IET Renewable Power Generation

Special Issue: Oscillations in Power Systems with High Penetration of

Renewable Power Generations

Improved synchrophasor measurement to ISSN 1752-1416

Received on 7th March 2018
Revised 5th July 2018
capture sub/super-synchronous dynamics in Accepted on 16th August 2018
E-First on 28th September 2018
power systems with renewable generation doi: 10.1049/iet-rpg.2018.5533
www.ietdl.org

Xiaorong Xie1 , Ying Zhan1, Huakun Liu1, Chun Liu2

1State
Key Laboratory of Power System, Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China
2State
Key Laboratory of Operation and Control of Renewable Energy & Storage Systems, China Electric Power Research Institute, Beijing
100192, People's Republic of China
E-mail: xiexr@tsinghua.edu.cn

Abstract: The existing phasor-measurement unit (PMU) and wide-area measurement system (WAMS) based on the
fundamental synchrophasors are insufficient to accurately capture the dynamics of sub/super-synchronous resonance or
oscillation (SSR/SSO). To address this issue, this study proposes a new method for the simultaneous and precise measurement
of the fundamental and multiple sub/super-synchronous harmonic phasors. It improves the classic discrete Fourier transform
(DFT)-based method by adding adaptive frequency detection, modal filtration and phasor correction and compensation. Thus, in
the context of SSR/SSO, the phasors of both fundamental and interharmonic components can be precisely obtained at local
PMUs and the control/data centre of WAMS. The basic procedures and the prototype implementation of the method have been
elaborated, and the performance has been examined with simulation signals as well as the field data recorded from an actual
SSO incident. The results have verified its high precision, noise immunity and fast response.

1 Introduction information of SSR/SSO. However, current PMUs are originally

Recently, renewable power generations such as photovoltaic and
wind power have expanded rapidly. Their continuously increasing
penetration is bringing new challenges to the operation and control
of power systems. One of them is the sub/super-synchronous
dynamics caused by the interactions between converter-based
renewable generators and the AC/DC power grid. For instance, the
subsynchronous resonance (SSR) observed in ERCOT of USA [1]
and Guyuan of North China [2], and the sub/super-synchronous
oscillations (SSOs) captured in Hami, Northwest China [3]. They
threatened the stability of the system as well as the safety of the
equipment. To address the issue, many efforts have been made,
especially on its analysis and control [4–6].
When SSR/SSO occurs, the current, voltage and power of
generators and networks would contain obvious sub- and/or super-
synchronous harmonics from several hertz to less than two times
the nominal frequency. These harmonics with constant or even
divergent amplitude could spread to a very wide range. Unlike the
traditional SSR/SSO associated with synchronous machines, where
the number and frequency of oscillation modes are dominantly
determined by the shaft system of turbo-generators and thus almost
fixed, the emerging SSR/SSO associated with renewable
generations has uncertain number of modes and time-variant
frequencies. Moreover, their features are also affected by either
constantly changing operation conditions or suddenly triggered
disturbances. For instance, the intensity and frequency of the
oscillation varies slowly with the randomly captured wind speed
[2, 3]. In other cases, a sudden oscillation could be excited by a
short-circuit fault on the transmissions [1]. Taking the wide-area
and time-varying characteristics into account, it is a challenging
issue to capture the dynamics of SSR/SSO accurately and globally.
However, this issue is relatively less studied in the previous work.
Synchrophasor technologies including phasor-measurement unit
(PMU) and wide-area measurement system (WAMS) have been
widely used for the dynamic monitoring of large-scale power
systems [7]. Especially, they are gaining wide applications in the
detection, prediction and control of low-frequency oscillations.
Some recent researches tried to use synchrophasors for the capture
of subsynchronous dynamics. For instance, in [8, 9], the phasor
data at the receiving end are delicately processed to get the
designed for the fundamental phasors. Components at other
frequencies including the sub/super-synchronous ones are treated
as interferences or noises. Many efforts were made to eliminate the
‘unfavourable’ (inter)harmonics or ‘noises’, so that the
fundamental phasors can be precisely obtained [10, 11]. In such
cases, the details of sub/super-synchronous dynamics are usually
considered as noises and thus suppressed by PMUs. As a result,
they are unavailable or inaccurately reflected in the obtained
phasor data. Otherwise, if non-fundamental components are not
properly pre-filtered during the calculation of fundamental phasors,
they will be aliased in the latter due to the spectrum leakage [12].
After being sent to the centre of WAMS at a rate of 50 Hz or less
[13], the sub/super-synchronous information can hardly be restored
precisely due to the signal aliasing and/or the low reporting rate.
Therefore, it is meaningful to improve the synchrophasor-
measurement method on the PMU side to capture sub/super-
synchronous dynamics accurately.
Sub/super-synchronous components can also be regarded as
interharmonics. There are many methods for (inter)harmonics
measurement in the literature including DFT-based and non-DFT-
based methods. The key to the DFT-based methods is to overcome
the aliasing effect, spectral leakage and picket-fence effect, usually
with the iterative [14], windowed and interpolation algorithms [15,
16]. Signal filtering is also crucial to the measurement
performance. For instance, the creative work in [17] uses delicately
designed Kalman and finite impulse response (FIR) band-pass
filters to provide PMU with the capability of accurately tracking
harmonic as well as fundamental phasors. The non-DFT-based
methods adopt model-based parametric estimation or identification
techniques such as estimation of signal parameters via rotational
invariance technique (ESPRIT) [18], particle swarm optimisation
[19] and Prony [20]. Generally, the non-DFT-based methods have
heavy computation burden and thus are more suitable for power
quality assessment than the dynamic tracking of synchrophasors.
As an alternative to existing methods, this paper extends our
previous work in [21] to develop an improved method of
synchrophasor measurement, which focuses on capturing sub/
super-synchronous dynamics in renewable power systems. The
main contributions are as follows:

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© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2018
i. The classic phasor-measurement method is improved by the
combinative use of adaptive frequency detection, biquad-based
modal filtration and phasor correction and compensation to
achieve simultaneous and precise acquisition of multiple sub/
super-synchronous synchrophasors.
ii. A prototype of new PMU is implemented based on the
improved method. Its steady-state and dynamic performances
have been extensively verified with simulated signals as well
as field-recorded data.
iii. The observability of sub/super-synchronous dynamics at the
data centre is investigated with field data. With the improved
method, sub/super-synchronous and fundamental components
are decomposed and transformed into independent phasors at
the measurement units; they are accurate and observable at the
data centre no matter what the reporting rate is.
The rest of this paper is organised as follows: in Section 2, the
classic phasor-measurement method is reviewed and its
applicability for SSR/SSO monitoring is discussed. Section 3
elaborates the improved method. In Section 4, the prototype of new
PMU is tested with computer-generated and field-recorded signals
to examine its accuracy, response time and the observability of sub/
super-synchronous dynamics at the data centre. The conclusions
are briefed in Section 5.
2 Applicability of classic DFT-based methods in
the presence of SSR/SSO
Supposing the fundamental frequency of the system is f 0 and the
sampling frequency is f s = N f 0, where N is the number of samples
in each fundamental period. For a voltage or current with the
frequency f = f 0 + Δ f , the effective value X and the initial phase
φ can be represented by the following non-stationary phasor [22]:
^
X k = c1(θ)X k + c2(θ, k)X k* (1)
with
sin(θN /2) jθ(N − 1)/2
c1(θ) = e (2)
N sin(θ/2)
sin(θ/2)
c2(θ, k) = c1*(θ) e− j4π(2k − 1)/ N (3)
sin(θ/2 + 2π/N)
X k = X e j(kθ + φ) (4)
θ = 2πΔ f /( f 0N) (5)
^
where X k is the non-stationary phasor due to the frequency offset of
Δ f , which is calculated using the classic DFT; X k is the stationary
phasor, with X k* denoting its complex conjugate; c1(θ), c2(θ, k) are
coefficients determined by the angle offset θ and the number of
data window k.
For the above expressions, it can be observed that:
^
i. If Δ f = 0, c1(r) = 1 and c2(k) = 0; so X k = X k, meaning the
stationary phasor can be accurately computed for the
fundamental signal without frequency offset.
ii. If Δ f = k f 0, k ∈ N, c1(r) = c2(r) = 0; so X^ k = 0, which means
that the integer-order harmonics have no interference with the
calculation of the fundamental phasors.
iii. For other cases, c1(r) ≠ 0, c2(r) ≠ 0 and X^ k ≠ 0, which means
that this signal component will interfere with the calculation of
the fundamental phasors. Specifically, if a fundamental signal
is polluted by a sub- or super-synchronous component or
^ (9) Phasors packaging and communication: To pack and time
|Δ f | < f 0, X k is the combination of a positive phasor rotating
at the speed of 2π | Δ f | and a negative phasor rotating at the
speed of −2π | Δ f |. In other words, the fundamental phasor can
hardly be accurately obtained with the classic DFT due to the
50
frequency aliasing from the sub/super-synchronous
components.
In the case of SSR/SSO, the polluted fundamental phasors are
transmitted at a fixed rate, say fup = 50 Hz. At the data centre, some
information about the SSR/SSO can be extracted from the polluted
phasors. However, the accuracy is deteriorated for the following
reasons:
i. If the frequency of the SSR/SSO is above the half of fup (for
instance 25 Hz), it can hardly be restored according to the
Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem. As a result, the data
centre is unable to guarantee the accuracy in analysing the
actual SSR/SSO incidents.
ii. Owing to frequency aliasing effect, the complementary
frequency pairs, i.e. f0 + Δf&f0 − Δf and fup + Δf&fup − Δf, have
approximate effects on the fundamental phasors and thus it is
very difficult to distinguish one from the other.
The above problems are further illustrated with field data in
Section 4. As a result, the classic DFT-based phasor-measurement
method is no longer applicable or sufficient for the precise
calculation and then monitoring of either fundamental or sub/super-
synchronous dynamics in the presence of SSR/SSO.
3 Improved measurement method
3.1 Basic procedures of the improved method
The improved measurement method, with its configuration and
flowchart as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, has the following steps or
functions:
(1) Signal sampling and analog-to-digital conversion (ADC): To
carry out fixed-interval sampling of the voltage and current signals
and perform ADC to generate digital signals.
(2) Pre-filtration: To eliminate the low-frequency (2.5 Hz and
below) and high-frequency (100 Hz and above) harmonics using
properly designed filters.
(3) Frequency scanning: To detect sub/super-synchronous and
fundamental components (later referred to as modes) with
amplitude exceeding the preset threshold value. Their initial
frequencies are roughly calculated with fast Fourier transform
(FFT) and denoted as fi00, i = 1, 2, …, m, where m is the total
number of modes.
(4) Modal filtration: To carry out band-pass filtering on the pre-
filtered signals to extract the component of each mode, so as to
eliminate aliasing interference among different modes. Special
notch filters composed of multiple constant-bandwidth biquads are
designed to achieve this purpose.
(5) Phasor measurement and correction: To obtain each of the sub/
super-synchronous and fundamental phasors (including
frequencies, amplitudes and phases) in an independent module by
using the DFT-based phasor calculation and the three-point
correction algorithm.
(6) Amplitude and phase compensation: To compensate the
deviations of amplitude and phase caused by the pre-filters and the
modal filters, and thus to obtain the final phasor for each mode.
(7) Central frequency adjustment: To update the central frequency
for each mode used in steps (4) and (5), or fi0, using the initial
modal frequency fi00 or the output of the low-pass filtration (LPF)
of the frequency measured in real time.
(8) Measurement supervisions: To supervise the operation of the
phasor measurements of all modes, and if necessary, to terminate
an existing module or start a new module according to the
constantly changing amplitudes and frequencies of the various
modes.
stamp the phasor data and then to send them to the data centre with
reference to IEEE Std. C37.118.2-2011 [17].
IET Renew. Power Gener., 2019, Vol. 13 Iss. 1, pp. 49-56
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Fig. 1  Scheme for measuring sub/super-synchronous phasors as well as
the fundamental phasor
Fig. 2  Flowchart of the improved method
As compared to our previous work in [21], steps (4), (7) and (8)
of the proposed method have distinct improvements. In step (4), a
novel modal filter is designed to enhance the dynamic performance
of phasor measurement. It is made up of one band-pass filter to
extract the target mode and M − 1 band-stop filters to attenuate the
interferences from other modes, where M is the number of all
modes. Both band-pass and band-stop filters are constant-
bandwidth biquads, which have much shorter response time and
more easily adjusted parameters than the Kaiser window-based FIR
filters used in [21]. In steps (7) and(8), two new functional modules
are added, i.e. central frequency adjustment and measurement
supervision. With the former, the central frequencies in the modal
filtration and phasor measurement/correction are updated with the
newly acquired frequency, so that much faster and more precise
measurements can be achieved. With the latter, the number of
modes of interest can be increased or decreased automatically to
reflect the actual situations. These new functions are very
important for the quick and accurate capture of the changeable sub/
super-synchronous dynamics in practical systems.
3.2 Frequency scanning
This functional module carries out FFT on the pre-filtered signals
to roughly screen out the sub/super-synchronous and fundamental
components or modes according to the amplitude versus frequency
information. Meanwhile, the initial frequencies of the modes are
IET Renew. Power Gener., 2019, Vol. 13 Iss. 1, pp. 49-56
© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2018
obtained. The resolution of frequency can be changed by adjusting
the length of the data window, for instance, 1 s for 1 Hz.
Assuming the concerned minimum and maximum frequencies
of the sub/super-synchronous harmonics are f min and f max,
respectively. Set the length of the data window as Ns, of which the
typical value is Ns = (1/3 − 1) f s, where f s is the sampling rate. Let
Nmin = Rounddown(Ns f min / f s) (6)
and
Nmax = Roundup(Ns f max / f s) (7)
where Rounddown () and Roundup () are the round-down and
round-up functions, respectively.
Supposing the current sampling point is xk and the current data
window with Ns points is xk − Ns + 1, …, xk. The FFT on the current
data window is carried out, and only the results between Nmin and
Nmax, i.e.XNmin, …, XNmax, are necessarily obtained. Then, with their
absolute values or |XNmin | , …, | XNmax|, the sub/super-synchronous
and fundamental modes are selected and their initial frequencies
are roughly determined. In doing so, a set of integers
ni Nmin < ni < Nmax is configured with the corresponding FFT
result set {Xni} satisfying the following conditions:
i. |Xni| or its normalised value is greater than a preset threshold,
so as to overcome the interferences from noises.
ii. |Xni| is a peak point compared with its adjacent phasors in the
frequency domain; in other words, |Xni| is a local maximum of
the spectrum curve.
Assuming that n sub/super-synchronous and fundamental
modes are detected or the number of elements in the set ni is n,
the initial frequencies of them are roughly given by
ni − 1
f i00 = f, 1≤i≤n (8)
Ns s
3.3 Modal filtration
The purpose of this module is to extract each modal signal. It is
accomplished by adopting n parallel notch filters. For the ith mode,
the notch filter is expressed as
f mi(z) = HBPi ∏ (1 − HBPk) (9)
k = 1, …, n; k ≠ i
where HBPk(k = 1, …, n) is the constant-bandwidth biquad or
band-pass filter with its transfer function given by [23]
k2 (1 + z−1)(1 − z−1)
HBP(z) = (10)
2 1 − (2 − k2 − k12)z−1 + (1 − k2)z−2
In (9) and (10), the coefficient k2 determines the bandwidth. If the
frequency to pick up and the bandwidth k2 are preset, the
coefficient k1 is given by
k1 = 2 sin(π f m / f s) 1 − k2 /2 (11)
If k2 is small (indicating a narrow bandwidth) and the modal
frequencies are much lower than the sampling frequency, k1 can be
further simplified into [23]
k1 = 2π(1 − k2 /4) f m / f s (12)
When the central frequency changes, only the filter coefficient k1
needs to be computed again in accordance with (12). The
calculation stress is very low and will not cause a long delay.
51

Fig. 3  Setup of tests with the prototype of new PMU
Therefore, modal filters can be updated or re-configured on line if
necessary.
3.4 Phasor measurement, correction and compensation
This module executes the recursive DFT-based phasor calculation
for each modal signal first to obtain the crude phasor, and then
corrects it to get the exact frequency, amplitude and phase. Next,
by eliminating the deviations caused by the pre-filtration and
modal filtration through amplitude and phase compensation, the
final phasor is obtained.
Supposing the fresh sample of the signal after the modal
filtration is xk and the central frequency of the mode concerned is
f i0. The length of data window is given by
Ni = Round( f s / f i0)
where the function Round () approximates the enclosed variable
with the nearest integer, and the subscript i denotes the ith mode,
which will be omitted hereafter for conciseness.
For the fresh data window, i.e.xk − N + 1, …, xk, the classic
recursive DFT is used to obtain the crude phasor of the modal
^
signal or X k. When the actual frequency deviates from the central
^ frequency of 1–1000 Hz, and field-recorded files. Extensive tests
frequency, according to (1), X k is not the desired stationary phasor
but an oscillating phasor modulated by the slip frequency.
Nevertheless, the stationary phasor including its frequency,
amplitude and phase can be worked out with three crude phasors of
equal intervals or the so-called three-point correction algorithm
^
[22]. Supposing the interval is m and the three points are X k − 2m,
^ ^
X k − m, X k, the stationary phasor X k can be calculated as in the
equations below:
^ ^
X k − 2m + X k e j4πm / N
hk = ^ =e − j4πm / N
e jmθ
+e
2X k − m
1
θk = − ∠ hk + hk2 − e j4πm / N
m
N f0
Δf = θ , f = f0 + Δf
2π k
^
c1*(θ)X k − c2(θ, k)X k*
^ produced by the frequency-scanning module are 15, 35, 50, 65 and
Xk = −
c1(θ)c1*(θ) − c2(θ, k)c2*(θ, k)
By eliminating the effect of frequency leakage, the above
correction algorithm can get the stationary phasor accurately even
if the modal frequency deviates from the central frequency, and
thus improves the accuracy of phasor measurement. To further
refine the measurement and achieve a strict synchronisation among
the modal phasors that pass different signal channels, their
amplitudes and phases are then compensated as follows: the
frequency responses of all the filters applied are computed at the
frequency of f i. With their amplitudes multiplied and their phase
angles added, the overall gains and phase offsets are obtained,
namely αi and φi. Each compensated phasor is finally provided by
52
dividing the amplitude of X ik by αi and subtracting φi from the
phase angle of X ik.
3.5 Measurement supervision and central frequency
adjustment
The results of the frequency-scanning and phasor-measurement
modules are supervised in real time. The following adjustments
will be made when necessary:
i. The mode should be cancelled if its magnitudes obtained from
both modules are continuously lower than the preset threshold
value.
ii. A new phasor-measurement channel should be added and
configured when the frequency-scanning module detects a new
mode with its amplitude higher than the threshold.
iii. When the gradually changing LPF output of a mode reaches
the edge of the bandwidth of the modal filter, the central
frequency of the modal filter and for the phasor measurement
should be adjusted to guarantee the accuracy.
3.6 Phasor timing, packaging and communication
All phasor data are packaged and time-stamped in accordance with
IEEE Std. C37.118–2011 [13], and finally sent to the data centre
via communication links.
4 Tests with the prototype of new PMU
4.1 Setup of the test
(13)
The improved method is based on the well-understood DFT and
has no iteration processes. So it offers a concise and robust
structure with high computational efficiency, which makes it more
attractive from an implementation point of view. A prototype of
new PMU has been developed in the laboratory, as shown in Fig. 3.
Its input can be the output of a signal generator, which provides
fundamental signals as well as (inter-)harmonics with the
have been carried out to verify the improved method and the
implemented PMU.
4.2 Steady-state signals
4.2.1 Ideal signal: Take an ideal signal as (18). It contains the
fundamental and two pairs of complementary sub-/super-
synchronous components
x(t) = 10 cos(2π f 0t + φ0)
− jmθ
(14) +5 cos(2π f s1t + φs1) + 5 cos(2π f s2t + φs2) (18)
+5 cos(2π f s3t + φs3) + 5 cos(2π f s4t + φs4)
(15) where f 0 = 49.5, φ0 = 30∘; f s1 = 15.4, φs1 = 60∘; f s2 = 35.4,
φs2 = 90∘; f s3 = 63.6 Hz, φs3 = 120∘; f s4 = 83.6 Hz, φs4 = 90∘.
The sampling rate is 1200 Hz and the resolution of the
(16)
frequency-scanning output is 1.0 Hz. The threshold of amplitude is
set at 5% of the fundamental amplitude. The initial frequencies
(17) 85 Hz. The improved phasor-measurement method is applied to
compute the various modal phasors. The results are listed in
Table 1. As compared to the theoretical values, the errors of
frequency, amplitude and phase angle are <0.01 Hz, 0.5% and 1°,
respectively.
To achieve such precise measurements, each of the functional
modules in the improved method has played an important role.
Here, the subsynchronous mode at fS2 is taken as an example to
illustrate how these modules work together to improve the
accuracy of phasor measurement. The actual frequency of the
target mode is 35.4 Hz. However, the initial frequency obtained
with the frequency-scanning module is fi00 = 35 Hz. Then, the
modal filter has its central frequency initially set at 35 Hz. The
frequency response of the filter (i.e. bode plot) shows that the
IET Renew. Power Gener., 2019, Vol. 13 Iss. 1, pp. 49-56
© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2018
Table 1 Measured phasors and the preset values
fi0 Frequency, Hz Angle, deg Amplitude
Set Improved/[21] Error: improved/[21] Set Improved/[21] Error: improved/[21] Set Improved/[21] Error (%): improved/[21]
15 15.4 15.409/15.409 0.009/0.011 60 60.221/60.221 0.221/0.765 5.0 5.015/5.078 0.30/1.564
35 35.5 35.505/35.509 0.005/0.009 90 89.548/88.978 −0.452/−1.022 5.0 5.022/5.038 0.44/0.765
50 49.5 49.503/49.508 0.003/0.008 30 29.838/30.279 −0.162/0.279 10.0 10.010/10.038 0.10/0.378
64 63.6 63.608/63.591 0.008/−0.009 120 119.643/119.437 −0.357/−0.563 5.0 5.021/5.048 0.42/0.950
84 83.6 83.606/83.590 0.006/−0.010 90 89.699/89.075 −0.401/−0.925 5.0 5.018/5.049 0.36/0.980

eliminated even in the steady state. Thus, the advantage of the

improved method with the ideal signal is demonstrated.

4.2.2 Signals polluted by white noise and integer

Fig. 4  Response to step change in oscillation amplitude
harmonics: A white noise with a magnitude of 5% of the
fundamental component is superposed on the ideal signal. The
phasors are measured again and compared with the non-polluted
results. It is indicated that the noise has little impact on the
measurement. Only a difference no more than 0.1% is observed.
In another test case, the ideal signal is superposed with 5% third
harmonics and 3% fifth harmonics, both in relative to the
fundamental component. The outputs of the measurement indicate
that the errors caused by such harmonics are no more than 0.05%.
In other words, the integer harmonics almost have no effect on the
measurement of phasors. Actually, this is achieved due to the
favourable characteristics of the DFT in eliminating integer
harmonics.
To sum up, the improved method, with its various functions of
pre-filtration, modal filtration and DFT, is sufficiently robust to
white noises and integer harmonics.

4.2.3 Signals with varying amplitude and frequency: The

Fig. 5  Response to step change in oscillation frequency
response time of phasor measurement is concerned [10, 12, 24]
when carrying out dynamic monitoring and control. Meanwhile,
the actual SSR/SSO events also indicate that the frequency and
amplitude would change at a relatively slow rate during a long-
period oscillation [3, 25]. To examine the dynamic performance of
the proposed method, the following test cases with time-varying
amplitude or frequency are conducted based on the ideal signal
(18):

Case 1: A step change of oscillation amplitude from 5 to 6 is

Fig. 6  Response to sinusoidal variation in oscillation amplitude
magnitude/phase responses at fS2 and the two neighbouring modes
of fS1 and fS3 are 0.93913/−3.4331°, 0.01217/164.26° and
0.03779/−145.62°, respectively. In other words, with the modal
filtration the concerned mode is properly picked up, while the
interferences from neighbouring modes are attenuated
considerably. Next, the extracted signal is passed to the DFT,
which calculates the crude phasor with its base frequency given by
fS/Round(fS/fi00) or about 35.2941 Hz. The frequency offset is
0.2941 Hz, which, according to(1)–(5), would cause deviations in
magnitude and phase as much as 0.43% and 1.69°, respectively.
Fortunately, such deviations as well as the frequency offset are
rectified by the phasor correction module or the formulae from (14)
to (17). With the accurate modal frequency available, the
magnitude and phase errors resulting from signal filtration can be
compensated by multiplying the amplitude by 1.06481 (i.e.
1/0.93913) and adding a phase shift of 3.4331°, so as to get the
precise phasor finally. Meanwhile, the central frequencies of all
modal filters are moved to the right values by the function of
‘Central frequency adjustment’, which will further improve the
accuracy of measurement.
The results of the previous method [21] are also listed in
Table 1. Evidently, they are less accurate than the improved
method, mainly due to the fact the frequency offset in the functions
of modal filtration and phasor measurement/correction cannot be
IET Renew. Power Gener., 2019, Vol. 13 Iss. 1, pp. 49-56
© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2018
applied to the super-synchronous mode fs3 at 1 s.
Case 2: A step change of oscillation frequency from 63.6 to 64.6 
Hz is applied to the mode fs3 at 1 s.
Case 3: The oscillation amplitude of the mode fs3 varies according
to the formula As3 = 5 + 2 sin(πt) u(t − 1).
The measurement results are shown in Figs. 4–6. For the step
changes of amplitude and frequency, or cases 1 and 2, the response
times of the improved method are about 150 and 130 ms,
respectively. For the third case, in which the oscillation amplitude
contains sinusoidal ripples, the obtained phasor magnitude has a
delay of about 40 ms, corresponding to a small phase shift of 7.2°
for the rippling frequency. For comparison, the performance of the
previous method in [21] is also illustrated in Figs. 4–6. Obviously,
there are much longer delays, about 300 ms, for the previous
method. Thus, the improved method gains advantages in the fast
tracking of dynamic sub/super-synchronous phasors.
Note that up to now the measurements of sub/super-
synchronous phasors have no recognised requirements or standards
in terms of accuracy or response time. According to our
experience, they are mainly used for online monitoring and early-
warning applications, as well as response-based emergency control
in actual projects. For instance, in the mentioned Guyuan and Hami
cases, the detection of sub/super-synchronous components is used
to alert the operators. Moreover, if the amplitude exceeds a certain
threshold, a pre-determined number of wind farms will be tripped
manually or automatically to mitigate the oscillation. Since the
oscillations there take some time (usually several seconds) to build
up and would not cause immediate damage to the equipment, the
53
Fig. 7  Field measured line currents in an actual SSO incident

Table 2 Measured current phasors in an actual SSO with the legends of A10L and A1L denote the phasors obtained at the
incident local PMU using the classic DFT method and the improved
fi0, Hz Phase Frequency, Hz Angle, deg Amplitude, kA method, respectively. The scatter plots marked as A10C and A1C
50 A 50.0494 155.5879 1.0965 stand for the corresponding phasors collected at the data centre
B 50.0489 35.9670 1.0845 with the reporting rate fup = 50 Hz. Obviously, the classic method is
C 50.0490 −84.0707 1.0907 vulnerable to the spectrum leakage from interharmonics, and its
computed fundamental phasors fluctuate violently due to the
23 A 22.7627 89.3135 0.0558
interferences caused by sub/super-synchronous harmonics. As a
B 22.7378 −31.2971 0.0498 result, it cannot get the fundamental phasors accurately. For the
C 22.7395 −151.1532 0.0501 same reason, the uploaded phasors at the data centre, which are
77 A 77.3334 145.4575 0.0592 sparse samplings of local ones, become fluctuant and inconsistent
B 77.3568 25.4051 0.0524 as well. In contrast, the proposed method can provide accurate and
C 77.3588 −100.3607 0.0544 consistent fundamental phasors at both the local PMU and the data
centre, as illustrated by the red line and scatter points in Fig. 8.
Moreover, the proposed method measures the sub/super-
synchronous phasors simultaneously. Their magnitudes are shown
in Fig. 9, where the scripts ‘sub’ and ‘sup’, stand for the sub/super-
synchronous phasors, respectively. The phasors observed at the
local PMU and at the data centre are denoted by the subscripts ‘L’
and ‘C’. Clearly, they are consistent. However, the classic method
cannot provide sub- or super-synchronous phasors.
A close examination on the results provided by the classic
method reveals that its obtained local fundamental phasors contain
an obvious fluctuant component at the slip frequency of f1−fsub or
fsup−f1. For the test data, such slip frequency is about 27.3 Hz.
Fig. 8  Amplitude of fundamental phasors (A10L: by the classic method at Since it is higher than half of the reporting rate or fup/2 (25 Hz),
local PMU; A1L: by the improved method at local PMU; A10C: by the frequency aliasing will occur at the data centre, just as shown in
classic method at data centre, A1C: by the improved method at data centre) Fig. 10. Spectrum analyses on this fundamental phasor data
observed at the data centre indicate there are a DC component
(corresponding to the fundamental frequency) and an
interharmonic component around 22.5 Hz. The latter is generated
by the frequency aliasing effect on the subsynchronous component
at 27.3 Hz of the locally measured fundamental phasor.
Theoretically, any component with the frequency of f1 ± f (when f 
< fup/2) or f1 ± (fup − f) at the local PMU could result in a fluctuant
component with the frequency of f in the fundamental phasor
observed at the data centre. As a result, these frequencies cannot be
distinguished at the data centre unless it is known in advance that
the subsynchronous frequency is in the range from 0 to fup/2 (this
Fig. 9  Amplitude of sub/super-synchronous phasors
particular case is recognised in [19]). Therefore, if the classic
method is used, the data centre will receive polluted fundamental
phasors when SSR/SSO occurs. In such case, though the existence
monitoring and control system allow several 100 ms to several
of SSR/SSO can be detected from the fluctuation of the polluted
seconds for signal detection and decision making. Therefore, the
phasors, sub/super-synchronous components would be attenuated
100–200 ms time delay shown in Figs. 4 and 5 as well as the errors
or aliased due to the limits of the phasor algorithm and the low
stated in Table 1 meet such requirements very well and are
reporting rate. Consequently, the information (i.e. frequencies,
acceptable in practical applications.
amplitudes and phases) of the SSR/SSO modes cannot be obtained
precisely. In return, the accuracy of the fundamental phasor itself
4.3 Field-recorded data would be deteriorated. In contrast, the improved method can
On 18 April 2016, an actual SSO incident occurred in the wind overcome this defect and give accurate and consistent sub/super-
power system of Hami, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, synchronous phasors at both the local PMU and the data centre, as
China. The field-recorded three-phase currents of a 220 kV line (as illustrated in Fig. 10.
shown in Fig. 7) is used as the test data to check the performance
of the new PMU. The fundamental and a pair of sub/super- 4.4 Electromagnetic transient (EMT) simulation of a system
synchronous phasors are obtained, as listed in Table 2. contingency
Meanwhile, the ‘fundamental phasors’ are also calculated using
In this case, a system contingency is simulated with the EMT
the classic DFT-based method. For comparison, the amplitudes of
model of the above-mentioned Hami system. Initially, the system
phase-A current phasors are displayed in Fig. 8, where the curves

54 IET Renew. Power Gener., 2019, Vol. 13 Iss. 1, pp. 49-56

© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2018
Fig. 10  Spectrum obtained with classic and improved methods
Fig. 11  SSO triggered by a system emergency and the measured phasors
operates normally and the output current of a supervised wind farm
is sinusoidal. At 1.0 s, one of the lines connecting the wind farm to
the main system is tripped, which decreases the strength of the
system and creates a contingency. Immediately, SSO is excited. As
a result, there are sub/-synchronous components appearing in the
output current. They grow rapidly and soon become equal-
amplitude oscillation due to control saturation. The simulation lasts
for 4 s. The instantaneous current of phase-A is displayed in
Fig. 11a.
The data are then fed to the new PMU. The measurement
results including frequencies and magnitudes of fundamental and
sub/super-synchronous modes are displayed in Figs. 11b and c.
Before the emergency event, only the fundamental mode is
detected. The frequency is 50 Hz and the magnitude is about 0.063  of the improved method lie in the combinative use of adaptive
kA. When the tripping of the line excites a new pair of sub/super-
synchronous modes, the PMU cannot detect them immediately due
to the fact that the length of the data window for its frequency-
scanning function is 1 s and there are insufficient data to determine
the existence of the new modes. As the data window moves
forward, more oscillation data are captured. Then about 229 ms
later, the obtained amplitudes of the new pair of modes exceed the
threshold (5% of the fundamental amplitude). This information is
sent to the module of ‘measurement supervisions’, which next
creates two new modules to measure the phasors for the newly
detected sub/super-synchronous modes. It takes several
milliseconds to configure all the sub-modules required. Finally, the
sub/super-synchronous phasors are output after some delays. The
delays mainly depend on the intervals for phasor correction. They
are about 16 and 45 ms for the super- and subsynchronous modes,
respectively. In other words, the new oscillation modes triggered
by the emergency are accurately captured in about 274 ms.
IET Renew. Power Gener., 2019, Vol. 13 Iss. 1, pp. 49-56
© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2018
Therefore, the effectiveness of the improved method and the
prototype PMU under emergency conditions are fully verified.
Note that the method in [21] does not have such kind of scheme to
create new measurement modules automatically for calculating the
phasors for new modes that are triggered by emergencies.
5 Conclusions
In this paper, the classic synchrophasor algorithm is improved and
a prototype of new PMU is developed for the simultaneous and
accurate measurement of the fundamental and multiple sub/super-
synchronous phasors. Compared to the classic method only
applicable for the fundamental waves, the distinguishing features
frequency detection, biquad-based modal filtration and phasor
correction and compensation to achieve precise phasor calculation
in the context of SSR/SSO. The tests with different simulation
signals show that the resolutions of frequency, amplitude and phase
of the obtained phasors reach 0.01 Hz, 1% and 1.0°, respectively,
provided that the frequency interval of different modes exceeds 5 
Hz. The improved method can effectively suppress the
interferences from white noise and integer harmonics. Its dynamic
response time is in the range of 100–200 ms, which meet the
requirements of practical applications.
A prototype of new PMU has also been developed to implement
the proposed method. Both the method and the new PMU are
validated with field-recorded data captured in a real SSO incident.
Their good performances are well-demonstrated. Therefore, they
provide a solid basis for the wide-area monitoring, early-warning
and control of sub/super-synchronous dynamics in power systems
with high penetration of renewable power generations.
55
6 Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by the National Key R&D
Program of China (2017YFB0902000), the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (51737007) and Science and
Technology Project of State Grid (SGXJ0000KXJS1700841).
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© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2018