For decades, researchers have sought to make the North American power system as reliable as possible with many security measures in place to include redundancy. Yet the increasing number of blackouts and failures have highlighted the areas that require improvement. Meeting the increasing demand for energy and the growing complexity of the loads are two of the main challenges faced by the power grid. In order to prepare for contingencies and maintain a secure state, power engineers must perform simulations using steady state and dynamic models of the system. The results from the contingency studies are only as accurate as the models of the grid components. The load components are generally the most difficult to model since they are controlled by the consumer. This study focuses on developing static and dynamic load models using advanced mathematical approximation algorithms and wide area measurement devices, which will improve the accuracy of the system analysis and hopefully decrease the frequency of blackouts. The increasing integration of phasor measurement units (PMUs) into the power system allows us to take advantage of synchronized measurements at a high data rate. These devices are capable of changing the way we manage online security within the Energy Management System (EMS) and can enhance our offline tools. This type of data helps us redevelop the measurement-based approach to load modeling. The static ZIP load model composition is estimated using a variation of the method of least squares, called bounded-variable least squares. The bound on the ZIP load parameters allows the measurement matrix to be slightly correlated. The ZIP model can be determined within a small range of error that won't affect the contingency studies. Machine learning is used to design the dynamic load model. Neural network training is applied to fault data obtained near the load bus and the derived network model can estimate the load parameters. The neural network is trained using simulated data and then applied to real PMU measurements. A PMU algorithm was developed to transform the simulated measurements into a realistic representation of phasor data. These new algorithms will allow us to estimate the load models that are used in contingency studies. / Ph. D.

The transition from fossil fuel-based energy sources involves exploring different sources of energy that can be reliably integrated into the power grid. One such existing resource is the CHPs, which are distributed throughout the US electric grid. The integration of the CHPs into the grid requires technological innovations. One idea is to design an F-CHP converter that would facilitate the CHPs to interconnect seamlessly with the electrical grid. This thesis presents the development and testing of different components of a testbed that would facilitate the testing of the F-CHP converter. It also presents the integration of a PMU and a communication interface for the F-CHP converter. The phasor estimation of the F-CHP PMU has been compared with a commercial PMU and its performance has been validated. / Master of Science / The transition from fossil fuel based energy sources involves exploring different sources of energy that can reliably integrated into the power grid. One such existing resource is the CHPs, that are distributed throughout the US electric grid. The integration of the CHPs into the grid required technological innovations. One idea is to design a power electronics converter that would facilitate the CHPs to connect with the electrical grid. This thesis presents the development and testing of different components of a testbed that would facilitate the testing of the converter. This work also integrates a technology for estimating the voltage and current at the point of interconnection between the converter and the electrical grid.

Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) are widely acknowledged as one of the most significant developments in the field of real-time monitoring of power system. By aligning time stamps of voltage and current phasor measurements, which are consistent with Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), a coherent picture of the power system state can be achieved through either direct measurements or simple linear calculations. With the growing number of PMUs installed or planned to be installed in the near future, both utilities and research institutions are looking for novel applications of synchrophasor measurements from these widely installed PMUs. In this dissertation, the author proposes two new PMUs measurements applications: three-phase instrument transformer calibration, and three-phase line parameter calculation with instrument transformers. First application is to calibrate instrument transformers. Instrument transformers are the main sensors used in power systems. They provide isolation between high voltage level of primary side and metering level of the secondary side. All the monitoring and measuring systems obtain input signals from the secondary side of instrument transformers. That means when instrument transformers are not accurate, all the measurements used in power system are inaccurate. The most important job of this dissertation is to explore a method to automatically calibrate all the instrument transformers in the power system based on real-time synchrophasor measurements. The regular instrument transformer calibration method requires the instrument transformer to be out of service (offline) and calibrated by technicians manually. However, the error of instrument transformer changes when environment changes, and connected burden. Therefore, utilities are supposed to periodically calibrate instrument transformers at least once a year. The high labor and economic costs make traditional instrument transformer calibration method become one of the urgent problems in power industry. In this dissertation we introduce a novel, low cost and easy method to calibrate three-phase instrument transformers. This method only requires one three-phase voltage transformer at one bus calibrated in advance. All other instrument transformers can be calibrated by this method as often as twice a day, based on the synchrophasor measurements under different load scenarios. Second application is to calculate line parameters during calibrating instrument transformers. The line parameters, line impedance and line shunt admittance, as needed by utilities are generated by the computer method. The computer method is based on parameters, such as the diameter, length, material characteristics, the distance among transmission line, the distance to ground and so on. The formulas to calculate line parameters have been improved and re-modeled from time to time in order to increase the accuracy. However, in this case, the line parameters are still inaccurate due to various reasons. The line parameters errors do affect the instrument transformers calibration results (with 5% to 10% error). To solve this problem, we present a new method to calculate line parameters and instrument transformers in the same processing step. This method to calibrate line parameter and instrument transformers at the same time only needs one pre-calibrated voltage transformer and one pre-calibrated current transformer in power system. With the pre-calibrated instrument transformers, the line parameter as well as the ratio correction factors of all the other instrument transformers can be solved automatically. Simulation results showed the errors between calculated line parameters and the real line parameter, the errors between calibrated ratio correction factors and the real ratio correction factors are of the order of 10e-10 per unit. Therefore, high accuracy line parameters as well as perfectly calibrated instrument transformers can be obtained by this new method. This method can run automatically every day. High accuracy and dynamic line parameters will significantly improve power system models. It will also increase the reliability and speed of the relay system, enhance the accuracy of power system analysis, and benefit all other researches using line parameters. New methods of calculating line parameter and the instrument transformer calibrations will influence the whole power industry significantly. / Ph. D.

Fault location detection plays a crucial role in power transmission network, especially on security, stabilization and economic aspects. Accurate fault location detection in transmission network helps to speed up the restoration time, therefore, reduce the outage time and improve the system reliability [1]. With the development of Wide Area Measurement System (WAMS) and Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU), various fault location algorithms have been proposed. The purpose of this work is to determine, modify and test the most appropriate fault location method which can be implemented with a PMU only linear state estimator. The thesis reviews several proposed fault location methods, such as, one-terminal [2], multi-terminal [3]-[11] and travelling wavelets methods [12]-[13]. A Two-stage fault location algorithm using PMU voltage measurements proposed by Q. Jiang [14] is identified as the best option for adaption to operate with a linear state estimator. The algorithm is discussed in details and several case studies are made to evaluate its effectiveness. The algorithm is shown to be easy to implement and adapt for operation with a linear state estimator. It only requires a limited number of PMU measurements, which makes it more practical than other existing methods. The algorithm is adapted and successfully tested on a real linear state estimator monitored high voltage transmission network. / Master of Science

Given the ability of the Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU) to directly measure the system state and the increasing implementation of PMUs across the electric power industry, a natural expansion of state estimation techniques would be one that employed the exclusive use of PMU data. Dominion Virginia Power and the Department of Energy (DOE) are sponsoring a research project which aims to implement a three phase linear tracking state estimator on Dominion's 500kV network that would use only PMU measurements to compute the system state. This thesis represents a portion of the work completed during the initial phase of the research project. This includes the initial development and testing of two applications: the three phase linear state estimator and the topology processor. Also presented is a brief history of state estimation and PMUs, traditional state estimation techniques and techniques with mixed phasor data, a development of the linear state estimation algorithms and a discussion of the future work associate with this research project. / Master of Science

This report presents a simulation of a real-time phasor measurement unit (PMU) using Matlab, designed to adhere to the IEEE C.37.118 standard. A PMU utilizes measured voltage or current on the power grid and calculates the phasor, frequency and rate of change of frequency (ROCOF). They are crucial in smart grid applications, used to minimize losses and prevent damage to hardware and blackouts. The project was issued by Hitachi Energy with the purpose of utilizing the model for simulating and analyzing real-time data, assessing the PMU's response to different scenarios on the power grid. The results are intended to verify their current system's implementation. The Matlab implementation correctly calculated the phasor, phase-shift, frequency and ROCOF within the requirements of the standard. The associated Total Vector Error (TVE) also complied with the standard. However, the real-time aspect of the PMU did not comply with the standard for several reasons. Specifically the Hilbert transform and FIR filter introduced calculation and filtering delays in addition to internet transmission delays associated with the UDP-interface in Matlab. However, Matlab support confirmed that there are known performance issues with the UDP-interface. It was concluded that the model provided a solid groundwork for its intended use, though the model has yet to be tested with real data from the grid, and would benefit from additional work on optimization.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2017-04-19T17:59:14Z No. of bitstreams: 1 carloshenriquenascimentomartins.pdf: 4613305 bytes, checksum: 54c109a7e2d55a96f74c2f40d23c074b (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2017-04-20T12:29:45Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 carloshenriquenascimentomartins.pdf: 4613305 bytes, checksum: 54c109a7e2d55a96f74c2f40d23c074b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-20T12:29:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 carloshenriquenascimentomartins.pdf: 4613305 bytes, checksum: 54c109a7e2d55a96f74c2f40d23c074b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-04-08 / Este trabalho tem por objetivo principal apresentar o desenvolvimento de plataformas eletrônicas de processamento de sinais de alto desempenho para monitoramento do sistema elétricos de potência. No trabalho são discutidas arquiteturas de hardware para três aplicações em sistemas de potência: analisador fasorial (Phasor Measurement Unit - PMU), analisador de qualidade de energia elétrica (QEE) e analisador de harmônicos variantes no tempo (AHVT). Além disso são todos os conceitos de eletrônica digital e analógica envolvidos na concepção deste projeto, tomando como base equipamentos de mercado, a literatura pertinente e as normas reguladoras para dispositivos de análise de parâmetros elétricos. No projeto é abordado principalmente a implementação de hardware, que envolve implementação de estruturas de conversão Analógico Digital, filtro anti-aliasing, condicionamento de sinais, processamento e gerenciamento de dados e finalmente meios de comunicação. O hardware foi testado utilizando algoritmos básicos de processamento de sinais sendo apresentado casos reais de monitoramento dos parâmetros do sinal elétrico e uma versão inicial do AHVT. / This work has the aim to present the development of electronic platforms for signal processing for high performance electric power monitoring system. At this work are discussed hardware architectures for three power systems applications: phasor measurement unit (PMU), Power Quality Analyzer (PQ) and Time Varying Harmonic Analyzer (TVHA). Also are explained all features of analog and digital electronics involved in the design of this project, based on commercial devices, the literature and regulatory standards for electrical parameters devices. The project is addressed principally to hardware implementation, which involves implementation of structures such as the Analog to Digital conversion, anti-aliasing filter, signal conditioning, processing and data management and communication. The hardware is tested using basic digital signal algorithms and real cases of parameters monitoring are presented. Furthermore prototype version of the TVHA is presented.

[pt] Os Sistemas de Energia Elétrica (SEE) operam de acordo com limites de segurança definidos pelo planejamento da operação através de simulações computacionais. Portanto, os componentes da rede elétrica devem ser devidamente modelados para garantir uma operação segura e econômica. A tecnologia dos sistemas de medição fasorial sincronizada permite a obtenção de registros de distúrbios reais, que podem ser comparados com simulações para verificar sua aderência. Tem-se verificado nos atuais SEE diferenças entre os registros e as simulações computacionais dos eventos observados. Tais diferenças têm ocorrido também no Sistema Interligado Nacional (SIN), principalmente em relação ao desvio de frequência, sendo a resposta simulada menos severa quando comparada ao comportamento observado, podendo levar o SIN a operar em um ponto inseguro com risco de atuação de esquemas regionais de alívio de carga. Nesta dissertação são avaliados os modelos de usinas hidráulicas e termoelétricas e os parâmetros que podem influenciar significativamente a resposta das simulações, com ênfase no desempenho da frequência. Distúrbios que ocorreram no SIN são reproduzidos utilizando casos de tempo real, construídos a partir dos dados de estimadores de estado, em conjunto com uma base de modelos dinâmicos. Os resultados das simulações são comparados com os registros reais obtidos pelas PMUs (Phasor Measurement Unit) instaladas no SIN. Parâmetros como altura de queda, resposta dos reguladores de velocidade e modelagem dinâmica e estática das cargas são investigados. Impactos e simulações do fenômeno multi-infeed são apresentados. Os resultados obtidos mostram a necessidade de melhorias nos modelos e nos parâmetros de entrada das simulações de transitórios eletromecânicos do SIN. Ressalta-se a importância da contínua validação sistêmica e específica dos modelos para o planejamento da operação do SIN. / [en] Electric power systems (EPS) operate according to safety limits defined by the operation planning assessed through computer simulations. Therefore, the components of the electrical grid must be properly represented to ensure secure and economical operation. The technology of synchronized phasor measurement systems allows to obtain records of actual faults, which can be compared to simulation results to check their accuracy. Differences between records and computer simulations of the observed events have been verified in the current EPS. Such differences have also occurred in the Brazilian interconnected system (BIS), mainly related to frequency deviations, with the simulated response being less severe when compared to the observed performance. This may lead the BIS to operate under unsafe conditions, with risk of activating regional protection schemes for load shedding; a possible hasty and undesirable action. In this dissertation, the models of hydraulic and thermoelectric power plants and other parameters that can significantly influence the response of simulations are evaluated, with an emphasis on frequency performance. Disturbances that occurred in the BIS are reproduced using real-time cases, built from state estimator data, together with a collection of dynamic models. The simulation results are compared with the actual records obtained by PMUs (Phasor Measurement Units) installed in the BIS. Parameters such as hydropower head, response of speed regulators and dynamic and static modeling of loads are explored. Impacts and simulations of the multi-infeed phenomenon are also presented. The results show the need for improvements in the models and simulation input parameters of electromechanical transient studies of the BIS. There is a continuous need to observe the systemic and specific validation of models for planning and operation of the BIS.

Energy harvesting is becoming increasingly important in low-power applications where energy from the environment is used to power the system alone, or to supplement a battery. For example, pulse oximeter sensors inside helmets of road racing cyclists are powered by the sun. These sensors have become smaller and more practical without the limitation of a finite energy supply. Harvested energy from an energy transducer (solar, piezoelectric, etc.) must be maximized to ensure these devices can survive periods where environmental energy is scarce. The conversion process from the transducer to usable power for the device is not perfectly efficient. Specifically, the output voltage of a solar cell is a function of the light intensity, and by extension the load it powers. A small perturbation of the light source quickly diminishes the available power. The wasted power reduces the energy available for the application, and can be improved using an approach called maximum power point tracking (MPPT). This technique maximizes harvesting efficiency by dynamically impedance matching the transducer to its load. This report introduces the Maximum Efficient Solar Harvester (MESH), an MPPT algorithm tuned for a specific Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) application. MESH specifically controls the operation of the DC-DC converter in a solar power management unit (PMU). The control is done by monitoring the available light and feeding that information to choose the optimal operating point DC-DC converter. This operating point has a direct dependency on the overall efficiency of the system. For MESH to be practical, the cost and power overhead of adding this functionality must be assessed. Empirical results indicate that MESH improves the maximum efficiency of the popular Texas Instruments (TI) RF2500-SEH WSN platform by an average of 20%, which far exceeds the power overhead it incurs. The cost is also found to be minimal, as WSN platforms already include a large portion of the hardware required to implement MESH. The report was done in collaboration with Stephen Kobdish. It covers the software implementation and MESH architecture definition; Kobdish's companion report focuses on hardware components and the bench automation environment. / text

The vision of the smart grid is predicated upon pervasive use of modern digital communication techniques in today's power system. As wide area measurements and control techniques are being developed and deployed for a more resilient power system, the role of communication networks is becoming prominent. Advanced communication infrastructure provides much wider system observability and enables globally optimal control schemes. Wide area measurement and monitoring with Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) or Intelligent Electronic Devices (IED) is a growing trend in this context. However, the large amount of data collected by PMUs or IEDs needs to be transferred over the data network to control centers where real-time state estimation, protection, and control decisions are made. The volume and frequency of such data transfers, and real-time delivery requirements mandate that sufficient bandwidth and proper delay characteristics must be ensured for the correct operations. Power system dynamics get influenced by the underlying communication infrastructure. Therefore, extensive integration of power system and communication infrastructure mandates that the two systems be studied as a single distributed cyber-physical system. This dissertation proposes a global event-driven co-simulation framework, which is termed as GECO, for interconnected power system and communication network. GECO can be used as a design pattern for hybrid system simulation with continuous/discrete sub-components. An implementation of GECO is achieved by integrating two software packages: PSLF and NS2 into the framework. Besides, this dissertation proposes and studies a set of power system applications which can be only properly evaluated on a co-simulation framework like GECO, namely communication-based distance relay protection, all-PMU state estimation and PMU-based out-of-step protection. All of them take advantage of interplays between the power grid and the communication infrastructure. The GECO experiments described in this dissertation not only show the efficacy of the GECO framework, but also provide experience on how to go about using GECO in smart grid planning activities. / Ph. D.