A Software Toolchain for Real-Time Testing of Synchrophasor Algorithms in MATLAB

This article develops and demonstrates the software toolchain for real-time testing of synchrophasor based algorithms. Real-time testing procedure being the need of smart grid, requires to be hassle-free and easily accessible to the researchers. The developed software toolchain combines both MATLAB and open-source software. The toolchain requires recorded phasor measurement unit (PMU) or phasor data concentrator (PDC) signals, which are then played-back in real-time in the same computer using local sockets. The data is replayed using transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP) sockets and the IEEE C37.111-2013 data transfer standard. The data is then retrieved and processed in real-time by any synchrophasor based algorithm in MATLAB. The toolchain is demonstrated with two examples, one that shows the main functionality by testing the connection with a PMU/PDC and another testing of a wide-area forced oscillation (FO) monitoring algorithm.