Networked Information Gathering and Fusion of PMU Data

(PSERC) is a multi-university Center conducting research on challenges facing the electric power industry and educating the next generation of power engineers. More information about PSERC can be found at the Center's website: www.pserc.org. This copyrighted document may be distributed electronically or in print form as long as it is done (1) with the entire document including the cover, title page, contact page, acknowledgements, and executive summary in addition to the text, and (2) attribution is given to the Power Systems Engineering Research Center as the sponsor of the white paper. We also recognize the staff, faculty, and students of the Power Systems Engineering Research Center for their efforts in developing the vision that led to the " Future Grid " project under which this white paper falls. Finally, we express deep appreciation to the several reviewers who significantly contributed to the quality of this white paper, as listed below. Executive Summary The nation's power grid is perhaps the most dynamic and heterogeneous man-made network, and its modernization involves not only the physical-system, but also its cyber-infrastructure. In particular, the smart grid in the making is envisaged to integrate a considerable amount of renewable energy resources, which are highly variable. To meet these challenges, a key step is to develop real-time, lightweight and adaptive algorithms for three core functions, namely measurement, fusion, and communication, which will be responsive to the dynamics of the grid and support various applications with diverse requirements. However, the existing supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems provide only the static states or the quasi-static states of the power grid. The synchrophasor technology is emerging as an enabling technology to facilitate both information interaction as well as energy interaction between providers and customers, and help revolutionize the power system. In particular, it is critical to ensure reliable and secure communication systems for synchrophasor data. In this report, we identify a few important problems in this fundamental building block in the smart grid as follows. • What data processing, calibrating, filtering, and cleaning algorithms are needed to ensure quality data is stored and distributed for use in energy management systems at the proper time scale? • What are the suitable criteria for designing the communication systems for synchrophasor data, and how would the off-the-shelf communication technologies perform? • What fusion mechanisms would work efficiently to extract useful information through synchrophasor data? • How robust are the interdependent …