal is expressed as
of wide-area visibility has been resulted in black-out in shown in (1
many power systems around the world such as Northeast
blackout on August 14, 2003 and 2004 blackouts in 
Europe. All these blackout investigation reports came to The phasor representation of this sinusoid is given by
some common conclusions like Lack of wide area (2),
Vm Vm
V e jG (cosG  j sin G ) (2)
TABLE I. COMPARISON BETWEEN SCADA SYSTEM AND 2 2
SYNCHROPHASOR SYSTEM
SCADA
Attribute PMU Measurement
Measurement
Measurement Analog Digital
Resolution 2-4 samples per sec Up to 50-60 samples per
second
System Steady State Dynamic/Transient
Observability
Monitoring Local Wide-Area

Direct No Yes
Measurement
of Bus Voltage
Phase Angle
Measured Magnitude (RMS), Magnitude (RMS) and
Quantities MW & MVAR phase angle from Fig. 1.Phasor representation of a sinusoidal signal
common reference –
MW, MVAR, and Phase Vm
Angle Difference, All Where, the magnitude of the phasor is the rms
sequence components 2
value of sinusoid and its phase angle, δ. Note that the
visibility, lack of time-synchronized data, not able to positive phase angles are measured in counterclockwise
monitor systems dynamic behavior in real time. direction from the real axis. Also the phasor definition
In contrast, synchrophasor systems allow the measuring, implies that, phasor representation is possible for pure
collection and sharing of high-speed in real-time and signal i.e. which has single frequency component and
precisely time-synchronized grid condition data across an indicates the signal remains stationary at all times which
entire system. This data can be used to create wide-area leads to a constant phasor representation [3]. So, it is clear
visualization of bulk power system in near real-time which that all the phasor which are represented on single phasor
helps power grid operators understand real-time diagram must have same frequency. But in real time the
conditions, see early evidence of severe grid problems and voltage and current signals from power system are not
better diagnose, implement and evaluate proper control pure sinusoidal always. As stated earlier the phasor of
fundamental frequency is of our interest due to its major
actions to protect system reliability. The PMU based
role in power system analysis. So the task of PMU is to
synchrophasor technology is quite superior over
extract the fundamental frequency component and then
conventional SCADA system for real time monitoring of find its phasor representation. In [3] it is mentioned that
complex and more interconnected power system in many the PMU uses frequency-tracking steps and estimate the
aspects as shown in table 1. In simple words period of the fundamental frequency component before the
synchrophasor technology provide the MRI of the power phasor is estimated.
system while traditional SCADA/EMS systems are like X-
Rays B. Synchrophasor measurement concept
II. PHASOR AND SYNCHROPHASOR MEASUREMENT Synchrophasor measurement technology have been
CONCEPT becoming one the most important measurement
technology in todays power systems due to its unique
A. Phasor ability to sample analog voltage and current waveform
A phasor is a unique complex number that gives both data in synchronism with a GPS-clock and compute the
the magnitude and phase angle of sinusoid waveforms (50 corresponding 50 or 60 Hz phasor component from widely
or 60 Hz) at a specific reference in time. Here the phase dispersed locations as illustrated in fig. 2. The clear idea of
angle δ is the angular measure of the signal’s sinusoidal synchronized measurement is illustrated in fig.2. The use
peak and a specified reference in time usually taken from of GPS clock for synchronization guaranteed the accuracy
GPS receiver. The reference is a fixed point in time (such of 1μs [4].
as time = 0). The phasor magnitude Vm is related to the
III. PHASOR MEASUREMENT UNIT (PMU)
amplitude of the sinusoidal signal. The sinusoidal
waveform and its phasor representation are illustrated in Phasor measurement unit is the most commonly used
v(t ) Vm Cos( wt  G ) synchronized phasor measurement device and it has been
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deployed fully in many major power systems around the variation in internal structure includes the different
world. Phasor Measurement Unit has been defined by algorithms used for phasor estimation like, DFT, FFT,
IEEE as “a device that produces synchronized phasor, Weighted Least square (WLS) and the hardware
frequency, and rate of change of frequency (ROCOF) components used for realizing practical PMU. DFT is the
estimates from voltage and/or current signals and a time most commonly used for phasor computation in today’s
synchronizing signal” [4]. The internal architecture of commercial PMU [3, 4]. Though it has variations in
PMU varies from manufacturer to manufacturer depending internal architecture, but they all serves the same purpose
upon the application for which it is being used. The is that to provide the

Fig.2. Synchronized phasor representation of two voltage signals measured at two different locations with common time reference pulses for
synchronization are taken from GPS clock.

synchronized phasor measurement. The functional block needed, but the passive analog LPF are most commonly
diagram of typical PMU is shown in fig. 3. The role of used.
various components in PMU architecture is explained in
brief as follows: C. A/D (analog to digital) converter
The analog voltage and current signals filtered from
A. CTs and PTs LPF are then fed to A/D converter and digital samples of
An analog current and voltage signals from input are obtained which are further used as input to
secondary of CTs and PTs respectively are taken as DSP (digital signal processor) or phasor-microprocessor.
input, and are fed to A/D converter through an anti- The sampling process is very important for accurate
aliasing filter. phasor estimation. The higher sampling rate gives higher
accuracy and vice versa. The minimum sampling rate
B. Anti-aliasing filter must satisfy the Nyquist sampling criterion which is
Use either SI (MKS) or CGS as primary units. (SI It defined as, “the sampling frequency, fs is more than or
is basically a passive LPF (low pass filter). It blocks the equal to twice the highest frequency component present
high frequency components and allows only lower in analog input signal.ā i.e. fs ı 2fo, where fo is the
frequency components which are of interest in phasor nominal power system frequency. To avoid the errors
estimation. As in power system analysis the phasor at due to aliasing and to improve accuracy of estimated
fundamental (or nominal) frequency are of interest. But phasor the sampling frequency is kept much higher than
in practical real time situation the voltage and current 2fo. Most modem digital relays and measurement
signals available from power system are not of pure systems use sampled data obtained at sampling rates
sinusoidal of 50 or 60 Hz, but are available at slightly varying between 4f0 and 4of0. A sampling frequency of
different frequencies due to presence of some harmonics 12fo has been used in many relays and phasor
and non-harmonics in it. Therefore it is necessary to measurement systems that have been installed in the
filter out unwanted high frequency components before field in recent years [5]. In practice the phasor
phasor estimation otherwise error is introduced in
estimated phasor and wrong phasor data which is further
utilized in control and protection algorithms will lead to
false control operation. At the same time phase-shift
created by filter should be taken into account and it
should be compensated to get correct phasor estimation.
The other type of filters like active filters, digital filters
can also be used in particular application wherever representation is considered over a portion of time span,
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Gunvant C. Patil et al: APPLICATION OF SYNCHROPHASOR MEASUREMENTS USING PMU FOR MODERN POWER
SYSTEMS MONITORING AND CONTROL

that time span is termed as “data window.” A data IV. APPLICATION OF SYNCHROPHASOR
window of period of one cycle of fundamental MEASUREMENT TO POWER SYSTEM
frequency is mostly used where task requires very fast
Many literatures since from advent of the PMU have
response time, like relaying application. As stated in
been published on application of synchrophasor
literature the higher size of the data window yields more
measurements in power system operations, monitoring
accurate results. The data window of 2-3 cycles is also
and control. As per the survey PMU data applications
used in some cases [6].
can be broadly classified into real-time or on-line
applications and off-line applications. These
D. Phasor-microprocessor applications are explained in brief in following
It consists of a digital signal processors (DSP) chip paragraphs.
on board as main component. In recent years the DSPs
are mostly used for phasor computations in many A. Application during early PMU development
commercially manufactured PMUs. The discrete With the advent of PMU in 1980s its use was
Fourier transform (DFT) is the most commonly used restricted to post disturbance event recording in off-line
technique for determining the phasor representation of analysis only due to its low availability, high cost and
an input signal [3]. need of additional infrastructure like high bandwidth
communication. It was also known for DSDRs (digital
Fig.3. Functional block diagram of PMU system disturbance recorder). It is direct descendent of
SCDRs (symmetrical component distance relays) which
The sampled input signal x {k=0, 1, 2,….., N-1} consist were in use in 1970s [9]. In early days the applications
N samples over one data window then the phasor of PMUs were wide-area recording of events and
representation is given by, [6] collected synchrophasor data were used for post
2S
disturbance analysis and system model validation. The
2 N 1  jn frequency oscillations collected by PMUs gives valuable
X ¦
N n0
x ( n )e N (3) information about electromechanical wave propagation
through the system during disturbance, this observation
led to development of frequency monitoring network
As we know in DFT frequency spectrum appears at ±ω known as FNET in USA and other part of the country.
and are complex conjugate of each other. If we combine PMU and FNET data not only detects low frequency
them it gives a factor 2 in front of summation in (3). To oscillation caused due to loss of generation but also
predicts the amount of generation loss [3]. The dynamic
obtain the rms value we then divide by 2 and finally event capture and monitoring capabilities of PMUs were
we get (3).
experienced practically in quick and accurate
postmortem analysis of events just after Northeastern U.
E. GPS receiver S. blackout in 2003. The U. S.-Canada power system
The common reference signal for synchronization is outage task force even recommends the “require use of
provided by GPS receiver. It provides the one pps (pulse time synchronized data recorder to all power utilities,”
per second) signal transmitted from GPS satellite. It in its final report on August14, 2003 blackout [10].
confirms an accuracy of 1μs and is widely used in
almost all synchrophasor measurement devices, like B. Applications in real-time operations
PMU. There are other satellite like GOES which used in
These applications require real-time data collection
England power system synchrophasor project as
synchronizing source, their performance is not and processing with immediate analysis to take
satisfactory [7]. appropriate control action. There are some hurdles in
utilizing the PMU data in real-time applications such as
F. Phase Locked-Loop (PLL) need of compatible software like PDCs to handle data
from PMUs, also high bandwidth communication to
The GPS receiver provides 1 pps signal which is used transmit huge amount of data generated by PMUs
by PLL to create required number of sampling pulses located in dispersed power system to control centers.
depending on sampling rate. These time-synchronized The cost effective solutions to these problems have been
sampling pulses are then used for sampling analog developing and today many power utilities have
signal. It phase-lock the analog input from LPF with the deployed the PMUs as part of WAMS. The various real-
1 pps signal from GPS [8]. In majority of PMUs, time applications of synchrophasor data which realized
process of data acquisition is directly synchronized by in practice are discussed below.
means of PLL circuit to the common time reference 1) Wide-area monitoring & situational awareness :
source.
The use of synchronized data in wide area visualization
were introduced around 1990s but it has gain importance
after U. S. Western Interconnect blackout in 1996 where
the post disturbance analysis showed that PMU could
have provided an early warning to operator about
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2017 International Conference on Computation of Power, Energy, Information and Communication (ICCPEIC)

growing angular stress and power oscillation that could “Mode Meter” algorithms based on wide-area PMU
have avoided the cascaded outage [1]. Following the measurements [1].
recommendation after blackout event analysis the 4) Voltage trending and reactive reserves
Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) has developed monitoring :
first PDC in 1997 and started streaming the data from It is one of the most promising applications of
PMUs across the power system. They have also synchronized phasor measurement in near future. Many
developed a visualization tool to display live PMU data transmission lines have voltage stability constraint and
which is known as Stream reader. Also Southern voltage collapse happens immediate as voltage stability
California Edison has developed SMART® tool called limit reached. The voltage profile is directly related to
Smart measurement and Analysis in Real-Time. It reactive power support. The synchrophasor data
monitors the real-time system parameters like phase provided by PMUs allows operator to watch voltage
angle at buses, angle difference between the buses and trending and gives early indication about voltage
instability. The SCADA provides long duration voltage
power swing oscillations using synchrophasor data from
trending profile which takes about an hour but with use
PMU [11]. RTDMS™ software was developed by
of PMUs it could be possible to have short term voltage
funding from U. S. Department of energy used by power
trending visualization of period of few minute. Reactive
system operators, planner and engineers for wide-area reserve monitoring is helpful in maintaining voltage
monitoring and analysis in real-time. RTDMS also stability. Primary reactive reserve in system is provided
archives the data for post disturbance analysis. by synchronous generator operating in voltage control
2) Frequency stability monitoring and trending : mode, shunt capacitors and Static Var compensator.
Power system frequency is a key indicator of Measuring required reactive reserve is becoming more
generation–load balance. The amount of generation loss important with increased penetration of intermittent
is directly reflected on frequency deviation. The renewable resources. The additional synchrophasor
frequency data collected by PMUs provide information measurements at wind stations are necessary to
about amount of generation loss and other system calculate amount of primary and secondary reactive
separation events like islanding. The EPRI have been measure at that site where the PMUs data can be a
developing a tool called the Synchronous Frequency better option. Voltage trending and reactive reserves
Measurement System (SFMS) to use synchrophasor monitoring are mature applications since from early
data for wide-area visualization and disturbance power system and are well monitored and control by
location [1]. SCADA, but with synchrophasor based methods
3) Power oscillation monitoring : improved monitoring and control can be possible.
Low-frequency oscillations occur when an individual 5) Alarming and setting system thresholds, event
generator or group of generators swing against other detection and avoidance :
generators operating synchronously on the same The rate of change of phase angle difference is the
system. The low frequency oscillations are more most important indicator of increased system stress.
common on power system which is caused due to The fast change in rate of phase angle is an indicator to
abnormal condition like faults and power swing. system collapse as reported in post event analysis after
Damped oscillations are stable but undammed the 2003 Northeastern blackout and the 2008 Florida
oscillations results in unstable operation which may blackout. Synchrophasor based tools provide early
lead to cascade outage or blackout well known example alarming feature when system is on the verge of
is Western interconnect event on August 10, 1996. The instability. It gives operator a sufficient time to take
inter-area oscillation detection requires the high-speed appropriate control actions like activate more reactive
data with high synchronization accuracy that is possible reserves or load shedding or modifying path flows.
with PMU but not with conventional SCADA. There 6) Resource integration :
are two distinct tools used in identifying power Resource integration is becoming more important and
oscillations [1], one is Oscillation Detection that complex issue with increased penetration of
calculates damping after disturbance occurred and it renewables. As many renewable are intermittent and
takes few seconds time depending on magnitude of distributed over wide area it is difficult to predict the
oscillations. The second tool is Mode Meters that availability of generation and its effects on
estimates damping by extracting useful information interconnected grid. The PMUs installed at wind
from small-signal oscillations and provide an early generators collect and provide instantaneous data to
detection of damping alarm. It has been demonstrated operator to plan economic dispatch and achieve load-
that the mode meter can identify the oscillation modes generation balance. The integration of wind and solar
that caused the Western Interconnection collapse in resources into grid reduces the overall system inertia
1996 and could have issued an early warning on the and increase transient stability problem. The high speed
lightly damped mode. Montana Tech, University of PMU-based monitoring provides better situational
Wyoming, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
have worked closely with BPA and DOE to develop
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Gunvant C. Patil et al: APPLICATION OF SYNCHROPHASOR MEASUREMENTS USING PMU FOR MODERN POWER
SYSTEMS MONITORING AND CONTROL

awareness and visualization of intermittent behaviors of application uses PMUs at each end of the target
wind and solar generation outputs. transmission facility, collects real-time voltage and
7) State estimation : current phasor quantities at each end, and calculates
State estimation is the most important application actual series impedance and shunt admittance to
function at energy management center. It provides real- calculate actual average conductor temperature.
time estimate of network state variables such as bus Addition of PMUs and phasor data will increase the
voltage magnitudes and phase angles. State estimation precision and effectiveness of dynamic line rating
is a steady state application and a slow process which applications.
takes time of few minutes to scan the system once. The 9) Outage restoration:
state estimation technology presently in use is evolved Frequency deviations from nominal system frequency
in 1960s. The existing state estimation algorithms use are a good indication for load-generation loss and other
the measurements such as active and reactive line system separation events like islanding. The real-time
flows, injections at buses to estimate state variables of frequency data is very important while restoring system
network. It constitutes a set of non-linear equations back after islanding events. The PMUs based
which takes several iterations to get final solution. It synchronization is the best way as it avoids risk of
takes few minutes to converge or sometimes it may instability and reduces reclosing attempts. The system
diverge in case of disturbance [12]. It is based on island form after Hurricane Gustav hit the Entergy
important assumption that the system is static during service territory in 2008, the Entergy’s SCADA did not
estimation i.e system variables does not change during detect the island but frequency plots obtained from
one scan period (e.g. few seconds to few minutes). Prior synchrophasor data effectively identified island. The
to the synchrophasor measurement the measurements utility then using synchrophasor data for observing
used in state estimation algorithms are not taken with islands and resynchronization of islands.
common time reference and hence the estimated state
C. Planning and off-line applications
could not be directly measured but it is just inferred
from unsynchronized measurements [3]. So the existing 1) Post disturbance event analysis :
state estimation process is slower, static and less The wide-area synchronized data is very necessary
accurate. for analyzing the sequence of events, especially after
The improvement in accuracy of state blackout where many switching operation takes place
estimation is one the most immediate benefit of PMUs within short time interval. There high data recorded by
data application [12]. The use of PMU data in state PMUs helps in constructing the exact sequence of
events. In fact the main impetus behind PMUs evolution
estimation process is addressed in two ways, one way is
and installation is for post disturbance analysis and
to form new algorithms which use only PMU data and
plotting exact sequence of events during the blackouts.
other way is to integrate PMU data into existing This helps in devising better plan in future to avoid such
SCADA which form hybrid state estimator. PMUs events.
provide direct measurement of voltage and current both
in magnitude and phase angle which are linear function. 2) System Model calibration and validation :
Therefore state estimation based on only PMU data Periodical validation and calibration of system
forms linear equations so computation becomes easy models is necessary to ensure that power system models
and takes less time. While the hybrid state estimators are accurate and up to date. The system planners and
forms non-linear equations but with synchrophasor modeling engineers use the high speed data collected by
measurements the accuracy of estimation has been PMUs to calibrate and validate system models. The
increased. In this area the researchers has been focusing synchrophasor data collected by PMUs provides better
on optimal PMU placement for full observability of grid visualization which helps in identifying any errors
power system network with minimum number of in existing model and fine tuning to improves accuracy.
PMUs. Also some utilities have successfully used phasor data
8) Dynamic line ratings and congestion for the load model characterization, calibrations and
management : tuning.
The seasonal (summer or winter) line ratings are 3) Power plant model validation :
fixed and calculated based on fixed assumption It has been one of the most successful applications of
regarding local weather conditions (wind speed, synchrophasor data. Disturbance event recording allows
ambient temperature and solar heating) and maximum the periodic verification of generator model
allowable conductor temperature. It does not provide performance validation. Many utilities have been
optimal solution for optimum use of transmission line reported successful results to date. Disturbance
capacity. The real-time phasor data from PMUs can be recordings pointed out modeling deficiencies of the
used in combination with local weather data to calculate governor response at lower Columbia generators in the
dynamic real-time ampacity rating of line. This Pacific Northwest, which led to the discovery of
approach gives better solution for optimum use of inappropriate modeling of hydraulic turbines at these
transmission capacity. ABB’s Line Thermal Monitoring
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With continuous evolution in synchrophasor technology
the present applications in real-time monitoring and
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PMU is the most commonly used device for
synchrophasor measurement. The various international
standards have been developed and continuously
revised to meet industry dynamic needs, compliance
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With increased penetration of renewables and DGs,
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