A software-only PTP synchronization for power system state estimation with PMUs

Synchronized Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) are becoming a key element of monitoring, protection, control and state estimation applications in power systems and are the basis for the implementation of Wide Area Monitoring Systems (WAMSs). This paper investigates the possibility of using a software-only PTP (Precision Time Protocol) synchronization method to synchronize different Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) and how this synchronization impacts the State Estimation. In this context, as a case study, the output data of the PMUs have been used to estimate the state of a power system of reduced size and complexity. A laboratory experimental setup has been built to evaluate the performance achievable with the proposed synchronization solution. The results thus obtained and the performance analysis are discussed in this paper.