Abstracts:Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite-supported time-synchronized measurements of current and voltage phasors by phasor measurement units (PMUs) were first invented in 1988 by Arun G. Phadke and James S. Thorp at Virginia Tech and made commercially available in the 1990s by Macrodyne. The first wide-area measurement system (WAMS) was put into operation by the Bonneville Power Administration around the year 2000 purely for monitoring purposes. Based on the first PMU, the broader question was how to design PMU-based wide-area monitoring, protection, and control (WAMPAC) systems with beneficial applications for the monitoring, protection, and control of electrical power grids and the aim of increasing grid utilization and stable grid operation. In brief, it was the dream of perfect system supervision and operation far beyond the state of the art of well-established supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems.

Abstracts:The escalating occurrences of transmission congestions, overvoltages, undervoltages, power oscillations, and frequency abnormalities in transmission systems underline the need for a comprehensive review and enhancement of traditional management and operation tools and for the creation of new ones able to obtain real-time data from the field for analysis and operation. Jointly with an improvement of the dynamic models of the power grid, this will result in a better understanding of the system behavior especially in critical situations.

Abstracts:The continental-size Brazilian interconnected power system is divided into four geo-electric regions with different seasonal wet and dry conditions, all synchronously connected by extra high voltage ac lines. This natural characteristic emphasizes the importance of the transmission system among the regions. Bottlenecks in those connections may reflect in local energy shortage in one region and water spillage in another region, since Brazil is still a hydroelectricity powerhouse. Recently, the high share of hydro generation is being reduced, as wind and solar generation have significantly increased. Due to the fast-paced growth of wind and solar generation, Brazil has decided to increase the participation of HVdc transmission between the geo-electric regions, to transfer the surplus of wind and solar generation from one region to another. The growth of renewable energy with its intermittent characteristics, paired with market-based generation dispatch, has put new demands on the control systems of embedded HVdc links. Those uncertainties demand an adaptable HVdc power flow control to avoid adverse effects such as loop power flows and increased transmission losses. Through computer simulation the paper presents a time-synchronized controller that modulates the HVdc power flow setpoints according to the difference of the rectifier and inverter voltage phasor angles. The ongoing installation of phasor measurement units at the HVdc converter stations sets the ground for the planning of a wide-area monitoring, protection and control system able to coordinate the present and future embedded HVdc links.

Abstracts:The concept of synchro-waveforms has received increasing attention in recent years in the field of power system monitoring, keeping pace with the changes and the challenges in the power systems and smart grids landscape. The sensor device to record synchro-waveforms may be referred to as a waveform measurement unit (WMU). WMUs record time-synchronized waveform measurements of voltage and current at different locations on a power network.

Abstracts:The continuous operation and planning of electric power systems undergoes several technical and economic changes associated with environmental and societal goals toward clean, affordable, and resilient sustainable energy supply and deployment. This entails diverse upgrades, which include, for instance, integration with other energy sectors and massive addition of renewable power generation, responsive demand, and different types of storage. The dynamic properties and strength of power systems are evolving toward unprecedented levels with lowered sources for the effective management of active and reactive power balancing in different time scales. Thus, the overall security and reliability performance can be seriously compromised as unexpected disturbances may eventually cause violations to the security limits that are established for the electric power system; this may lead to the outage of important system elements and even partial or total blackouts.

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