Design of an Open Platform for Real-Time Power Grid Monitoring

This paper presents the design and implementation of the UK’s first open platform for acquiring, archiving, and visu-alizing high-resolution real-time measurement data from Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs). The platform, termed "Smart Grid Monitoring and Visualization Platform (SGMVP)", is also capable of accessing and sharing the operational data of the Great Britain (GB) transmission network (e.g. demand level, output of different generation units, power flow in interconnectors, etc.). SGMVP provides an ideal solution for open and convenient access to valuable grid data, which enables a wide range of potential applications (e.g. power system model validation, provision of training data for data-driven approaches in power systems, etc.). In this paper, the architecture of the SGMVP platform and the design and implementation of the key functional blocks will be presented in detail. Discussion of the potential use cases of the platform for various purposes is presented. Future plans for further developing the platform to incorporate more PMUs from different locations in the GB power network are discussed.