Real-time Context-Aware Operation of Digitalized Power Systems by Reporting Rate Control of PMUs

Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) are becoming increasingly popular in modern power systems due to their ability to provide synchronized voltage and current phasors with high temporal resolution. PMUs enable advanced monitoring, which is required for the operation of modern power systems. However, the high data reporting rate (RR) associated with the PMUs results in high data volume. Hence, there exists a trade-off between the temporal resolution requirement depending on the dynamic behaviour of the grid and the volume of data flow through the communication network. Commercial PMUs do not possess a context-aware run-time control of RR capable of considering this trade-off and therefore, do not provide access for the necessary research and development of this function. To this end, virtualization is known to be a promising approach. This paper presents a C37.118.2-2011 standard-compliant virtual PMU (vPMU), which provides a controllable dynamic reporting rate solution considering the dynamic behaviour of the power systems as well as the operational condition of the communication network. The proposed vPMU has been successfully tested on the CIGRE MV benchmark grid using an OPAL-RT real-time simulation environment.