Time Synchronization in Wide Area Damping Control of Power Systems

Synchrophasor data, now prevalent in power systems around the world, is enabling the development of applications such as wide area control systems (WACS). Because synchrophasor data is transmitted from dispersed locations it is only available to WACS after a certain delay and at irregular time intervals. This paper initially shows that these non-uniformities in the availability of the data cause the WACS output command to be non-smooth potentially affecting the actuator. Next, paper also shows how delays in the WACS input signal are translated into erroneous and inverted WACS output commands. Finally, the paper proposes exact time-synchronization of the data as a solution of the above problems to ensure that the control action is not compromised.