IEEE EUROCON 2017, 6–8 JULY 2017, OHRID, R.
MACEDONIA
PMU and DSA Based Wide Area Control System
Concept and application in large longitudinal system
Uros Kerin
Power Technologies International
SIEMENS AG
Erlangen, Germany
Abstract— In the last ten years PMUs (Phasor Measurement
Units) play a more and more important role for the on-line
monitoring and analysis of the state of the electrical systems. The
reasons for this development are dynamic loading of transmission
systems, demand on flexibility of generation, high penetration of
renewable generation and decentralized load and generation
centers. PMUs today allow measuring current and voltage
phasors and execute functions such as power swing recognition
and island detection. Indices can be created on basis of
measurements, which can be used for alarming, protection and
control. A combination of measurements and indices allow for
creating an overall PMU index which describes the online state of
the system and consequently the change of state (tendency) of the
system. The information is created in the phasor data processor
(PDP) which can exchange data with a dynamic security
assessment (DSA) system or/and SCADA system in order to
monitor local and global system states for stability, continuous
steady state analysis, short term / forecast stability analysis and
remedial actions. Finally, combining PDP, DSA and SCADA
enables to enact a wide area protection and control arming and
disarming pre-calculated system integrity schemes.
Keywords— Phasor Measurement Unit, Wide Area Protection
and Control, Dynamic Security Assessment
I. INTRODUCTION
The demand on electrical energy is still growing in almost
all countries in the world. More and more renewable sources
with fluctuating infeed characteristic are installed. The role of
conventional plants is changing. New targets like sustainable
and environmental friendly sources are introduced in the
system planning process. Transmission systems have to be
more flexible to follow the demand. Classical system margins
are reduced and new system margins are introduced to monitor
the system behavior. New transmission systems based on AC
and DC systems are necessary to interconnect new sources
like off-shore wind farms with the grid. New control
mechanisms have to be installed to guarantee a stable
operation of these hybrid systems.
Distribution systems and transmission systems are
operated under changed conditions. More and more small
generation is installed in the distribution subsystems. Classical
plants are operated with changing operational philosophies.
Part load operation and flexible change of operation at low
operation points become more important than base load
operation over the whole year. New grid codes are necessary
to describe how all sources have to support the controllability
of the grid. These new conditions and the fast changing
operation of the grid makes it necessary to collect more
information of the grid to guarantee the smaller stability
978-1-5090-3843-5/17/$31.00 ©2017 European Union
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Rainer Krebs
Power Technologies International
SIEMENS AG
Erlangen, Germany
margins. Better and more accurate system monitoring, control
and protection is necessary when systems are operated closer
to the transmission capability and generally with system
loading close to the operational limits. Especially in very fast
growing systems a lack between transmission capacity and
generation installation can lead to critical situations.
II. DYNAMIC SECURITY ASSESSMENT
DSA (dynamic security assessment) becomes more and
more important in grid control centers. The tasks of a modern
DSA system are to: monitor the actual system state; evaluate
how critical the state is; recognize trends; assign possible
contingencies starting with the actual system situation;
recommend which countermeasures should be executed and at
what time.
In [1], a modern dynamic security system is described,
which filters a huge number of information to a traffic light for
the operator by using normalized indices, which are combined
in a classification process without losing important
information. The same indices can be used for the PMU
processing unit, but only indices which do not need
information of system structure or system parameters can be
realized for a fast acting control system. In the next chapter,
the main indices for combining DSA and PMUs are given.
The role of the DSA system is not to act as a fast control or
protection system. The PMU-based wide area control system
is able to take over this role when operators cannot react on
events which need decisions in milliseconds. The role of the
DSA for such tasks is to pre-calculate the contingencies and to
prepare the countermeasures which are activated using PMU
measurements. The DSA delivers the loading and load-flow-
depending amount of load-shedding, depending on the
location of the fault and the resulting consequences for the
system. A phasor data processor (PDP) activates the load
shedding to maintain system integrity and to avoid splitting
into subsystems without suitable power infeed. The DSA
system is able to take into account all necessary switching
measures which are helpful in case of an outage of system
equipment like outage of a large transformer between
transmission system voltage levels. The calculated actual
indices support the operators in case of a sudden change or
outage in the system which the DSA system can monitor not
as fast as a PMU.
Reference [2] shows the framework and architecture of the
PMU-based wide area control system together with a modern
DSA system using all necessary communication protocols.
 IEEE EUROCON 2017, 6–8 JULY 2017, OHRID, R. MACEDONIA
PMU INDICES
angle
voltage
frequency
loading
collapse
SIGUARD DSA / SCADA
Fig. 1 PMU-based wide area monitoring and control system using SIGUARD PDP (SE stored energy sources, LS load shedding, RD re-dispatch, RP reactive
power control, SR spinning reserve)
III. PMU BASED WIDE AREA PROTECTION AND CONTROL
SYSTEM
Fast growing electrical systems demand more intelligent
computer-based systems to support the operators. DSA allows
to find out how the system will react after severe
contingencies and to define longer lasting countermeasures.
Target of the PMU-based wide area control and protection
system (WAPCS) is not to substitute the control management
in the dispatching center but to improve the system reaction.
Wide-area-effecting faults endanger systems to cascading
effects and black outs. Wide-area faults are results of severe
contingency situations. To prevent such contingency situations
the severity of the outage situation has to be identified and
depending on the expected consequences early
countermeasures have to be defined to reduce the risk of
spreading the effect of disturbances and outage.
Main benefits of the PMU-based wide are monitors and
control systems are: improved system operation; better use of
equipment; increased power system capacity; improved power
flow; better use of system reserves.
The utility of a PMU-based system allows using on-line
information about the system state. By collecting these data
the operator can track the trend of the system over the time
and initialize reactions like re-dispatch. High loading of the
transmission systems increases the economical benefit of the
system, but reduces transmission capacity and needs faster
countermeasures in case of outage of equipment (lines,
compensator and generators). PMU’s allow monitoring the
actual system state and therefore to activate suitable
counteractions in case of critical situations. New algorithms
allow to calculate the system oscillation and damping after
system events which can drive the system into instability.
Analyzing frequency stability, voltage stability and generator
stability nowadays can be combined with on-line analyzing
small signal stability to get a fast view on the risk of the actual
state of the system. In addition, by observing the voltages and
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ANALYSIS CONTROL
Stability Monitoring
- voltage
- frequency
- generator
SE
Reactive Operator
Power Demand LS Decision
RD
Trend Analysis
RP
Pattern Analysis Automated
SR Control
Dispatch Center
reactive power flows the operator can decide about additional
reactive power control. The analysis of known pattern like
critical/ uncritical voltage recovery or frequency behavior
helps the operators to understand the dynamic phenomena.
Electronic storage equipment with its fast reaction can be
triggered by the PMU-based system to incorporate active and
reactive power in ms after identification of a critical situation.
Activation of spinning reserve can be accelerated by change of
controller reference values without delay through waiting on
the system frequency response.
Fig. 1 shows a PMU-based wide area monitoring and
control system based on SIGUARD PDP (Phasor Data
Processor) which uses direct measured information like
voltage, current, frequency and phase angles, but in addition
calculates new indices for a deeper view into the system state.
These indices are normalized and in the range between 0 and 1
and therefore can be easily understood, compared and
combined, which helps the operators to understand the actual
situation [3]. Monitoring can be build like a ‘traffic light’.
Reaching critical index levels allows the operator to make fast
decisions to bring the system out of a dangerous situation. If
necessary, because the human reaction is not suitable, the
system can start automatic control, for example automatic
reactive power control or automatic power flow depending
load shedding (LS). The example will show the benefits of
such a dynamic load shedding. Here the LPFI index is used to
activate the LS. The LPFI index is introduced in the next
section.
SCADA and DSA can support the PMU-based system by
actual information and pre-calculated countermeasures. For
the automatic LS the critical contingencies are pre-calculated
and the necessary amount of LS in combination with the
actual spinning reserve is stored in a decision matrix.
Fig. 2 shows WAPCS part which is used as fast wide-area
load-shedding (WALS) to activate suitable load shedding
depending on the system situation (loading, load flow, fault
location).
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 IEEE EUROCON 2017, 6–8 JULY 2017, OHRID, R. MACEDONIA

C. Frequency Gradient Index (FGI)

By being a good indicator of the power unbalance in the
system, the frequency gradient can be used as a contingency
severity measure. The FGI is defined by (3), where Gi is the
gradient of the i-th generation unit following the contingency
and Gmax adm is the maximum admissible Hz per second change
that may be related to an outage of the largest unit in the
system; for example, in the European ENTSOE, the frequency
gradient caused by outage of the largest unit is 6 mHz/s [6].
The index ranges from 0 in the case of no frequency deviation
to 1 if the degree of frequency drop is larger than specified.

ª § Gi ·º
FGI min «1, max ¨ ¸» (3)
i 1... NG G
¬« © max adm ¹»¼
Fig. 2 SIGUARD PDP based wide area load shedding D. Maximum Frequency Deviation Index (MFDI) [4]
IV. PMU INDICES The MFDI is derived on the assumption the higher the
maximum frequency deviation, the bigger the disturbing effect
PMU-indices are used for the analysis and control of a produced by the contingency. The index is defined by (4) and
system based on local information in addition to the basic considers maximum frequency deviation (ǻfi max) of the i-th
voltage, current and phase measurement. The following generator relative to the maximum admissible frequency
normalized indices (range 0-1) are used for the performance deviation (ǻfmax adm). The index ranges from 0 for the case in
calculation. They can be individually used or combined as which no frequency deviation is produced to 1 for the case in
shown in [1] and [4] for a DSA system. which the frequency reaches its maximum admissible value.
A. Small Signal Stability Index (SSSI) [5]
To monitor to which extent the damping capabilities of the ª § 'fi max ·º
system are affected by contingencies, the SSSI is proposed. Let MFDI min «1, max ¨ ¸» (4)
ȗi be the classical damping measure of i-th oscillation mode « i 1...NG ¨ 'f max adm ¸»
¬ © ¹¼
that suits the condition ȗ > ȗabs lim, where ȗabs lim designates the
absolute stability limit and sufficient damping is positively E. Frequency Recovery Time Index (FRTI)
signed. The damping can be extracted by any of the modal
The FRTI measures the time required by the power system
identification techniques. The SSSI is calculated by taking into
to restore the frequency. It quantifies the effectiveness of the
account the ȗi and the minimum acceptable damping limit
primary and secondary frequency control. The index is defined
ȗmin adm. typically in the range of 3–5%. The SSSI is defined by
by (5), where tFRi is the frequency recovery time of the i-th
(1), where n is the index norm; it ranges from near 0 for the
generator and tFR max adm is the maximum admissible frequency
case in which oscillations are fully damped (ȗi = 100%) to 1
recovery time. The index ranges from 0 for the case when the
for the case in which the damping ratio reaches its minimum
frequency remains within the normal operating band to 1 for
admissible value (ȗi = ȗmin adm).
the case when its recovery is slower than required.

§ § ]i ·
n
·
SSSI min ¨ 1, max ¨ ¸ ¸ , if ] i ! ] abs lim ª § tFRi ·º
¨ © ] min adm ¹ ¸ (1) FRTI min «1, max ¨ ¸» (5)
© ¹ «¬ i 1... NG t
© FR max adm ¹ »¼
SSSI 1, if ] i d ] abs lim
F. Quasi-Stationary Voltage Index (QSVI) [4]
To cater to variety of power system responses, the The QSVI quantifies recovery of voltage at i-th node at the
sensitivity of the index may need to be adjusted. This is end of the transient period following the contingency. The
achieved by setting the norm n as suggested in [5]. index is calculated as a quotient between voltage deviation at
the end of the transient period (ǻVpi) and the maximum
B. Angle Index (AI) [4] admissible steady-state voltage deviation (ǻVi max adm). It is
defined by (6), where maximum admissible voltage deviation
To establish a contingency severity level as a measure of is a percentage of the rated voltage. The index ranges from 0
change in the generator load angle, the AI is proposed. It is for the case in which no voltage deviation is produced to 1 for
defined by (2) and ranges from 0 to 1; it is 1 for the case in the case in which the voltage goes below the minimum
which the maximum admissible angle (įc max adm) is exceeded. acceptable value; NN is the number of system nodes.
In the equation, įci max is the maximum angle of the i-th
generator during system transition and NG is the number of
the system generators.
ª § 'Vpi ·º
ª § G ·º QSVI min «1, max ¨ ¸» (6)
AI min «1, max ¨ ci max ¸» (2) « i 1...NN ¨© 'Vi max adm ¸»
¹¼
«¬ i 1... NG G ¬
© c max adm ¹ »¼

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 IEEE EUROCON 2017, 6–8 JULY 2017, OHRID, R. MACEDONIA
G. Voltage Drop Index (VDI)
To quantify voltage dips due to disturbances and load
current transients, the VDI is proposed. The index is calculated
by simple geometry, similar to solving the equal area criterion
problem in power system stability. It is a ratio between the
area ADVi , enclosed by the transient voltage curve Vi and the
line of the lower limit of the normal operating voltage band
Vi min adm, and area ADVi adm, enclosed by the Vi min adm and
transient voltage limit line. The areas are illustrated in Fig. 3.
The index is defined by (7), where ǻVDVi denotes temporal
voltage deviation at the i-th node; NN is the number of the
load nodes with the assigned VDI. The VDI can be related to
voltage-dip immunity requirements of industrial sites [7].
ª ·º
§ tS
« ¨ ³ 'VDVi .dt ¸»
VDI min ««1, max ¨¨ 0 ¸»
i 1... NN ADVi adm ¸»
« ¨ ¸»
«¬ ¨ ¸»
© ¹¼
H. Voltage Ride Through Index (VRTI)
The VRTI is given by (8) and considers a transient voltage
dip both in percentage deviation and in time duration; the
fault-on and post-fault voltage deviation is quantified by
comparing two areas. Similar as by the VDI, the first area is
enclosed by the transient voltage curve (Vi ) and the line of the
lower limit of the normal operating voltage band (Vi min adm),
while the second area is the reference one and enclosed by
Vi min adm and the FRT limit line. Each stage of the voltage
transient can be treated individually; satisfactory results are
obtained if two subareas are defined: one for the fault-on and
the other for the post-fault period (Fig. 3). In the equation, j
denotes a subarea under evaluation and NN gives the number
of the generator nodes with the VRTI.
ADVi
A DVi ,adm
Fig. 3 Voltage-dip immunity criteria.
ª § ·º
¨ ³ 'Vi ˜ dt ¸ »
area j
« shedding is defined to maintain system stability after fault and
« ¨t ¸»
VRTI min «1, max ¨ area j area j ¸»
«
i 1,... NN A max adm
¨ ¸»
« ¨ ¸»
¬ © ¹¼
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I. Line Power Flow Index (LPFI) [4]
The LPFI is related to the requirement that the post-
contingency power flow on transmission lines should not
exceed a power flow limit (designated as Pi lim) since such
excess may activate line protection and so degrade the system
security. The LPFI is defined by (9), where Ppi is the power
flow through the i-th line at the end of the transient period
following the contingency; n is index norm (real non-negative
number), which stands for the relative importance of a line in
the system; the more important the line, the lower the norm;
NL refers to the number of the lines in the system. If a line is
loaded to the limit, the LPFI is 1.
ª § ª P º n ·º
min «1, max ¨ « » ¸»
pi
LPFI (9)
« i 1... NL ¨ ¬« Pi lim ¼» ¸ »
¬ © ¹¼
(7)
J. Transformer Power Flow Index (TPFI)
Overloading of power transformers may result in
premature aging of insulation and irreversible damage. The
TPFI is defined by (10); parameter Pi trf denotes the actual
loading of the i-th transformer, whereas Pi trf rat relates to a
transformer’s rated loading; NT is the number of the
transformers in the system.
ª § Pi trf ·º
TPFI min «1, max ¨ ¸¸ » (10)
i 1... NT ¨ P
¬« © i trf rat ¹ ¼»
V. EXAMPLE OF LOAD SHEDDING ACTIVATION THROUGH
WIDE AREA PROTECTION SYSTEM
Fig. 4 shows the topology of a 500 kV longitudinal system.
This system spreads through an area about 2000 km long and
includes three subsystems. The subsystems are referred to as
Nord, Central and South. In the Central subsystem a double
line connecting load centers in the North and South
subsystems is located. The peak load of the complete system is
49 GW. The system generation is composed of hydro-, gas-
and combined cycle power plants.
To investigate the effect of WALS, two simulation cases
are performed. First case includes a three phase fault on a
double circuit line connecting North and South subsystems.
The line is loaded with approximately 2 GW. The three phase
fault occurs on one of the two circuits and is followed by loss
of the circuit. The parallel circuit remains in operation. The
total fault duration is 140ms. The second case assumes the
same scenario however on a single-circuit transmission line
located in the proximity of the largest load center in the south.
The line loading is 1 GW.
With WAPCS, the optimized amount of automatic load
avoid overload of transmission lines.
(8)
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 IEEE EUROCON 2017, 6–8 JULY 2017, OHRID, R. MACEDONIA

Nord Case 1

Central

Case 2

South

Fig. 4 500kV studied system

Active power of tripped line Active power of transmission line

1000 0
P [MW]

P [MW]

0 -1000
-1000
-2000 -2000
95 100 105 110 115 120 t 125
[s] 95 100 105 110 115 120 t 125
[s]
Frequency Frequency

51 Nord 50
f [Hz]
f [Hz]

50 Central Nord
South 49.8
49 Central
95 100 105 110 115 120 t 125
[s] 95 100 105 110 115 South
120 t 125
[s]

Faulted Bus Voltage Faulted Bus Voltage

1 1
U [pu]

U [pu]

0.5 0.5
0 0
95 100 105 110 115 120 t 125
[s] 95 100 105 110 115 120 t 125
[s]
Nord
Load Angle Load Angle
Angle [Degree]

Angle [Degree]

Central
20
5000 Nord 0 South
0 Central -20
-5000 South -40
95 100 105 110 115 120 t 125
[s] 95 100 105 110 115 120 t 125
[s]

Fig. 5 System behavior in case 1 without smart load shedding Fig. 6 System behavior in case 1 with smart load shedding

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 IEEE EUROCON 2017, 6–8 JULY 2017, OHRID, R. MACEDONIA

Active power of transmission line Active power of transmission line

500 0
P [MW]

P [MW]
0 -500
-500
-1000 -1000
-1500
95 100 105 110 115 120 t 125
[s] 95 100 105 110 115 120 125
t [s]
Frequency Frequency
51 Nord 50
f [Hz]

f [Hz]
50 Central
Nord
49 South 49.5 Central
95 100 105 110 115 120 t 125 95 100 105 110 115 120
[s]
South t 125
[s]
Faulted Bus Voltage Faulted Bus Voltage
1 1
U [pu]

U [pu]
0.5 0.5
0 0
95 100 105 110 115 120 125
t [s] 95 100 105 110 115 120
Nord 125
t [s]
Load Angle Load Angle Central
Angle [Degree]

Angle [Degree]
2000 South
Nord 20
0 0
-2000 Central -20
-4000 South -40
-60
95 100 105 110 115 120 t 125
[s] 95 100 105 110 115 120 125
t [s]

Fig. 7 System behavior in case 2 without smart load shedding Fig. 8 System behavior in case 2 with smart load shedding

Fig. 5 shows response of the system in case 1 without [3] Kerin, U., Lerch, E.: Dynamic Security Assessment to Improve
load shedding. It can be observed that after the fault and System Stability; CRIS-Conference Hanoi, Vietnam, 2011
single circuit trip the system becomes unstable. Effectively [4] Gimenez, J.M., Mercado, P.E. (2007): Online inference of the
dynamic security level of power system using fuzzy techniques, IEEE
this means the system is not n-1 secure. Fig. 6 shows Trans. Power Syst., vol. 22, no. 2, May 2007, pp. 717-726
response of the system to the same event however with 980 [5] U. Kerin, E. Lerch, G. Bizjak, “Monitoring and reporting of security
MW load shedding (minimum amount to maintain system of power system low Frequency oscillations,” Elec. Power Compon.
stability). The blackout can be avoided and the system is Syst., vol. 38, no. 9, Jun. 2010, pp. 1047-1060.
kept stable. The simulation results of case 2 are shown in [6] UCTE AD-HOC Group, “Frequency quality investigation,” Final
Fig. 7 and Fig. 8. The same effect is observed when there is Report, Aug. 2008.
a minimum of 1330 MW load shedding activated. The [7] CIGRE/ CIRED/ UIE Joint Working Group C4.110, “Voltage dip
frequency and voltage in the proximity of the faulted bus immunity of equipment installations,” in Proce. CIRED 20th
remain within bounds and angular stability is maintained. International Electricity Distribution Conf., Prague, Jun. 2009, pp. 1-
4.

VI. CONCLUSION
With an example of load shedding activation paper
demonstrates the use of composed indices in a PMU-based
wide area monitoring and control system. It results in lower
risk of instability in the system. It minimizes outages and
blackout situations by automatic counteractions. It allows
the control of congestion situations. The example of an
automatic load shedding system for the main transmission
system of a large longitudinal structured electrical system
shows how the security of the system, which is not (n-1)
secure, can be improved. By proper system reaction
blackouts can be prevented. Cascading splitting into
insolated part load system can be avoided and instability can
be prevented.

REFERENCES
[1] Kerin, U., Trinh, N. Tuan, Lerch, E., Bizjak, Grega: Small Signal
Security Index for Contingency Classification in Dynamic Security
Assessment; IEEE Power Tech Trondheim, Norway, 2011
[2] Eichler, R., Krebs, R., Wache, M., Lerch, E.: Mitigating Risk of
System Instability caused by Fluctuating Renewables with smart
Transmission Grid Applications; CEPSI-Conference Bali, Indonesia,
2012

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