Analysis of Phasor Data Latency in Wide Area Monitoring and Control Systems

Synchronized phasor measurement based Wide Area Monitoring and Control (WAMC) system is becoming a reality within international research and development both in academia and industry. Timely and accurate data with high resolutions holds great promise for more responsible and advanced grid control and operation. Currently, most of the research focuses on the different control schemes and applications. A relatively less addressed aspect is the dependency of the WAMC system on the performance of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure, without whose support the projected functionalities of the WAMC systems will be not achieved. Possible delays brought by the complex data transfer and processing processes in WAMC systems are addressed in the first part of this paper. Thereafter, simulations where delayed Phasor measurements are fed to the Static Var Compensator (SVC) are conducted iteratively to detect its maximum tolerated delay. Furthermore, performance requirements for the centralized computation and control actuation are researched and analyzed based on simulation results. It also includes a study on feasibility of compensations using local signal based Power System Stabilizers (PSS) in situations with much phasor data delay. The paper is concluded by suggesting ICT architecture for WAMC systems aiming to improve its robustness.