Implementation of a wide-area monitoring scheme for the Indian power system

India has one of the most extensive power transmission networks in the world with an installed capacity in excess of 220GW. After 2012 blackout, PGCIL initiated the deployment of the biggest WAMS in the world. The Unified Real Time Dynamic State Measurement system (URTDSM) is composed of 1,950 PMUs to be installed in 351 substations feeding synchrophasor data to 29 State Control Centres and 5 Regional Control Centres and 2 National Control Centres. Its final configuration will be able to handle up to 3,000 PMUs at national level. Phasor measurement units compliant with the latest synchrophasor standards are being deployed in a 4-tiered architecture. This immense structure will require a communication bandwidth of 146 Mbps and 350 terabytes WAMS data storage per annum. URTDSM brings WAMS to a new level where thousands of synchrophasor measurements integrated into the system are a reality. The URTDSM WAMS is conceived to enhance the situational awareness and visualization of the power system state on a real time basis for improved operational and planning efficiency of the grid. With URTDSM, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (PGCIL), the end user, will be able to monitor the emergence of dangerous oscillations commonly present in blackouts. PGCIL will benefit as well from an improvement on the speed and quality of post-mortem analysis of grid disturbances. Other benefits foreseen are the detection and analysis of low frequency oscillations, islanding detection and management and also offline dynamic model validation. The paper details the wide area monitoring solution being rolled out across the Indian grid, highlighting its key elements. We describe all technical challenges associated with the new architecture and the immense volume of data. Functional tests are also described which have been carried out to demonstrate the performance of the phasor measurement units (PMUs) to be used by the monitoring system. It is important to note that despite being the first project of this size in the world, projects like this are becoming more common since many utilities are already reaching 1,000 PMUs.