Challenging Changing Landscapes: Implementing Synchrophasor Technology in Grid Operations in the WECC Region

Power grids have become more complex to plan and operate. With grid changes arise new challenges: renewable generation, energy conservation, electric vehicles, energy storage, and load growth. Challenges facing the electric industry today include balancing capacity, reliability, economics, environmental, and other public objectives. Recent cascading outages have demonstrated the challenges faced when operating a system near its limits. These outages over the last few years have had large social and economic impacts. In 2012, an outage in India affected over 620 million people. In 2009, a blackout in Brazil and Paraguay impacted 87 million. In 2011, a power blackout affecting 3 million people in Southern California and Mexico lasted 12 hours and was estimated to have cost over US$100 million in lost revenue. It is a balancing act to meet todays? electricity consumer expectations in a changing landscape.