Power system event location analysis using wide-area measurements

Power system frequency can tell volumes about the health and state of a power system. Moreover, the manner in which angle and frequency perturbations travel throughout the power grid has been closely studied in the past. Such perturbations are known to propagate throughout the grid as a function of time and space. Using measurements from a wide-area frequency monitoring network (FNET), one can observe the electromechanical wave signature of power system events in frequency data. In this paper, a brief synopsis of FNET is presented along with an analysis of several generator tripping events. The analysis is comprised of several event location methods and resulting observations. The eventual goal of this research is to formulate a robust event location algorithm that can be used online and in real-time to locate with sufficient accuracy the hypocenter of power system events irrespective of utility boundaries.