Power system frequency monitoring network (FNET) implementation

Frequency dynamics is one of the most important measures of an electrical power system status. To better understand power system dynamics, an accurately measured wide-area frequency is needed. The concept of building an Internet-based real-time GPS-synchronized wide-area frequency monitoring network (FNET) was proposed in 2000 by Qiu et al., and this concept has been realized. The FNET system consists of frequency disturbance recorders and an information management system. The FNET has made the synchronized observations of the entire U.S. power network possible with very little cost for the first time. This paper summarizes the implementation of the FNET system and shows some preliminary observations and analyses of the data that have been collected from the FNET.