The Wide World of Wide-area Measurement

The interest in phasor measurement technology has reached a peak in recent years, as the need for the best estimate of the power system´s state is recognized to be a crucial element in improving its performance and its resilience in the face of catastrophic failures. In most countries installing the phasor measurement units (PMUs) and getting to know the PMU system behavior through continuous observations of system events has been the first step. All installations are reaching for a hierarchical wide-area measurement system (WAMS ) so that the measurements obtained from various substations on the system can be collected at central locations from which various monitoring, protection, and control applications can be developed. In this article, experts from several countries summarize their WAMS -related activities in some detail. The contributions here provide an account of the most advanced stages in WAMS development in major world economies.