Meeting NERC requirements for oscillography and disturbance monitoring by collecting data from relays

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and the region reliability councils have mandated electric utilities to monitor their power systems at critical locations throughout their system. The monitoring systems are to be phased into service by 2010. American Electric Power (AEP) and Tarigma Corporation with assistance from Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc. (SEL) have developed a disturbance monitoring system to provide an alternative to traditional monitoring equipment to meet these monitoring requirements. This paper will discuss the collection of event and synchrophasor data from relays to satisfy the NERC requirements for disturbance monitoring. Event data from relays on the AEP system is currently retrieved, stored locally and then moved to several server sites on the AEP system. This same approach will be taken with synchrophasors and allow AEP to use this data to meet the disturbance requirements mandated by NERC. Combining these two approaches provides the means for AEP to save millions of dollars by not having to purchase conventional recording equipment for their system in order to meet the NERC requirements. This approach provides a very cost-effective means of capturing event and disturbance data in stations that could typically justify the need for conventional recording equipment. Since this approach is a fraction of the cost of traditional disturbance monitoring equipment, monitoring can be justified in smaller stations. This paper addresses the challenges of retrieving the data from relays in a way that meets the NERC requirements. The economics of the traditional approach of collecting data versus using data captured by relays will be contrasted. Techniques for storing the data locally and moving the data efficiently and securely to corporate servers for engineering access will also be examined.