Practical challenges of integrating synchrophasor applications into an EMS

With the exploding growth of synchrophasor PMU data in utility control centers, there is an increased emphasis on successful integration of existing model-based Energy Management Systems (EMS) applications with the new complementary PMU measurement-based applications. This is necessary to gain confidence of the newly integrated data, while embracing these new measurement-based tools and techniques. These new generation of synchrophasor applications have moved beyond prototype to the Proof of Concept (PoC) stage. Once validated and accepted by end users, field installation and training, the tools will become part of the day-to-day, production EMS. The synchrophasor applications include Linear State Estimator (LSE), Oscillation Detection, Voltage Stability indicators, etc. Enhanced tools to validate results and advanced simulation tools for training are other areas for development. The integration tasks pose many challenges and are addressed in this paper.