Prioritization of PMU Location and Signal Selection for Monitoring Critical Power System Oscillations

This paper proposes a method of selecting and/or locating phasor measurement unit (PMU) signals for monitoring critical oscillation modes in large power systems. A robust indicator, modal participation ratio, is introduced to identify critical PMU locations and signal channels, in order to monitor modes of interest to power system operators. This indicator is easy to compute in practice, and is theoretically rigorous based on linear control theory and spectral analysis. This indicator can suggest location and/or selection of PMUs in order to most effectively observe modes of interest to power system operators. The effectiveness and robustness of the algorithm is illustrated in both modified 68-bus system and 140-bus system.