PMU-based real-time damping control system software and hardware architecture synthesis and evaluation

Low-frequency, electromechanically induced, inter-area oscillations are of concern in the continued stability of inter-connected power systems. Wide Area Monitoring, Protection and Control (WAMPAC) systems based on wide-area measurements such as synchrophasor (C37.118) data can be exploited to address the inter-area oscillation problem. This work develops a hardware prototype of a synchrophasor-based oscillation damping control system. A Compact Reconfigurable Input Output (cRIO) controller from National Instruments is used to implement the real-time prototype. This paper presents the design process followed for the development of the software architecture. The design method followed a three step process of design proposal, design refinement and finally attempted implementation. The goals of the design, the challenges faced and the refinements necessary are presented. The design implemented is tested and validated on OPAL-RT's eMEGASIM real-time simulation platform and a brief discussion of the experimental results is included.