Dimensionality Reduction of Synchrophasor Data for Early Event Detection: Linearized Analysis

This paper concerns with the production of synthetic phasor measurement unit (PMU) data for research and education purposes. Due to the confidentiality of real PMU data and no public access to the real power systems infrastructure information, the lack of credible realistic data becomes a growing concern. Instead of constructing synthetic power grids and then producing synthetic PMU measurement data by time simulations, we propose a model-free approach to directly generate synthetic PMU data. we train the generative adversarial network (GAN) with real PMU data, which can be used to generate synthetic PMU data capturing the system dynamic behaviors. To validate the sequential generation by GAN to mimic PMU data, we theoretically analyze GAN's capacity of learning system dynamics. Further by evaluating the synthetic PMU data by a proposed quantitative method, we verify GAN's potential to synthesize realistic samples and meanwhile realize that GAN model in this paper still has room to improve. Moreover it is the first time that such generative model is applied to synthesize PMU data.

This study proposes a deep learning-based fault detection method for intelligent distribution networks using Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU) data. With the increasing development of intelligent distribution systems, the need for fast and accurate fault detection systems is crucial to improve the reliability and resilience of the power grid. Utilizing PMU data, which provides real-time information on voltage, current, and frequency, enables more precise and rapid fault detection. In this study, we developed a deep learning model that uses Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) to sequentially process PMU data and detect faults such as short circuits, phase faults, and line outages. The model was trained on a PMU dataset covering a wide range of normal and fault conditions in the distribution network. Evaluation results show that the proposed model is capable of detecting faults with >98% accuracy and has a faster detection time compared to traditional detection methods. This approach also demonstrates the ability to identify fault types with a high degree of reliability and reduces the risk of system failure due to detection delays. By using deep learning methods, this study contributes to improving the reliability of intelligent distribution systems and provides a basis for the application of PMU technology in more efficient and automated distribution network monitoring and maintenance.

Synchronized phasor measurement unit (PMU) data contain rich information about power systems, hence the quality of estimates is of utmost concern. The existing methodologies for estimation rely on certain assumptions regarding the error in the measurement data. This paper revisits a key assumption specifically the Gaussian character of the error. A quantification of the PMU error yields its nature and statistical properties including its dependence on various sections of the PMU instrumentation channel (supposedly the major source of error in the PMU data). The non Gaussian nature of the error is asserted using various null hypotheses tests and a novel Gaussian mixture model based clustering technique is proposed to characterize and relate the errors present in PMU measurement data to the saturation in current transformer, cable length and the PMU burden. The proposed approach is tested using both real and synthetic PMU datasets. The ultimate goal of the paper is towards creating a PMU error emulator for testing and research of data analytic algorithms focused on crucial WAMS based applications.

In this paper, a new disturbance detection method is proposed based on principal component analysis (PCA). The PCA-based method exploits the low-rank characteristics of synchrophasor data reported by multiple phasor measurement units (PMUs). The principal component (PC) scores of the low-rank data sets are used to propose a disturbance indicator. Moreover, an analytical disturbance detection threshold is designed that helps classify different events based on their severity. Finally, a PCA-based data compression technique is developed to reduce the archival requirements while preserving critical PMU data. Numerical simulations confirm that the proposed disturbance detection method efficiently detects a wide range of disturbances and is robust against limited low-quality and false PMU data.

The development and study of Smart Grid technologies rely heavily on high-fidelity data from Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs). However, the scarcity of real-world PMU data due to privacy, security, and variability issues poses significant challenges to researchers, developers, and related industries. To address these challenges, this article introduces the bases for a digital metrology framework, focusing on a newly designed and developed synthetic PMU data generator, that is both metrologically accurate and easy to adapt to various grid configurations for data generation from point-on-wave (PoW) data. This initial phase for a Smart Grid research framework aligns with Open Science principles, ensuring that the generated data are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR). By embracing these principles, the generated synthetic data not only facilitate collaboration for Smart Grid research but also ensure their easy integration into existing Smart Grid simulation environments. Additionally, the proposed digital metrology framework for Smart Grid research will provide a robust platform for simulating real-world scenarios, such as grid stability, fault detection, and optimization. Through this open science approach, future digital metrology frameworks can support the acceleration of research and development, overcoming current limitations, e.g., lack of significant amounts of real-world scenarios by PMU data. This article also presents an initial case study for situational awareness and control systems, demonstrating the potential for future Smart Grid research framework and its direct real-world impact. All research outcomes are provided to highlight future opportunities for reusability and collaborations by a novel approach for research on sensor network metrology.

A PMU data recovering method based on preferred selection strategy

Introduction of Synchronized phasor measurement unit (PMU) in power system is a solution for monitoring system wide disturbances. PMUs provide precise information about a system’s phasors such as magnitude and phase angle of sine waves of the system. PMU data is a valuable source when determining the post-mortem of a fault, or a system disturbance. It can be unveiled what time the system began to falter and exactly what instabilities the system experienced. Knowing the cause of such instabilities will allow enhancement of the current system protection system. This will help in minimizing risk, disruptions or total system collapse. PMUs are synchronized via global positioning system (GPS). For wide area monitoring (WAM), synchronization of the PMUs allows for interconnected systems to be monitored simultaneously, giving real time records. This paper explores the impact of PMU in modern power system, deployment strategies of PMU network around Texas Tech University, importance of PMU data collected from the network, correlation of events by data analysis and focus on how the time stamped information is valuable for grid stability. The ongoing smart architecture of grid will increase dependency and importance on PMU based network in future.

This study proposes a new technique using multisynchrosqueezing transform (MSST) for subsynchronous oscillation (SSO) detection and modal parameter identification. First, MSST is used to process the real-time data of voltage or current collected by the phasor measurement unit (PMU) to obtain the time–frequency spectrum representation of the signal. Nonzero MSST coefficients are used to represent the frequency components of the original signal at each time. Then, for the unknown number of subsynchronous frequency range components, the mean-shift algorithm is applied to the nonzero MSST coefficients to determine the number of SSO modes contained in the signal and the mode type to which nonzero MSST coefficients belong. Subsequently, the corresponding MSST coefficients of each mode exceeding the threshold are used to reconstruct the components of the original signal. Finally, the least-squares estimation method is used on the reconstructed signal to obtain the parameters of each mode, such as amplitude, phase angle, and damping factor. Through simulation case studies and comparison with existing methods, it is verified that the proposed method utilizes the abundant information contained in the PMU data and demonstrates superiority and effectiveness in multimodal signal time–frequency analysis. Moreover, practical issues and potential applications of this technique are systematically discussed.

This paper presents a new framework of identifying cyber data attacks on synchrophasor measurements. We focus on detecting “unobservable” cyber data attacks that cannot be detected by any existing detection method that purely relies on measurements received at one time instant. Leveraging the approximate low-rank property of phasor measurement unit (PMU) data, we formulate the unobservable cyber attack identification problem as a matrix decomposition problem where the observed data matrix is the sum of a low-rank matrix plus a linear projection of a column-sparse matrix. We propose a convex-optimization-based decomposition method and provide its theoretical guarantee in the attack identification. Numerical experiments on actual PMU data and synthetic data are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

The development of Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) in power system improves the possibilities of analyzing and monitoring the system dynamics. PMU data with its high sampling rate contains crucial information about the state of power system. Hence effective PMU data analysis can provide solution for most of the power system problems. This work proposes a data analysis method on PMU data. This combines the simplicity of passive islanding detection techniques and the robustness of artificial intelligence methods. PMU measurements are analyzed and classified to detect power system islanding. Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Support Vector Machines (SVM) algorithms are used to classify islanding and non-islanding events. Both the models classified the events correctly with good accuracy. The test results also show a better performance for SVM classifier compared to ANN classifier.

This paper presents a multiscale phasor measurement unit (PMU) data-compression method based on clustering analysis of wide-area power systems. PMU data collected from wide-area power systems involve local characteristics that are significant risk factors when applying dimensionality-reduction-based data compression. Therefore, density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) is proposed for the preconditioning of PMU data, except for bad data and the automatic segmentation of correlated local datasets. Clustered PMU datasets of a local area are then compressed using multiscale principal component analysis (MSPCA). When applying MSPCA, each PMU signal is decomposed into frequency sub-bands using wavelet decomposition, approximation matrix, and detail matrices. The detail matrices in high-frequency sub-bands are compressed by using a PCA-based linear-dimensionality reduction process. The effectiveness of DBSCAN for data compression is verified by application of the proposed technique to the real-world PMU voltage and frequency data. In addition, comparisons are made with existing compression techniques in wide-area power systems.

Chapter 6 - Application of the phasor measurement unit for protecting unintentional islanding of the distribution system

The characteristics of oscillation modes, such as interarea, regional, and subsynchronous modes, can vary during a power system fault, which can cause switching and control actions in the power system. Transient data of the modal response due to such a fault can be acquired through phasor measurement units (PMUs). When the transient data have a long duration, it is desirable to perform modal identification separately on each segment of the transient data, so as to reflect the varying characteristics of oscillation modes. A conventional discrete Fourier transform (DFT)-based method for parametric modal identification cannot be efficiently applied to such a segment dataset. In this paper, a DFT-based method with an exponential window function is proposed to identify oscillation modes from each segment of transient data in PMUs. This window function allows the application of the least squares method (LSM) for modal identification in the same manner as the conventional method. The accuracy of identification of the proposed method is compared with those of the conventional method and a Prony method through synthetic data of transient responses. Its feasibility is also verified by identifying real-world oscillation modes from transient data in PMUs.

The widespread implementation of Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) on power systems has facilitated the development of accurate and fast dynamic state estimators (DSE), which helps to reliably achieve the real-time monitoring and control of the power systems dynamics. Dynamic state estimators are used by the investigators to estimate and identify the state variables and other parameters associated with the nonlinear dynamic models within the power systems, by using the measurements which are mainly provided by the PMUs. This paper primarily tries to present an innovative and robust dynamic state estimation approach when the PMU data are missing due to various reasons. The highly efficient Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) algorithm is used to formulate the DSE. The simulation results on IEEE 14 bus system shows that the proposed algorithm remains robust and produce accurate estimates during the missing of PMU data coming from generator buses.

The excitation system is an important system of power plants, which has an effective role in power system dynamic and stability. Consequently, developing an approach for the excitation system's model and parameter estimation is a necessary research goal. In real situations, it is often needed to identify and estimate unknown parameters of the excitation system by field recorded signals. The recorded signal can be internal from the distributed control system (DCS) or external from the phasor measurement unit (PMU). In this article, a novel method based on cubature Kalman filter and data mining is proposed to identify the parameters of a standard type excitation system. Firstly, the best available signals for parameters estimation are chosen. Secondly, a method is proposed to parameters estimation of excitation systems efficiently, when both the DCS and PMU with different sample rates are employed to record the measurement data. Data mining is performed at intervals that DCS data is missing (or unavailable), while PMU data is available. Experimental data are used for validation of the proposed approach.