Stress assessment in power systems and its visualization using synchrophasor based metrics

This paper proposes two metrics for assessing static and dynamic stresses present in a large interconnected power grid. The base loading of the system constitutes the static stress. It refers to the normal/pre-contingency state of the system. The dynamic stress refers to the event/contingency that the system is subjected to and is primarily caused by loss of transmission system or drop in generation. The angle difference between buses located across the network, and the voltage sensitivity of buses lying in the middle are two synchrophasor-based metrics that are found to accurately reflect the system's static loading and its ability to withstand the dynamic stress. The simulations performed using the full WECC system show that by monitoring these metrics in real-time, the ability of the system to withstand a variety of contingencies can be predicted with great accuracy. These metrics can be monitored through analytic and visualization platforms such as RTDMS^®1, which is a synchrophasor based software application. The methodology to be followed for integrating with such a platform is also provided. The analysis shows that the proposed metrics can be very effective in aiding system operators for real-time static and dynamic stress monitoring.