Wide-area measurement systems (WAMS) enable the monitoring of overall bulk power systems and provide critical information for understanding and responding to power system disturbances and cascading failures. The North American Frequency Monitoring Network (FNET) takes GPS-synchronized wide-area measurements in a low-cost, easily deployable manner at the 120 V distribution level, which presents more opportunities to study power system dynamics. This work explores the topics of power system disturbance analysis and detection by utilizing the wide-area measurements obtained in the distribution networks. In this work, statistical analysis is conducted based on the major disturbances in the North American Interconnections detected by the FNET situation awareness system between 2006 and 2008. Typical frequency patterns of the generation and load loss events are analyzed for the three North American power Interconnections: the Eastern Interconnection (EI), the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC), and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). The linear relationship between frequency deviation and frequency change rate during generation/loss mismatch events is verified by the measurements in the three Interconnections. The relationship between the generation/load mismatch and system frequency is also examined based on confirmed generation loss events in the EI system. And a power mismatch estimator is developed to improve the current disturbance detection program. Various types of power system disturbances are examined based on frequency, voltage and phase angle to obtain the event signatures in the measurements. To better understand the propagation of disturbances in the power system, an automated visualization tool is developed that can generate frequency and angle replays of disturbances, as well as image snapshots. This visualization tool correlates the wide-area measurements with geographical information by displaying the measurements over a geographical map. This work makes an attempt to investigate the visualization of the angle profile in the wide-area power system to improve situation awareness. This work explores the viability of relying primarily on distribution-level measurements to detect and identify line outages, a topic not yet addressed in previous works. Line outage sensitivity at different voltage levels in the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) system is examined to analyze the visibility of disturbances from the point of view of wide-area measurements. The sensor placement strategy is proposed for better observability of the line trip disturbances. The characteristics of line outages are studied extensively with simulations and real measurements. Line trip detection algorithms are proposed that employs the information in frequency and phase angle measurements. In spite of the limited FDR coverage and confirmed training cases, an identification algorithm is developed which uses the information in the real measurements as well as the simulation cases to determine the tripped line. / Ph. D.

The FDR (Frequency Disturbance Recorder) is a data acquisition device for the power system. The device is portable and can be used with any residential wall outlet for frequency data collection. Furthermore, the FDR transmits calculated frequency data to the web for access by authorized users via Ethernet connection. As a result, Virginia Tech implemented Frequency Monitoring Network (FNET) with these FDR devices. FNET is a collection of identical FDRs placed in different measurement sites to allow for data integration and comparison. Frequency is an important factor for power system control and stabilization. With funding and support provided by ABB, TVA and NSF the FDRs are placed strategically all over the United States for frequency analysis, power system protection and monitoring. The purpose of this study is to refine the current FDR hardware design and establish a new design that will physically fit all the components on one Printed Circuit Board (PCB). At the same time, the software that is to be implemented on the new board is to be kept similar if not the same as that of the current design. The current FDR uses the Axiom CME555 development board and it is interfaced to the external devices through its communication ports. Even through the CME555 board is able to meet the demands of the basic FDR operations, there are still several problems associated with this design. This paper will address some of those hardware problems, as well as propose a new board design that is specifically aimed for operations of FDR. / Master of Science

The Frequency Disturbance Recorder (FDR) is a specialized data acquisition device designed to monitor fluctuations in the overall power system. The device is designed such that it can be attached by way of a standard wall power outlet to the power system. These devices then transmit their calculated frequency data through the public internet to a centralized data management and storage server. By distributing a number of these identical systems throughout the three major North American power systems, Virginia Tech has created a Frequency Monitoring Network (FNET). The FNET is composed of these distributed FDRs as well as an Information Management Server (IMS). Since frequency information can be used in many areas of power system analysis, operation and control, there are a great number of end uses for the information provided by the FNET system. The data provides researchers and other users with the information to make frequency analyses and comparisons for the overall power system. Prior to the end of 2004, the FNET system was made a reality, and a number of FDRs were placed strategically throughout the United States. The purpose of this thesis is to present the elements of a new generation of FDR hardware design. These elements will enable the design to be more flexible and to lower reliance on some vendor specific components. Additionally, these enhancements will offload most of the computational processing required of the system to a commodity PC rather than an embedded system solution that is costly in both development time and financial cost. These goals will be accomplished by using a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), a commodity off-the-shelf personal computer, and a new overall system design. / Master of Science

Recent large-scale blackouts revealed that power systems around the world are far from the stability and reliability requirement as they suppose to be. The post-event analysis clarifies that one major reason of the interconnection blackout is lack of wide area information. Frequency dynamics is one of the most important parameters of an electrical power system. In order to understand power system dynamics effectively, accurately measured wide-area frequency is needed. The idea of building an Internet based real-time GPS synchronized wide area Frequency Monitoring Network (FNET) was proposed to provide the imperative dynamic information for the large-scale power grids and the implementation of FNET has made the synchronized observations of the entire US power network possible for the first time. The FNET system consists of Frequency Disturbance Recorders (FDR), which work as the sensor devices to measure the real-time frequency at 110V single-phase power outlets, and an Information Management System (IMS) to work as a central server to process the frequency data. The device comparison between FDR and commercial PMU (Phasor Measurement Unit) demonstrate the advantage of FNET. The web visualization tools make the frequency data available for the authorized users to browse through Internet. The research work addresses some preliminary observations and analyses with the field-measured frequency information from FNET. The original algorithms based on the frequency response characteristic are designed to process event detection, localization and unbalanced power estimation during frequency disturbances. The analysis of historical cases illustrate that these algorithms can be employed in real-time level to provide early alarm of abnormal frequency change to the system operator. The further application is to develop an adaptive under frequency load shedding scheme with the processed information feed in to prevent further frequency decline in power systems after disturbances causing dangerous imbalance between the load and generation. / Ph. D.

Frequency dynamics is one of the most important signals of a power system, and it is an indicator of imbalance between generation and load in the system. The Internet-based real-time GPS-synchronized wide-area Frequency Monitoring Network (FNET) was proposed to provide imperative frequency dynamics information for a variety of system-wide monitoring, analysis and control applications. The implementation of FNET has for the first time made the synchronized observation of the entire U.S. power network possible with very little cost. The FNET is comprised of many Frequency Disturbance Recorders (FDR) geographically dispersed throughout the U.S. and an Information Management System (IMS), currently located at Virginia Tech. The FDR works as a sensor, which performs local measurements and transmits calculations of frequency, voltage magnitude and voltage angle to the remote servers via the Internet. Compared with its commercial counterpart Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU), FDR provides less expensive version for networked high-resolution real-time synchronized. The improved single phase algorithm in the FDRs made it possible to measure at 110V level which is much more challenging than PMUs due to the noise involved at this level. This research work presents the challenges and issues of both software and hardware design for the novel measurement device FDR, which is one of the devices with the highest dynamic precision for power system frequency measurement. The DFT-based Phasor Angle Analysis algorithm has been improved to make sure the high-resolution measuring FDRs are installed at residential voltage outlets, instead of substation high-voltage inputs. An embedded 12-channel timing GPS receiver has been integrated to provide an accurate timing synchronization signal, UTC time stamp, and unit location. This research work also addresses the harmonics, voltage swing and other noise components' impacts on the measurement results, and the optimized design of filters and a coherent sampling scheme to reduce or eliminate those impacts. The verification test results show that the frequency measurement accuracy of the FDR is within +/-0.0005Hz, and the time synchronization error is within +/-500ns with suitable GPS antenna installation. The preliminary research results show the measurement accuracy and real-time performance of the FDR are satisfactory for a variety of FNET applications, such as disturbance identification and event location triangulation. / Ph. D.

Frequency monitoring network (FNET) is an Internet based GPS synchronized wide-area frequency monitoring network deployed at distribution level. At first part of this thesis, FNET structure and characteristics are introduced. After analysis and smoothing FDR signals, the algorithm of event trigger is present with Visual C++ DLL programming. Estimation of disturbance location method is discussed based on the time delay of arriving (TDOA) in the second part of this work. In this section, author shows the multiply method to calculate event time, which is important when deal with pre-disturbance frequency in TDOA part. Two event kinds are classified by the change of frequency and the linear relationship between change of frequency and imbalance of generation and load power is presented. Prove that Time Delay of Arrival (TDOA) is a good algorithm for estimation event location proved by real cases. At last, the interface of DLL module and the key word to import and export DLL variables and function is described. At last, PSS compensation optimization with a set of nonlinear differential algebraic equations (DAE) is introduced in detail. With combining the bifurcation theory of nonlinear system and the optimization theory, the optimal control of small-signal stability of power electric systems are solved. From the perspective of stability margin, global coordination of controller parameters is studied to ensure the stable operation of power grids. The main contents of this thesis include: ï¼ 1ï¼ Models of power systems and test power electric systems. Tht5e dynamic and static models of the elements of power systems, such as generatorbbs, AVRs, PSSs, loads and FACTS controllers are presented. Method of power system linearization modeling is introduced. Three test power systems, WSCC 9-bus system, 2-area system, New England 39-bus system, are used in thesis. ï¼ 2ï¼ Multi-objective optimizations based on bifurcation theory. The optimization models, damping control-Hopf bifurcation control, voltage control-damping control, are presented. Pareto combined with evolutionary strategy (ES) are used to solve multi-objective optimizations. Based on traditional PSS parameters optimizations, it can be formulated as a multi-objective problem, in which, two objectives should be taken into account. The minimum damping torque should be identified. / Master of Science