Development of a Wide Area Measurement System for Smart Grid Applications

In this paper, the modeling for a complete scenario of a proposed wide area measurement system (WAMS) based on synchronized phasor measurement units (PMUs) technology with the access of a broadband communication capability is presented. The purpose is to increase the overall system efficiency and reliability for all power stages via significant dependence on WAMS as distributed intelligence agents with improved monitoring, protection, and control capabilities of power networks. The developed system is simulated using the Matlab/Simulink program. The power system layer consists of a 50 kW generation station, 20 kW wind turbine, three transformers, four circuit breakers, four buses, two short transmission lines, and two 30 kW loads. The communication layer consists of three PMUs, located at generation and load buses, and one phasor data concentrator (PDC), that will collect the data received from remote PMUs and send it to the control center for analysis and control actions. The proposed system is tested under two possible cases; normal operation and fault state. It was found that power system status can be easily monitored and controlled in real time by using the measured bus values online which improves the overall system reliability and avoids cascaded blackout during fault occurrence. The simulation results confirm the validity of the proposed WAMS technology for smart grid applications.