Certain investigations on optimization approaches for optimal placement of phasor measurement units in smart power grid system

Abstract

The electrical power transmission grid is becoming more complex to manage and is experiencing challenges like increase in global demand for electricity, increase in renewable generation, remote load centres, and stringent laws by regulatory authorities on power quality, interconnected grids and the aging transmission infrastructure. These challenges can make power flow stability more complex for network operators as they manage stability issues under fault clearing and post-fault conditions. The increase in demand and renewable energy integration combined with aging infrastructure can cause the voltage on the grid to fluctuate, including harmonics, unbalanced loads and power oscillation which can impact power quality and power transfer capability. As the grid challenges are very complex, it demands significant engineering analysis and studies to ensure the right solution to be incorporated in smart grid. The Energy Management System and the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System are able to provide only the steady state newlinesituation of the power network with high data flow latency and it does not provide the phase angles of bus voltages in the network dynamically due to technical difficulties in synchronising measurement from remote locations. The advent of synchrophasor technology upgraded the monitoring and the measurements of critical aspects of the electrical power system, real time monitoring and control. The introduction of phasor measurement units alleviated the problem by synchronising current and voltage waveforms at widely dispersed locations with respect to Global Positioning System. newline newline