PMU traffic shaping in IP-based Wide Area communication

Phasor based Wide Area Monitoring and Control (WAMC) Systems are becoming a reality with increased research, development and deployments. Many potential control applications based on these systems are being proposed and researched. Such applications are either local applications using data from one or a few Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) or centralized utilizing data from several PMUs. An aspect of these systems, which is less well researched, is the WAMC system dependence on high performance communication. This paper presents results of research on the use of Internet Protocol (IP) networks for both PMU and Remote Terminal Unit (RTU)/Intelligent Electronic Devices (IED) data for monitoring purposes. The paper examines performance aspects of the IP network Infrastructures when utilized by both: continuous PMU data streams and critical IED/RTU data. A set of simulation models characterizing a network of a Nordic Transmission System Operator were built to perform the analysis. The paper considers Quality of Service (QoS) strategies and the resulting delays and data loss that would be experienced.