Phasor Measurement Unit Application in Electrical Grids for Monitoring and Control: A Review

Managing electrical power distribution from different generating platforms, through transmission lines with a variety of transformers, is a major challenge due to energy losses and risks of collapse of transmission and distribution networks due to unpredicted load fluctuations. In addition to the large areas over which the network is distributed, the emergence of modern technologies for producing electrical energy from renewable and environmentally friendly sources requires monitoring and control technologies that are different from conventional sources in coordinating a response to load changes. As a result of the multiplicity of technologies used in analyzing and managing electrical energy, the phase measurement unit (PMU) technology emerged as a valuable source of information. The PMU provides many advantages over its predecessor such as the SCADA technology. Information gathered from PMU technology can be used for, monitoring, detecting frequency fluctuations, voltage profile changes, accuracy in load modeling, analysis, and control of subsystems and events that occur within the system. In this paper, the PMU structure and construction components are discussed with the principle of operation. Furthermore, the benefits of PMU in electrical grids are explored in order to provide an understanding of how PMU computes with other systems such as SCADA. A comparison is provided between PMU and SCADA technologies to exemplify the merits and justify future research on PMUs. The study concludes by stating the importance of PMU in addressing some of the previous papers and studies and stating the techniques used in design and connection within the network.