Comparison of Time Synchronization Sources for PMU Calibration Infrastructures

Monitoring and control applications for modern power systems shall rely on a distributed and synchronized measurement infrastructure. In this context, the calibration of new generation Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) is becoming a challenge for National Metrological Institutes, and requires the minimization of any uncertainty contribution. In this paper, we discuss how different reference clocks may affect the synchronization of the PMU calibrator to the Coordinated Universal Time. The adoption of a White Rabbit time distribution allows for reducing by at least a factor five the synchronization uncertainty.