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Synchrophasor Sensor Networks for Grid Communication and Protection

Published

Author(s)

Hamid Gharavi

Abstract

This paper focuses primarily on leveraging synchronized current/voltage amplitudes and phase angles measurements to foster new categories of applications, such as improving the effectiveness of grid protection and minimizing outage duration for distributed grid systems. The motivation for such an application arises from the fact that with the support of communication, synchronized measurements from multiple sites in a grid network can greatly enhance the accuracy and timeliness of identifying the source of instabilities. The paper first provides an overview of synchrophasor networks and then presents techniques for power quality assessment, including fault detection and protection. To achieve this we present a new synchrophasor data partitioning scheme that is based on the formation of a joint space and time observation vector. Since communication is an integral part of synchrophasor networks, the newly adopted wireless standard for Machine to Machine (M2M) communication, known as IEEE 802.11ah, has been investigated. The paper also presents a novel implementation of a hardware in the loop testbed for real-time performance evaluation. The purpose is to illustrate the use of both hardware and software tools to verify the performance of synchrophasor networks under more realistic environments. The testbed is a combination of grid network modeling, and an Emulab-based communication network. The combined grid and communication network is then used to assess power quality for fault detection and location using the IEEE 39-bus and 390-bus systems.
Citation
Proceedings of the IEEE
Volume
105
Issue
7

Keywords

Smart Grid, Wireless Networks, Synchrophasor Networks, Grid Protection, Fault Detection and Location, WLAN, IEEE 802.11ah, M2M, Emulab

Citation

Gharavi, H. (2017), Synchrophasor Sensor Networks for Grid Communication and Protection, Proceedings of the IEEE, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=923507 (Accessed March 28, 2024)
Created July 15, 2017, Updated January 27, 2020