INTRODUCTION

Operating of electric power systems is becoming more and more complex and is posing more
and more challenges every day as they are operated close to their stability limits. Electrical power
systems are expending (renewable energy source RES, distributed generation DG, independent power
producers IPPs, etc. which are often no dispatchable or controllable generation) while the energy
market (generation, distribution, transmission) is deregulated. In addition, regulatory pressure tends
to focus power system operators attention to grown the Return of Investment of their assets while
power consumption is increasing and power system infrastructures are aging. On the other hand, the
demand for higher reliability and power quality is increasing as power electronics driven sensitive
loads are added by the industrial consumers. Power electronic converters can be found wherever
there is a need to modify the electrical energy form (i.e modify its voltage, current or frequency).
Operational constraints have grown the amount of user stress while various blackouts have
happened in Europe and North America. This situation introduces a range of new requirements for
development and implementation of tools and equipment that will help the system operators and
the protection engineers in improving the system security when an event/fault occurs that may lead
to a wide area disturbance. The today technology enablers, that are basis for the new wide area
monitoring and controls implementation, are:
GPS(Global positioning System),
Ethernet Communication.
Several working groups analysing the context of last major blackouts in North America and
Europe have been launched by developing the use of new technologies (PMU, WAMS, WAPS) and by
implementing a coordinated investment strategy to modernize the power system infrastructure. So
there is a real willingness to develop and invest in new automation solution to get the most modern
and secure electricity grid.
Current and voltage synchrophasors or Phasor Measurement Units are some of the
parameters that can be used to observe the state of the system and improve the performance of
different system level applications. The Phasor Measurement Unit includes not only synchrophasor
and frequency measurements, but also recording and protection functions that make the device
usable both as a data source for the system level applications and an IED that can take local action in
case of wide area disturbance.

PHASOR MEASUREMENT UNIT

3.1 Historical
In 1893, Charles Proteus Steinnmetz presented a paper on simplified mathematical description of the
waveforms of alternating electricity. Steinmetz called his representation a phasor. First phasor
measurement units developed in 1988 were based on Steinmetzs technique. Early prototypes of the
PMU were built at Virginia Tech, and Macrodyne launched the first PMU in 1992. However, their
implementations into the power systems were limited, as two main issues could not be addressed at
this time:

Real time phasor measurements (that are synchronized to an absolute time reference
provided by a Global Positioning Satellites GPS).

High speed and cost effective communication network.

The commercialization of the global positioning satellite (GPS) with accuracy of timing pulses in the
order of 1 microsecond made possible the commercial use of phasor measurement units.
3.2. Principle
A phasor measurement Unit (PMU) also called Synchrophasor, measures the electrical waves on an
electric power system to determine its state. A phasor is a complex number used to represent the
fundamental frequency component of voltage or current measured to a common time reference. This
common time reference is independent of the geographical position of the measuring device.
All measurements are done with the GPS one pulse per second (1pps) as the reference (in accordance
with reference [1]). The 1pps pulse can be from any external source provided the accuracy is in
accordance with the requirements.

peak
rms

Xi(n)

Xr(n)

1pps

Figure 1: Phasor measurement in relation to the common reference value

The result of the measurement is a vector X (synchronized phasor) as given below:

X X r jX i
j

X ( X m 2)e
Where Xm is the peak magnitude of the filtered synchronized vector and is the phase angle relative
to a cosine function at nominal frequency. IEEE C37.118 specifies that the angle is 0 degrees when
the maximum of the signal to be measured coincides with the GPS pulse and -90 degrees if the
positive zero crossing coincides with the GPS pulse.
Figure 1 illustrates this conversion, where Xr(n) and X i(n) are the real and imaginary filtered RMS
components at a particular instance and is the phase angle in accordance with reference [1] . The
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measured angle is reported over the communication channel in the range of to + radians.
A primary requirement is the accuracy of the measured phasor. Reference [1] defines the total
permitted vector error (TVE) for the static condition at nominal frequency as:

TVE

( X r (n) X r ) ( X i (n) X i )

X r Xi 2
where Xr (n) and Xi (n) are the measured real and imaginary components and Xr and Xi are the
reference values. This measurement accuracy varies with the magnitude and frequency of the input
signal.
3.3. Basic PMU architecture
The samples from the voltage and current inputs are collected by the A/D (Analog to digital
converter) at the rate of 48 samples/cycle but independent of the 1pps input. A well-proven
frequency-tracking algorithm controls the sampling interval in order to respond dynamically to
changes in system frequency. This data is sent to the measurement processors, which handle the GPS
and IRIG-B inputs, and provides synchronized phasor measurements. In addition to that a
communication processor handles the Ethernet communication. Figure 2 below shows the basic PMU
architecture. The synchronized measurements are transmitted upstream over Ethernet (TCP or UDP).

Analog

A/D

Protection and
Measurement
Processors

Digitised
Samples

Fibre optic

P594 GPS
Receiver

1pps

IRIG-B

Electrical
signal

un-modulated

Ethernet
Processor

Microprocessors

IEEE C37.118 Data

Data Frame over
Serial or Ethernet
(TCP/UDP)

P847 PMU

Figure 2: PMU device

3.4. PMU function overview

As shown in Figure 3, the PMU data (phase currents, voltages, their derivatives, frequency, rate of
change frequency, digital signals) are:

Synchronized with UTC time from a GPS receiver with accuracy of < 1microsecond and
connected an accurate IRIG-B source.

Captured at a rate of 10, 12, 15, 20, 30 and 60 frames per second at 60 Hz.

Synchrophasors measure voltages and currents, at diverse locations and output accurately timestamped voltage and current phasors. Because these phasors are truly synchronized, synchronized
comparison of two quantities is possible, in real time. These comparisons can be used to assess
system conditions.

Figure 3: PMU function overview

3.5. Impacts of PMUs in State Estimation

The introduction of PMU technology is expected to significantly improve the observability of the
power system for State Estimation solution, Wide Area Protection and Control. The immediate
benefit is the use of the PMU data to correct topology errors (hence reduce the need for manual
correction) and SE solution robustness, speed and accuracy.
PMU technology has the potential for a positive impact on SE in the following areas:

Enhanced Observability

Improve Solution accuracy, robustness

Faster Solution Convergence

Bad Data Detection and Topology Error Correction

3.6. PMU allocation

To date, electric companies have installed a small number of PMU devices in the field. Currently most
of the work is focused on the definition of requirements and the exploitation of the current
information for monitoring purposes. However, the nature of the allocation and result depends pretty
much on the following:

Problem being addressed

Measurements needed

How often we need the measurements

Robustness, accuracy and performance target

Current optimal PMU placement or allocation strategies focus on two alternatives:

Increase area of observability by gradual expansion of the geographical footprint as more

sites are included

Allocate PMUs so that inter-area oscillations and other critical dynamics will be correctly
monitored even without complete system observability; here the focus is on controllability to
implement actions to mitigate undesirable dynamic oscillations.

PMUs should be deployed in the network at critical buses to ensure that a sufficient picture of the
system topology is available to the control center. This system visualization shows the angular,
frequency and voltage differences between groups of generators, and the power flow. There is no
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need to install PMUs at every bus of the system as it will not necessarily contribute to efficient
system operation and could cause congestion in the communications system.
3.7. Future perspectives
Simulations and field experiences suggest that PMUs can revolutionize the way power systems are
monitored and controlled. However, costs, available tools, number of data and communication
performance will affect the number of PMUs to be installed in any power system and the
implementation of WAMS, WAPS and WACS solutions.
Synchrophasor measurements are becoming one of the new features available in some
multifunctional protection devices. There is an ongoing discussion in the industry regarding the
integration into the line protection. At this time, since the actual requirements for such
measurements is fairly limited and they are used predominantly by non-protection applications, many
protection professionals express preference to keep such functions in stand alone or disturbance
recording devices. On the other hand, there are new requirements for development of system
integrity protection schemes (SIPS) that may need the integration of phasor measurements in the
relays.
It is anticipated that over the next five to ten years over 1,000 PMUs will be deployed worldwide.
Each PMU typically monitors 6-8 phasor quantities.The phenomena involved during a power system
disturbance/blackout can be classified in 5 main classes: voltage collapse, frequency collapse, loss of
synchronism, large power swings and cascade of overloads. Preventive actions are implemented to
avoid such phenomena to occur by using wide area measurement systems. Curative actions are
implemented to avoid the spreading and so saving the rest of the power system by using manual or
automatic mechanisms depending of the quickness of the phenomena.
3.8. IEEE Standard
In 1995, the IEEE 1344 standard for synchrophasors was completed in 1995, and reaffirmed in 2001.
In 2005, it was replaced by IEEE Standard C37.118-2005, which was a complete revision and dealt
with issues concerning use of PMUs in electric power systems. The specification describes standards
for measurement, the method of quantifying the measurements, testing & certification requirements
for verifying accuracy, and data transmission format and protocol for real-time data communication.
The standard is not yet comprehensive- it does not attempt to address all factors that PMUs can
detect in power system dynamic activity.

WIDE AREA MONITORING SYSTEM (WAMS)

4.1.

Principle

As shows in figure 4, a phasor network consists of phasor measurement units (PMUs) dispersed
throughout the electricity system, Phasor Data Concentrators (PDC) to collect the information and a
Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) system at the central control facility.
All the PMUs are connected to a Phasor Data Concentrator (PDC) at either substation or control
center level.

Figure 4: PMU and PDC architecture

The complete network requires rapid data transfer within the frequency of sampling of the phasor
data. The PDC correlates the data, and controls and monitors the PMUs. At the central control facility,
the SCADA system presents system wide data on all generators and substations in the system every a
few seconds. The first PMUs were often using phone lines to connect to PDC, which then send data to
the SCADA and/or Wide Area Measurement System (WAMS) server. WAMS consists of measuring the
angle shift between the sub-networks using Phasor Measurement Units (PMU).
4.2. Inter-area system oscillation
One of the most common applications where PMU has already been used is Small Signal Stability
detection that is designed to detect slower inter-area system oscillations. These are mainly due to
power oscillations between two areas of generation, running at slightly different speeds and
following small system perturbations such as load switching or tap changes. These oscillations do not
die away if there is insufficient system damping and could escalate and lead to an out-of-step
condition and therefore system separation if no pre-emptive action is taken. The PMU has an
advanced frequency tracking technique that can accurately measure and track small signal
frequencies and therefore provide an accurate measurement for the fast detection of small signal
oscillations.

Figure 5: PMU Data from two Key Buses in a system during a Disturbance

Figure 5 shows the Voltage and Frequency recorded at two generator buses 400 Km apart during a
drop in generation at another location. The oscillations in the magnitude and frequency can be clearly
seen but synchronized measurements allow the comparison of the phase of the oscillatory modes to
determine the parts of the system are oscillating against each other.
PMUs also provide a basis for a wide range of protection such as:

Monitoring angular instability

Monitoring frequency or rate of change of frequency

Monitoring voltage instability

State estimation (based on time-synchronized, measured data) Islanding

System recording or analysis

System restoration

4.3. On-Line stability solution (OSS)

The figure 6 presents the typical configuration for the OSS.

Figure 6: OSS configuration

The PMU data is transmitted to the Phasor Data Concentrator (PDC) at a user -selected speed through
the Ethernet port using the IEEE C37.118 communication protocol. The data is displayed in a graphical
format and used for monitoring and control purposes. The PMU data can be displayed on any PDC
with graphical facility and on the e-terravision which is a graphical dashboard of the Energy
Measurement System (EMS) software.
The figure 7 shows PMU deployment and the angle difference between various substations taken
from a PMU presented on the e-terravision dashboard. In this example, the angle difference between
Hanover-Douglas and Douglas-Lakeview has exceeded a user-settable value and shown in red, raising
the alarm to a system operator that quick predefined corrective actions are needed.

Figure 7: Angle difference between various substations

The above e-terravision software will look for early signs of wide area disturbance and possibly a
cascading blackout, and automatically mitigate the event by using WACS / WAPS and stabilize the
power system.

WIDE AREA CONTROL SYSTEMS (WACS)

Wide Area Control System addresses automatic self-healing capabilities to some extent by proposing
decisive smart topology changes and control actions with the goal of maintaining the integrity of the
grid under adverse conditions. Dynamic islanding and fast load shedding are schemes available to
maintain as much as possible of a healthy transmission system. The process is designed to be highly
automated and is primarily constrained by the latest communication technology and PMU allocation
strategies.
The following issues should be considered as part of any development plan to address intelligent
recovery from catastrophic events:

Early, fast detection and monitoring of system security indices

Analysis of critical real-time information to trigger the dynamic security assessment

process

Wide-area information, control and protection schemes

Deployment of control actions for dynamic adjustment and reconfiguration

The plan for adaptive islanding requires a critical review of all steady-state and dynamic tools that are
available at the control center. This includes development of new tools and the coordination of the
existing applications for detecting and adjusting the configuration using technology and emergency
condition methods. The capability to model and simulate electricity grid behavior over a range of time
domains, frequency domains, and topological footprints need to be developed.
For Wide Area Control a redundant set of measurements is desirable. In the event of a failure of one
PMU, other adjacent PMUs and information from connected devices should provide reasonable
backup data. The EMS applications can improve the security margin using optimization techniques or
sensitivity routines that along with time domain simulation could predict the control actions to return
the system to normal.
The actions depend on the system state and problem and definitely the following applications will
use synchronized information:

State estimation

Fast time domain simulation

System state prediction

System recovery

The measurements are sent to the central point every 50 ms (20 times per second). This scheme is an
automatic real time system which detects loss of synchronism and take decision to separate out-ofsteep area and perform load-shedding when necessary in weak part of the systems to avoid
spreading over the power system. The communication needs are covered by a geostationary satellite
and terrestrial means.

WIDE AREA PROTECTION SYSTEMS (WAPS)

The new protection principles based on locally measured variables have been developed and
used to improve the performance of the power system. Such new relays for loss-of-synchronism
detection in transmission substations and power plants, load-shedding, open line detector, etc. have
been designed to improve the existing System Protection Scheme performance and provide new
protection system alternatives.

Figure 9: New Protection SPS

Loss of synchronism could conduct to a blackout of a part or the whole system if no actions are taken
appropriately. Moreover, such events are also accompanied by mechanical / electrical stress on the
equipment because of an overvoltage for example. Without preventive actions, loss of synchronism
could therefore result not only in blackouts as such, but in destruction of strategic high-voltage
equipment such as transformers, breakers, etc., which at the end will increase unduly the time,
required for a complete synchronous system restoration. The loss of synchronism conditions result
from the instability of a sub-network (first swing instability) or the completed grid (frequency
instability), disturbed by a cascade of events of an abnormal severity.
Hydro Quebec Transenergie uses loss of synchronism relays installed geographically along the
separation line in order to effectively detect the dangerous phenomena which appear prior or just
after the loss of synchronism, such as overvoltages, high frequency pole slipping, large frequency
deviation etc. The RPS relay for transmission network application will greatly simplify this task, while
improving the reliability and security of the instability decision.
When the loss-of-synchronism relay is designed for a power plant it is called DLI. The requirements
and objectives of a power plant out- of-step relay are quite different from those considered
previously in network application. Its target is to detect the instability with enough pre-emption time
to trigger the dropping of a sufficient amount of generation to allow the remain of the power plant to
keep synchronism with the main the grid. Power system engineer experience has shown that
effective generation dropping scheme required the out-of-step condition to be detected as fast as 15
to 30 cycles after fault clearing. Otherwise, the generation dropping will happen too late to have a
stabilizing effect.
Since the RPS objective is mainly to protect the equipement, the pre-emption time is less critical, as
far as it leaves enough time to de-energize the equipment at risk before the overvoltage becomes
unmanageable. In the present case, a 10 to 20 cycles pre-emption time is deemed sufficient to
activate the surge arrester which are the equipment protection devices.
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SYSTEM INTEGRITY PROTECTION SCHEME

System Integrity Protection System is a tool to initiate system corrective actions as opposed to
equipment protection. Among the many system stress, scenarios that a SIPS may act upon are
transmission congestion, transient instability, voltage and frequency degradation and thermal
overloading. To implement effective, intelligent SIPS appropriate for the prevailing power system
condition, it is essential that a real time, fast-acting, system-wide data collection system be available.
An SIPS scheme can initiate load or generator rejection, load-shedding due to under-frequency or
under-voltage, out of step or loss of synchronism, system separation, remedial action schemes, shortterm or long-term stability control, etc.
These measures are normally inactive and are armed automatically when some system stress
condition occurs; alternatively, they may be armed manually from a control center. The remedial
action schemes (RAS) and system protection schemes (SPS) that have become popular in recent years
are SIPS systems. To create more intelligent SIPSs, one must rely on the newly available wide-area
measurement systems being deployed in many power systems.

Fig. 10: Time window per application

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COMMUNICATION REQUIREMENTS
The communication requirements will differ when implementing Wide Area Measurement Systems or
Wide Area Control and Protection Systems.
Typically, UDP/IP through VPN (Telecom Service Provider) with some security capability is used for
WAMS. Such a solution can be provided by telecom provider and implemented between multiple
power networks and use standard communication system.
For Wide Area Control & Protection Systems, Ethernet VLAN using robust SDH Backbone is more
appropriated as redundancy; reliability and safety are the key requirements of such systems.
Redundancy of the communication links to ensure the information transmission in emergencies
(backup control centers) is also a key requirement to ensure good performance, reliable date and
secure communication. It is an essential pre-requisite for any self-healing processes at a wider
geographical grid level. Communications security is of the utmost importance since hackers could
otherwise compromise the integrity of the grid.
Options are classified according to the physical medium used for communication

Leased telephone circuits were among the first communication media used for these
purposes. Switched telephone circuits can be used when data transfer latency is not of
importance

More common electric utility communication media such as power line carrier and
microwave links have also been used, and continue to be used in many current applications.

The medium of choice now is fiber-optic links which have unsurpassed channel capacity, high
data transfer rates, and immunity to electromagnetic interference.
The two aspects of selecting communication channels are:

1. Channel capacity
2. Latency

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SYNCHROPHASOR TECHNOLOGY IN INDIA

The initiative taken up by Power System Operation Corporation Ltd. (POSOCO) in pilot manner in the
year 2010 by installing 4 PMUs in Northern Region. PMUs installed in all the 5 regions of the Indian
grid at strategically selected locations like generating stations, load centres , substations and
interconnecting substations. Total 64 PMUs have been installed in India, integrated through
respective Regional PDCs installed at RLDC to Central PDC installed at NLDC, New Delhi. India
presently use 25 frames/ second speed PMUs.

Figure 11 : Current PMU Deployment in India

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CONCLUSION
In order to ease the implementation of PMUs, there is a need to improve the interfaces and decision
support, to reduce the complexity so that system operators and managers have tools to effectively
and efficiently operate a grid with an increasing number of variables. Technologies include
visualization techniques that reduce large quantities of data into easily understood visual formats,
software systems that provide multiple options when systems operator actions are required, and
simulators for operational training and what-if analysis.
This paper has described a high-level plan to improve power system grid security. The primary intent
is to protect the electrical interconnection from a widespread collapse. Wide area controls are meant
to protect the grid as an entity. In some cases, the appropriate action would be islanding and blacking
out a portion of the grid in order to prevent widespread collapse (Defense Plan).
New Wide Area Systems will enable rapid diagnosis and provide solutions to specific grid disruptions
or outages. A successful intelligent grid control implementation will require careful coordination
between wide-area and local control schemes. Since many of the control actions will need to be
decided and executed quickly, the tools need to be reliable, prompt and correct. They need to have
secure backup schemes to ensure reliability. Secure, reliable communication has been identified as
the primary challenge to deploying automated, prompt self-healing wide-area grid control actions.
Another implementation challenge remains, the complexity, architecture, location and costs of such
type of Wide Area Systems. Some other difficulties are also reliability (acceptable over or under trip),
redundancy (where redundancy is required, identification of the critical path), performance of the
completed system including sensors and circuit breakers, and the maintenance aspects (impact
directly the reliability of the system).

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REFERENCES
1. IEEE Standard for Synchrophasors for Power Systems (IEEE Std C37.118 - 2005)
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3. IEEE Standard Common Format for Transient Data Exchange (COMTRADE) for Power Systems,
IEEE C37.111-1991, Sponsored by the Power System Relaying Committee of the Power
Engineering Society.
4. Synchronized Phasor Measurements and Their Applications, A.G. Phadke and J.S. Thorp ,
Springer, New York, 2008.
5. Phadke, A.G., Thorp, J.S., and Karimi, K.J., State estimation with phasor measurements, IEEE
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