Wide-Area Control Resiliency Using Redundant Communication Paths

With significant investment made in the U.S. in deploying synchrophasor measurement technology, more wide-area measurements will be available and controls based on these signals are likely to be adopted. Communication systems play a critical role in interactive grid control as an indispensable medium to transmit wide-area measurements; however, they are vulnerable to disruptions leading to the risk of destabilizing power systems. This work addresses a critical issue related to engineering resilient cyber-physical systems. The proposed framework utilizes a hierarchical set of wide-area measurements for control and employs channel switching based on mathematical morphology identification to counteract the impact of communication failures on control effectiveness. The proposed control framework incorporating a set of synchronized wide-area measurements is designed to consist of multiple single-input single-output supplementary damping controllers associated with a static VAr compensator. This work is particularly important with regard to leveraging the large investment in installing phasor measurement units across the nation.