Architecture and Experimental Validation of a Low-Latency Phasor Data Concentrator

The paper presents the design principles of a Phasor Data Concentrator (PDC) that implements both the absolute and relative time data pushing logics together with a third one that aims at minimizing the latency introduced by the PDC without increasing the data incompleteness, as suggested in the IEEE Guide C37.244-2013. The performance of the aforementioned logics are assessed and compared in terms of reliability, determinism and reduction of the overall latency in two real Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU) installations adopting different telecom infrastructures. The first one is based on optical fiber links that transmit synchrophasor data measured by 15 PMUs installed in the sub-transmission network of the city of Lausanne, Switzerland. The second one adopts a 4G LTE wireless infrastructure to support the data streaming of 10 PMUs installed in a distribution network supplying the city of Huissen, in the Netherlands. The experimental results show that the proposed logic is characterized by the lowest latency, whereas the absolute time logic better mitigates the synchrophasor data latency variations.