An Introduction on Power System Monitoring

This chapter introduces power system monitoring and control, especially with wide-area phasor measurement applying phasor measurement units (PMUs). Some global applications of the wide-area measurement system (WAMS) and the information and communication technology (ICT) architecture used in the phasor measurement system are outlined in the chapter. To monitor the power system, many measuring instruments and apparatuses are installed. The phase angle is known as an important quantity that should be monitored for state estimation. If the phase angle can be measured, more flexible and precise monitoring could be expected. It should be a very important aspect to collect the data measured by each PMU for system monitoring, state estimation, protection, and control. The measured data could be locally saved and then collected for postanalysis, or sent to a remote location in real time for system protection or real-time control. The chapter discusses the ICT architecture used in phasor measurement systems.