A Distribution Level Wide Area Monitoring System for the Electric Power Grid–FNET/GridEye (original) (raw)

Wide-Area Measurement System Development at the Distribution Level: an FNET/GridEye Example

IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, 2015

Electric power grid wide-area monitoring system (WAMS) have been extended from the transmission to distribution level. As the first WAMS deployed at the distribution level, the frequency monitoring network FNET/GridEye uses GPS-timesynchronized monitors called frequency disturbance recorders (FDRs) to capture dynamic grid behaviors. In this paper, the latest developments of monitor design and the state-of-the-art data analytics applications of FNET/GridEye are introduced. Its innovations and uniqueness are also discussed. Thanks to its low cost, easy installation and multi-functionalities, FNET/GridEye works as a cost-effective situational awareness tool for power grid operators and pioneers the development of WAMS in electric power grids.

Recent developments of FNET/GridEye — A situational awareness tool for smart grid

CSEE Journal of Power and Energy Systems, 2016

Wide-area monitoring systems (WAMS) are becoming increasingly vital for enhancing power grid operators' situational awareness capabilities. As a pilot WAMS that was initially deployed in 2003, the frequency monitoring network FNET/GridEye uses GPS-time-synchronized monitors called frequency disturbance recorders (FDRs) to capture dynamic grid behaviors. Over the past ten years, a large number of publications related to FNET/GridEye have been reported. In this paper, the most recent developments of FNET/GridEye sensors, data centers, and data analytics applications are reviewed. These works demonstrate that FNET/GridEye will become a costeffective situational awareness tool for the future smart grid.

Power System Frequency Monitoring Network (FNET) Implementation

IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 2005

Frequency dynamics is one of the most important measures of an electrical power system status. To better understand power system dynamics, an accurately measured wide-area frequency is needed. The concept of building an Internet-based real-time GPS-synchronized wide-area frequency monitoring network (FNET) was proposed in 2000 by Qiu et al., and this concept has been realized. The FNET system consists of frequency disturbance recorders and an information management system. The FNET has made the synchronized observations of the entire U.S. power network possible with very little cost for the first time. This paper summarizes the implementation of the FNET system and shows some preliminary observations and analyses of the data that have been collected from the FNET.

Experiences with and perspectives of the system for wide area monitoring of power systems

CIGRE/IEEE PES International Symposium, 2003

With the emphasis on higher utilization of power systems, monitoring of its dynamics is becoming increasingly important. This requires information with higher accuracy and update rates faster than those usually provided by traditional SCADA systems. In addition, it must be synchronized over a wider geographical area than that provided by traditional protection systems. The introduction of phasor measurement units as

Monitoring large-scale power distribution grids

Solid-State Electronics, 2019

Power grids are distributed over vast geographical areas and have sophisticated multilayered architecture. The structure of the grid distribution layer is often poorly documented and sometimes unknown, presenting additional challenges to the development of systems for automated monitoring of power delivery to consumers. The proposed system performs the simultaneous functions of estimating the power grid topology (map) and monitoring of the grid operation. The core of the system is the distributed network of sensors installed at the branching points of electrical conductors. The sensors periodically measure the RMS current in the conductor, and the phase shift between current and voltage. Localization and time synchronization of sensors are performed using GPS modules. The sensors communicate over the powerline conductor. Transformers block communication signals, separating the network into clusters. The maps of the grid segments are reconstructed for each network cluster and then combined into the full grid map. The map is used for real-time monitoring of inconsistencies in the grid behavior to detect conductor breakage, powerline overload and possibly electricity theft. The autonomous sensors are inductively powered; auxiliary solar cells are installed as backup power source.

An investigation on the application and challenges for wide area monitoring and control in smart grid

Bulletin of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, 2021

The complexity and dynamics of the modern power system are continuously changing due to the penetration of a large number of renewable energy sources and changing load patterns. These growing complexities have caused numerous outages around the world, primarily due to the lack of situational awareness about the grid operating states. Rectification of this problem requires advanced sensing technology to accurately capture the dynamics of the system for better monitoring and control. Measurement of synchrophasors is a potential solution to improve situational awareness in the grid. The synchrophasors technology is now widely accepted throughout the world and has the potential to replace the existing SCADA system in monitoring and control of the power system. Their installation enables efficient resolution to substantially improve transmission system planning, maintenance, operation, and energy trading. This paper reviews the state of the art potential applications that the PMU based WAMC offers to the power system. It also includes technical perspectives, challenges, and future possibilities.

Reflections on the Future Electric Power Grid Monitoring System

Frontiers in Electronics, 2014

A shortcoming of the contemporary power grid monitoring is that the system does not know its own state. Instead of taking automatic note of energy-flow disruptions, one deals with haphazard telephone reports of "no light in our house". We propose a novel monitoring system that requires no restructuring of the power distribution network and can be applied both to the existing grids and the future "smart grids". The proposed system is based on a network of inexpensive sensors, installed on every connecting line and communicating measured data to a central processing unit. Our approach is topological in nature, based on the connectivity aspects of the power grid embodied in Kirchhoff's current law that must be valid at every node of the network. We argue that the state of the network can be adequately characterized by specifying the RMS currents and the direction of energy flow in all connecting lines. It is essential that in this description one does not have to know the magnitude of the energy flow, only its direction. This eliminates the need to measure voltage, which would be prohibitively costly on the massive scale. In contrast, the relative phase between the current and voltage can be measured easily. Another essential point is that the instantaneous RMS currents are impractical to record and communicate, hence local averaging is required. Since Kirchhoff's law should remain valid upon averaging, the latter must be carried out at each sensor synchronously over the entire network with global synchronization provided by the GPS.

Development of a Wide Area Measurement System for Smart Grid Applications

Proceedings of the 18th IFAC World Congress, 2011

In this paper, the modeling for a complete scenario of a proposed wide area measurement system (WAMS) based on synchronized phasor measurement units (PMUs) technology with the access of a broadband communication capability is presented. The purpose is to increase the overall system efficiency and reliability for all power stages via significant dependence on WAMS as distributed intelligence agents with improved monitoring, protection, and control capabilities of power networks. The developed system is simulated using the Matlab/Simulink program. The power system layer consists of a 50 kW generation station, 20 kW wind turbine, three transformers, four circuit breakers, four buses, two short transmission lines, and two 30 kW loads. The communication layer consists of three PMUs, located at generation and load buses, and one phasor data concentrator (PDC), that will collect the data received from remote PMUs and send it to the control center for analysis and control actions. The proposed system is tested under two possible cases; normal operation and fault state. It was found that power system status can be easily monitored and controlled in real time by using the measured bus values online which improves the overall system reliability and avoids cascaded blackout during fault occurrence. The simulation results confirm the validity of the proposed WAMS technology for smart grid applications.

A Grid Information Resource for Nationwide Real-Time Power Monitoring

IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, 2004

A significant barrier to improving the power quality at industrial facilities is the lack of contemporaneous and historical power quality and reliability data. A new Web-enabled near-real-time power quality and reliability monitoring system, termed I-Grid, has been developed to provide such information on a nationwide basis. The ultralow-cost sensors record power events and send event data via the Internet to the system database servers using an internal modem. Data display, e-mail event notification, site administration, and summary reporting of the data are achieved via a Web browser. In cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy, the Electric Power Research Institute, and leading utilities and manufacturers, the deployment of these sensors has begun, with a target deployment of 50 000 monitors across the U.S. and Canada over the next 2-4 years. This paper discusses the implementation of this grid information resource, and discusses data captured by the network since early monitors were deployed in 2001.

Design of an Open Platform for Real-Time Power Grid Monitoring

2019 IEEE 8th International Conference on Advanced Power System Automation and Protection (APAP), 2019

This paper presents the design and implementation of the UK's first open platform for acquiring, archiving, and visualizing high-resolution real-time measurement data from Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs). The platform, termed "Smart Grid Monitoring and Visualization Platform (SGMVP)", is also capable of accessing and sharing the operational data of the Great Britain (GB) transmission network (e.g. demand level, output of different generation units, power flow in interconnectors, etc.). SGMVP provides an ideal solution for open and convenient access to valuable grid data, which enables a wide range of potential applications (e.g. power system model validation, provision of training data for data-driven approaches in power systems, etc.). In this paper, the architecture of the SGMVP platform and the design and implementation of the key functional blocks will be presented in detail. Discussion of the potential use cases of the platform for various purposes is presented. Future plans for further developing the platform to incorporate more PMUs from different locations in the GB power network are discussed. Index Terms-real-time monitoring, PMU, wide-area monitoring, protection and control, renewable generation.