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Phasor Measurement Units: Algorithms, Challenges and Perspectives

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A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 February 2021) | Viewed by 16275

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Dr. Sergio Toscani

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Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milan, Italy
Interests: digital signal processing; power quality; harmonics; nonlinear models; measurement systems; electrical measurements; instrument transformers
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Dear Colleagues,

The availability of Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) represented a major breakthrough in power system management. Their key feature is the capability to measure phasor, frequency and rate of change of frequency (ROCOF) in nodes which can be hundreds of kilometers apart with unprecedented accuracy and in a shared timescale. In this way, system operators can observe the time evolution of the dynamic phenomena which are taking place in the grid, hence something that was not possible with conventional, non-synchronized SCADA systems.

The potential benefits of synchronized measurements trough the employment of PMUs rapidly caught the attention of the scientific community other than that of the grid operators. The relevance of the topic is highlighted by the huge amount of papers and financed research projects. Performing synchronized measurements and exploiting the gathered data in an effective way is far from being trivial, and requires multifold skills. Achieved results strictly depend on the employed hardware (instrument transformers, data acquisition system and synchronization) on the algorithm used to extract synchrophasor, frequency and ROCOF. Massive efforts have been devoted to the development of measurement algorithms able to guarantee the best compromise between conflicting requirements: dynamic performance, steady-state accuracy and disturbance rejection. The dramatic growth of the available computational power stimulated the researcher to develop advanced techniques able to significantly improve overall performance. Furthermore, another up to date research topic is the design of estimation algorithms which are capable to properly deal with abrupt transients, hence when also the concept of phasor lacks significance.

PMUs were initially conceived for transmission systems, and the provided data is extremely useful for lots of applications including state estimation, line parameters identification, phasor-based grid control, advanced relaying, etc.… However, many others functionalities would benefit from accurate and synchronized measurements and they represent extremely attractive research topics. For example, the availability of harmonic syncrophasors would enable advanced power quality monitoring: this is a particularly important application for future PMUs devoted to distribution systems, which are key tools for the implementation of the so-called Smart Grid paradigm. Of course, the challenges to be faced in this scenario are completely different: voltage and current waveforms are considerably more distorted, dynamics are remarkably faster while phase-angle differences between adjacent node voltages are significantly smaller due to the short line lengths and the lower per unit series reactances.

The aim of this special issue is attracting researches in the field of synchronized power system measurements in order to present the last advancements both in terms of measurement techniques and their applications. Accepted contributions will include innovative synchrophasor, frequency and ROCOF estimation algorithms, applications of synchronized measurements and analysis of the impact of their accuracy, considerations about future scenarios.

Dr. Sergio Toscani
Guest Editor

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Keywords

Phasor measurement units
Synchrophasor
Digital signal processing
Power system state estimation
Power system protection
Smart grid
Power system frequency
Power system harmonics
Measurement uncertainty

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

24 pages, 697 KiB

Open AccessArticle

IpDFT-Tuned Estimation Algorithms for PMUs: Overview and Performance Comparison

by David Macii, Daniel Belega and Dario Petri

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(5), 2318; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11052318 - 5 Mar 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1898

Abstract

The Interpolated Discrete Fourier Transform (IpDFT) is one of the most popular algorithms for Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs), due to its quite low computational complexity and its good accuracy in various operating conditions. However, the basic IpDFT algorithm can be used also as a preliminary estimator of the amplitude, phase, frequency and rate of change of frequency of voltage or current AC waveforms at times synchronized to the Universal Coordinated Time (UTC). Indeed, another cascaded algorithm can be used to refine the waveform parameters estimation. In this context, the main novelty of this work is a fair and extensive performance comparison of three different state-of-the-art IpDFT-tuned estimation algorithms for PMUs. The three algorithms are: (i) the so-called corrected IpDFT (IpDFTc), which is conceived to compensate for the effect of both the image of the fundamental tone and second-order harmonic; (ii) a frequency-tuned version of the Taylor Weighted Least-Squares (TWLS) algorithm, and (iii) the frequency Down-Conversion and low-pass Filtering (DCF) technique described also in the IEEE/IEC Standard 60255-118-1:2018. The simulation results obtained in the P Class and M Class testing conditions specified in the same Standard show that the IpDFTc algorithm is generally preferable under the effect of steady-state disturbances. On the contrary, the tuned TWLS estimator is usually the best solution when dynamic changes of amplitude, phase or frequency occur. In transient conditions (i.e., under the effect of amplitude or phase steps), the IpDFTc and the tuned TWLS algorithms do not clearly outperform one another. The DCF approach generally returns the worst results. However, its actual performances heavily depend on the adopted low-pass filter. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phasor Measurement Units: Algorithms, Challenges and Perspectives)

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34 pages, 736 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Low-Latency, Three-Phase PMU Algorithms: Review and Performance Comparison

by Guglielmo Frigo, Paolo Attilio Pegoraro and Sergio Toscani

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(5), 2261; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11052261 - 4 Mar 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2023

Abstract

Phasor Measurement Units are the most advanced instruments for power network monitoring, since they allow phasors, frequency and rate of change of frequency (ROCOF) to be measured in predetermined time instants with respect to an absolute time reference. The employed estimation algorithm plays a key role in overall performance under off-nominal conditions; the challenge to be faced is combining high steady-state accuracy with fast responsiveness in dynamic conditions, small reporting latency and reduced computational burden. Under regular operation, AC power networks are weakly unbalanced three-phase systems. Based on this consideration, the recent literature has proposed native three-phase estimation algorithms that effectively exploit this property to accurately identify the positive sequence synchrophasor, frequency and ROCOF. In this respect, the present paper describes three among the most promising three-phase algorithms based on the Space Vector transformation. By means of numerical simulations, it compares the achieved performance in terms of response time and estimation error both under steady-state and dynamic conditions. All the considered approaches enable a flexible design that allows balancing accuracy and responsiveness. For this analysis, the reporting latency has been limited to about one and half nominal cycles, i.e., 30 ms at 50 Hz; the P-class algorithm suggested by IEC/IEEE Std 60255-118-1 has also been included as comparison benchmark. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phasor Measurement Units: Algorithms, Challenges and Perspectives)

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34 pages, 10486 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Novel Framework for Synchrophasor Based Online Recognition and Efficient Post-Mortem Analysis of Disturbances in Power Systems

by Andre Kummerow, Cristian Monsalve, Christoph Brosinsky, Steffen Nicolai and Dirk Westermann

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(15), 5209; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10155209 - 28 Jul 2020

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2732

Abstract

Synchrophasor based applications become more and more popular in today’s control centers to monitor and control transient system events. This can ensure secure system operation when dealing with bidirectional power flows, diminishing reserves and an increased number of active grid components. Today’s synchrophasor applications provide a lot of additional information about the dynamic system behavior but without significant improvement of the system operation due to the lack of interpretable and condensed results as well as missing integration into existing decision-making processes. This study presents a holistic framework for novel machine learning based applications analyzing both historical as well as online synchrophasor data streams. Different methods from dimension reduction, anomaly detection as well as time series classification are used to automatically detect disturbances combined with a web-based online visualization tool. This enables automated decision-making processes in control centers to mitigate critical system states and to ensure secure system operations (e.g., by activating curate actions). Measurement and simulation-based results are presented to evaluate the proposed synchrophasor application modules for different use cases at the transmission and distribution level. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phasor Measurement Units: Algorithms, Challenges and Perspectives)

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26 pages, 2296 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Multi-Point Time-Synchronized Waveform Recording for the Analysis of Wide-Area Harmonic Propagation

by Stanislav Babaev, Ravi Shankar Singh, Sjef Cobben, Vladimir Ćuk and Allan Downie

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(11), 3869; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10113869 - 2 Jun 2020

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2773

Abstract

This paper focuses on studying the phenomenon of harmonic distortion propagation through distribution networks. This phenomenon is governed by a combination of factors involving the nature of harmonic loads and their dynamic interaction, the influence of background voltage distortion, and harmonic impedance values. The objective of the proposed research includes evaluation of the network response at different nodes to harmonic current injections via utilizing a time-synchronized distributed measurement system. The study is performed in a fully controlled and flexible test network with three medium voltage/low voltage (MV/LV) distribution substations and several managed LV harmonic sources, namely PV inverter, single-phase EV charger and emulated harmonic load with reference current injections. A selection of the results is analyzed and interpretation of the observed phenomena is given with implications that synchronized harmonic measurements can be considered as potential powerful instruments for analyzing power quality disturbances. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phasor Measurement Units: Algorithms, Challenges and Perspectives)

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15 pages, 2273 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Online Estimation of Short-Circuit Fault Level in Active Distribution Network

by Xiaohui Wang, Peng Wang, Yunbo Wang and Fang Shi

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(11), 3812; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10113812 - 30 May 2020

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2689

Abstract

The potential short-circuit current in active distribution network features time-variance with the increasing distributed generations. This feature makes the online estimation of fault level necessary. In this paper, a novel online estimation method is proposed to be implemented by either phasor measurement unit (PMU) or the measurements from protection relays. The equivalent circuit of the radial distribution network with distributed generators (DGs), e.g., wind turbines and photovoltaic cells, is derived with necessary simplifications. The natural disturbances downstream are used to evaluate the parameters of the equivalent circuit so that the potential fault level can be estimated in advance of the actual fault occurrence. A fuzzy logic identifier is presented to rank the confidence of the measurements incurred by the disturbance and to distinguish the qualified disturbance to launch the estimation. The mechanism based on multi-measurements and confidence indices was applied, to improve the accuracy. A typical distribution network in the United Kingdom (UK) with DGs was taken, as an example, to validate the proposed method under various load fluctuation. The results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method, which is suitable for online estimation of short-circuit fault level in active distribution networks. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phasor Measurement Units: Algorithms, Challenges and Perspectives)

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18 pages, 4400 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Design and Application of a Distribution Network Phasor Data Concentrator

by Weiqing Tao, Mengyu Ma, Chen Fang, Wei Xie, Ming Ding, Dachao Xu and Yangqing Shi

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(8), 2942; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10082942 - 24 Apr 2020

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2702

Abstract

The wide area measurement system (WAMS) based on synchronous phasor measurement technology has been widely used in power transmission grids to achieve dynamic monitoring and control of the power grid. At present, to better realize real-time situational awareness and control of the distribution network, synchronous phasor measurement technology has been gradually applied to the distribution network, such as the application of micro multifunctional phasor measurement units (μMPMUs). The distribution network phasor data concentrator (DPDC), as a connection node between the μMPMUs and the main station, is also gaining more attraction. This paper first analyzes the communication network structure of DPDCs and μMPMUs and compares and analyzes the differences in the installation locations, functions, communication access methods and communication protocols of the phasor technology devices of the distribution network and the transmission network. It is pointed out that DPDCs not only need the functions of data collection, storage, and forwarding like transmission network PDCs, but also should be able to access more μMPMUs, and can aggregate the phasor data of the same time scale from μMPMUs by different communication methods. The communication protocol selected by DPDC should be expanded to support remote control, telemetry, fault diagnosis and other functions of distribution automation. The application requirements of DPDCs are clarified, and the key indicators of DPDCs are given as a method to evaluate the basic performance of DPDCs. Then, to address the problems of more μMPMU access, abnormal communication, and data collection with different delays that DPDC encountered, a DPDC that considers multiple communication methods is designed. Based on the Linux system and the libuv library, the DPDC is designed with event-driven mechanism and structured programming, runs multiple threads to implement multitasking, and invokes callbacks to perform asynchronous non-blocking operations. The DPDC test system and test methods are designed. The performance of the designed DPDC is evaluated through the test and the test results are analyzed. Lastly, its real-world application is disclosed, which further confirmed the value of our DPDC. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phasor Measurement Units: Algorithms, Challenges and Perspectives)

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