B5

Protection and
TECHNICAL BROCHURE

automation

Life Cycle Testing of

Synchrophasor Based Systems
used for Protection, Monitoring
and Control
Reference: 843

September 2021
TECHNICAL BROCHURE

Life Cycle Testing of

Synchrophasor Based Systems
used for Protection, Monitoring
and Control
WG B5.62

Members

M. KEZUNOVIC, Convenor US N. ANTTI-JUHANI FI

R. BHARAT AU M. GRENWOOD NL
Y. LIU US D. V. S. STEARN GB

Corresponding Members

T. BI CN D. DUBININ RU
H. LIU CN R FERNANDES BR

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ISBN : 978-2-85873-548-8
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TB 843 - Life Cycle Testing of Synchrophasor Based Systems used for Protection, Monitoring and Control

Executive summary
This report is focused on the topic “Life Cycle Testing of Synchrophasor Based Systems used for
Protection, Monitoring and Control”. According to the Terms of Reference, the report was to be
focused on answering the following questions:
• What are the existing PMU and Synchrophasor system standards, and what is their
impact on testing and certification?
• What is the importance of the concept of interoperability and why it matters?
• Why the certification may be needed and who is authorized to do it?
• How certification may be accomplished and what are associated costs?
• What are acceptance, commissioning, periodic maintenance and troubleshooting test
procedures and how do they relate to the life-cycle management of synchrophasor
systems?
• Why such life cycle test procedures matter and how are they implemented today?
• How to plan for the PMU certification and the lifecycle testing of PMUs and Synchrophasor
Systems?
The report has intentionally excluded any cybersecurity related life-cycle management activities since
other CIGRE Study Committee B5 Working Groups have focused on this issue in the past or have an
ongoing activity on this area.
The report first addresses the issues of synchrophasor system definition and possible architectures.
The key conclusion is that synchrophasor systems may consist of many components such as phasor
measurement units (PMUs), phasor data concentrators (PDCs), as well as time-precision signal
receivers and communication systems making them a very complex system to commission, test and
maintain. However, due to their importance, it was emphasized that such systems need to be carefully
tested for compliance with standards, and then properly deployed through commissioning tests, and
eventually tested periodically when expansions are made or they miss-operate.
Next, the report focuses on discussion of synchrophasor standards available today (as of the time of
the final stages of the report preparation, end of 2020). It was recognized that the standards are
evolving, but the basic standards how to specify PMUs and PDCs, and how to test them are in place.
While the conformance testing was defined by the IEEE ICAP and others, a notable gap is identified in
the areas of detailed specification of acceptance, commissioning and routine maintenance testing.
Such testing procedures, particularly the cases when synchrophasor systems may be installed by the
transmission asset owners and used by the market operator are not well defined for full end-to-end
testing.
The report then goes on to elaborate on the reasons why the synchrophasor systems design and
implementation require careful consideration of the integration issues such as backward compatibility
and interoperability. It has been emphasized that due to its criticality in the control and monitoring role,
and based on the fact that such systems are constantly evolving, it is a must that the systems go
through a detailed end-to-end evaluation, which may include initial lab acceptance testing for
individual components such as PMUs and PDCs, but needs to end with full end-to-end testing in the
field at the time of commissioning and later on periodically during the service. This was based on
industry reports of poor synchrophasor data quality which was identified in an elaborate NASPI report
based on end-user inputs.
The report then goes into many details on new standards developments in various countries such as
China, purchase specifications in Russia and India, and test practices in Brazil and Finland as
examples. The key conclusion is that the practices in all the mentioned areas are different and a more
unified approach at least for the same types of applications is needed.
Finally the report offers a number of recommendations, with the most important ones related to the
need to perform full range of tests as a part of the lifecycle management, keep abreast of the
emerging standards, explore opportunities in distribution applications, and have more comprehensive
workforce training.
The final conclusions are as follows:
• End users should persist in looking at the synchrophasor systems in a holistic way by
defining the life-cycle test and calibration procedures. If such procedures are not in place,
they should be developed

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TB 843 - Life Cycle Testing of Synchrophasor Based Systems used for Protection, Monitoring and Control

• Vendors should be ready to offer and perform interoperability tests as needed to verify
that end-to-end legacy systems may be upgraded with a variety of products on the market
going forward.
• Standards organizations should develop procedures for application testing that will also
encompass end-to-end testing of the underlying synchrophasor infrastructure.
• Consultants, vendors, and academic researchers should look into the fundamentals
needed to better understand the synchrophasor system performance under transient
conditions and recommend adequate calibration and test procedures beyond what is
currently defined in the standards.

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Contents
Executive summary ............................................................................................................. 3

Figures and Illustrations ..................................................................................................... 7

1. Introduction................................................................................................................ 8
1.1 Terms of Reference and Scope of Work .................................................................................................. 8
1.2 Document intent and expected future use .............................................................................................. 8
1.3 Other relevant work ................................................................................................................................... 8
1.4 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................................... 9

2. Background .............................................................................................................. 10
2.1 Synchrophasor Systems ......................................................................................................................... 10
2.2 Phasor measurement units and phasor data concentrators ............................................................... 11
2.3 Gateways and other communications requirements ............................................................................ 12
2.4 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................................. 12

3. Review of Related Standards and Practices .......................................................... 13

3.1 IEEE Standards ........................................................................................................................................ 13
3.1.1 Synchrophasor Measurement Accuracy and Performance ................................................................ 13
3.1.2 Synchrophasor Time Synchronization ............................................................................................... 13
3.1.3 Synchrophasor Data Transfer ............................................................................................................ 13
3.1.4 Guide and Conformity Assessment.................................................................................................... 13
3.2 IEC Standards .......................................................................................................................................... 14
3.3 National and other industry standards .................................................................................................. 14
3.3.1 PMU standards in China .................................................................................................................... 14
3.3.2 PMU standards in Russia .................................................................................................................. 15
3.4 Options for calibration and certification ................................................................................................ 15
3.5 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................................. 16

4. Integration Requirements ....................................................................................... 17

4.1 The concepts of interoperability and interchangeability and their importance ................................. 17
4.2 The concepts of calibration and certification and their importance ................................................... 18
4.3 The concepts of component and end-to-end testing and their importance ....................................... 18
4.4 Backward compatibility and interoperability ........................................................................................ 18
4.5 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................................. 19

5. Life cycle testing requirement ................................................................................ 20

5.1 Existing testing steps .............................................................................................................................. 20
5.2 Existing testing tools .............................................................................................................................. 20
5.3 Existing testing practices ....................................................................................................................... 20
5.4 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................................. 21

6. Recommendations ................................................................................................... 23
6.1 Future testing protocols ......................................................................................................................... 23

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6.2 Future testing tools and methodologies ............................................................................................... 23

6.3 Staff training ............................................................................................................................................ 23
6.4 Distribution application of synchrophasor systems ............................................................................ 23
6.5 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................................. 23

7. Next Steps ................................................................................................................ 24

APPENDIX A. Definitions, abreviations and symbols ..................................................... 25

A.1. general terms ........................................................................................................................................... 25
A.2. specific terms........................................................................................................................................... 25

APPENDIX B. Terms of Reference ................................................................................... 26

APPENDIX C. Test Use Cases .......................................................................................... 27

C.1. Finland ...................................................................................................................................................... 27

APPENDIX D. National standards and related test practices ......................................... 28

D.1. China......................................................................................................................................................... 28

APPENDIX E. Synchrophasor System Specification Requirements .............................. 32

E.1. Summary of PMU Specifications from India ......................................................................................... 32
E.2. Summary of PMU Specifications from Brazil ........................................................................................ 33
E.3. Summary of PMU&PDC Specifications from Russia ............................................................................ 36

APPENDIX F. Testing practices ........................................................................................ 45

F.1. Brazil ......................................................................................................................................................... 45
F.2. China......................................................................................................................................................... 45
F.3. Finland (Device testing) .......................................................................................................................... 47
F.4. Finland (System testing) ......................................................................................................................... 48
F.5. Russia ....................................................................................................................................................... 49

APPENDIX G. Test Results ............................................................................................... 53

G.1. Brazil ......................................................................................................................................................... 53

APPENDIX H. Future PMU Technology developments ................................................... 55

H.1. United States ............................................................................................................................................ 55

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Figures and Illustrations

Figure 1: Synchrophasor Systems in the USA (coutesy of NASPI) ...................................................... 10
Figure 2: Typical Phasor Measurement System Architecture ............................................................... 11
Figure 3: Typical Phasor Measurement Device Architecture with PDCs at different levels .................. 12
Figure 4: Typical synchrophasor system architecture using IEC 61850 standard ................................ 12

Figure G.1 - Framework of SYSM ......................................................................................................... 47

Figure G.2 - Schematic Diagram of an RTDS System .......................................................................... 48
Figure G.1 - Firmware Evolution of a PMU model ................................................................................. 53
Figure G.1 - Results of Reference Tests ............................................................................................... 54

Tables
Table A.1 - Definition of general terms used in this TB ......................................................................... 25
Table A.2 - Definition of technical terms used in this TB ....................................................................... 25
Table D.1 - Measurement Requirements in Amplitude Scan Test ........................................................ 29
Table D.2 - Measurement Requirements in off-nominal Test ............................................................... 29
Table D.3 - Measurement requirements in unbalanced test ................................................................. 29
Table D.4 - Measurement requirements in harmonic distortion test ..................................................... 29
Table D.5 - Measurement requirements in out-of-band test ................................................................. 30
Table D.6 - Measurement requirements in modulation tests ................................................................ 30
Table D.7 - Response time requirements in step tests ......................................................................... 30

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1. Introduction
This report is prepared by CIGRE WGB5.62 in response to the assignment defined in the Terms of
Reference (TOR) approved by the CIGRE Technical Committee Chairman on January 17, 2017. The
TOR is included as APPENDIX B. The final report deadline, according to TOR, is December 2020.
The WGB5.62 membership consisted of the following country representatives:
Convener: Mladen Kezunovic, (US)
Regular Members
• Nikkilä Antti-Juhani (FI)
• Ritesh Bharat (AU)
• Martin Greenwood (NL)
• Yilu Liu (US)
• Daniela Vidal Saiki Stearn (GB)
• Srdjan Skok (HR)
Corresponding Members
• Charles Adewole (ZA)
• Tianshu Bi (CN)
• Dmitry Dubinin (RU)
• Mats-Robin Jacobsen (NO)
• Hao Liu (CN)
• Rafael de Oliveira Fernandes (BR)
• Farnoosh Rahmatian (CA)
• Sean Stack (GB)
• Roel de Vries (NL), Resigned

1.1 Terms of Reference and Scope of Work

The scope of the document includes a thorough discussion of all the issues related to certification of
PMUs and life cycle testing (acceptance, commissioning, periodic field, and troubleshooting) of
synchrophasor systems of interest to protection and control engineers. The emphasis on the
guidelines and recommendations in response to the following commonly asked questions:
• What are the existing PMU and synchrophasor system standards, and what is their impact
on testing and certification?
• What is the importance of the concept of interoperability, and why it matters?
• Why the certification may be needed, and who is authorized to do it?
• How certification may be accomplished, and what are associated costs?
• What are acceptance, commissioning, periodic maintenance, and troubleshooting test
procedures, and how do they relate to the life-cycle management of synchrophasor
systems?
• Why such life cycle test procedures matter, and how are they implemented today?
• How to plan for the PMU certification and the lifecycle testing of PMUs and synchrophasor
systems?

1.2 Document intent and expected future use

The document is expected to be of interest to utilities, vendors, consultants, and others in the T&D
industry, as well as educational establishments providing:
• Discussion of the standards and interoperability requirements to be observed when
implementing the testing and certification process.
• The role of components and end-to-end testing of synchrophasor systems in the field and
assessment of the impact of errors on the synchrophasor applications
• The role of testing, field evaluation, and troubleshooting for PMUs and synchrophasor
systems, as well as related support tools for the infrastructure lifecycle management
• Guidelines for proposed testing requirements/specification

1.3 Other relevant work

While a vast body of the work reporting on the various aspects of the problems discuss in this report already exist,
a comprehensive overview of the life cycle management to the best of our knowledge has not been addressed at

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this extent before. The prior work from the project titled “Life-cycle Management of Mission-Critical Systems
through Certification, Commissioning, In-Service Maintenance, Remote Testing, and Risk Assessment”
completed in 2018 is used in support of further findings for the CIGRE report. Details about previously completed
projects may be found at the Power Systems Engineering Research Center website:
https://pserc.wisc.edu/about.aspx .
Considerable work was also done on related IEEE and IEC standards. The status of the related standards
developments is as follows:
• "IEEE Standard for Synchrophasor Measurements for Power Systems - Amendment 1: Modification
of Selected Performance Requirements" IEEE C37.118.1a-2014.
• "IEEE Guide for Synchronization, Calibration, Testing, and Installation of Phasor Measurement Units
(PMUs) for Power System Protection and Control" IEEE C37.242-2013. (being revised)
• "IEEE Guide for Phasor Data Concentrator Requirements for Power System Protection, Control and
Monitoring" IEEE C37.244-2013.
• " IEEE Standard for Synchrophasor Data Transfer for Power Systems" IEEE C37.118.2-2011.
• "IEEE Standard for Synchrophasor Measurements for Power Systems" IEEE C37.118.1-2011.
• IEEE Standard Profile for Use of IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol in Power System Applications”
IEEE Std C37.238-2011
• IEC Standard on Synchrophasor transfer” IEC 61850-90-5
• IEC/IEEE 60255-118-1 Measuring Relays and Protection Equipment – Part 118-1: Synchrophasor
for Power Systems – Measurements”

1.4 Conclusions
This section has defined the scope of the Report by identifying what the WG Terms of Reference (ToR) are, what
is the intended use of the document, and what are the standards that relate to the subject matter of the report.
Further details are elaborated in the following sections.

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2. Background
2.1 Synchrophasor Systems
Synchrophasor systems constitute a suite of different system solutions aimed at meeting various wide-
area application requirements. The solutions consist of various combinations of common design
elements: Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) capable of collecting samples of input waveforms and
calculating phasors, sources for a high precision time synchronization reference, various phasor data
concentrators, communications, applications, and visualization tools for data presentation. However,
the solution designs are not necessarily common across different application domains.
An example of synchrophasor system installations in the USA from 2017 is shown in Figure 1.
Currently (2020), there are well over 2,000 PMUs installed in the USA network. The blue dots in
Figure 1 represent the location of phasor measurement units. The measurements are collected over a
wide area, in the Eastern and Western power grid interconnections, and in ERCOT in Texas, mostly at
the transmission level at this time. The application of PMUs in distribution systems is slowly gaining
interest, particularly with the development of micro-PMUs. In the future, such an infrastructure may
become prevalent at the distribution level as well.

Figure 1: Synchrophasor Systems in the USA (coutesy of NASPI)

What characterizes the synchrophasor systems that is not common to any other measurement
infrastructure used in the power grid is the following:
• The design has high sensitivity to the accuracy of the clock (time) reference supplied
through either a physical GPS/GNSS receiver placed in the substation next to the IED or a
“virtual GPS/GNSS receiver” located remotely from the substation.
• The end-to-end solutions are typically implemented using hardware/software components
acquired from multiple vendors. Hence there is a need for consistency in performance
across products from different vendors.

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• The solutions are quite often used across different personnel groups within a given utility
company, as well as across different enterprises such as transmission system operator
(TSO) and independent system operator (ISO). This may require consistent life cycle
management policies across multiple legal entities (enterprises) and perhaps
Federal/state jurisdictions.

2.2 Phasor measurement units and phasor data concentrators

The phasor measurements, also called synchrophasors, are provided by a variety of types of IEDs,
presently most commonly by standalone Phasor Measurements Units (PMUs).In addition, there are
many other IEDs such as Digital Protective Relays (DPRs), Digital Fault Recorders (DFRs), and
Digital Disturbance Recorders (DDRs) that may also provide PMU functionality. Each measurement
IED receives a clock signal from the Global Positioning System (GPS)/Global Navigation Satellite
System (GNSS) through a GPS/GNSS receiver; hence all the measurements are synchronized to the
same reference clock signal. Instead of direct distribution between the satellite system and receiver,
the time signal may also be distributed through a communication network using Precision Time
Protocol (PTP) if the GPS/GNSS receiver resides at a different location than the location of the
measurement IED
Typical architecture of a PMU and associated GPS/GNSS receiver is shown in Figure 2. Other
architectures for obtaining an accurate time reference are also used but not commented on in this
report.

Figure 2: Typical Phasor Measurement System Architecture

The end-to-end data flow in a typical synchrophasor solution is shown in Figure 3. From the figure,
one may observe that the solutions consist of many diverse parts: Phasor Measurement IEDs (PMU,
DPR, DFR, etc.), Phasor Data Concentrators (PDCs), and many communication, data management
and visualization servers acting as gateways, data historians, and data analytics engines. To ensure
the system meets interoperability requirements, one has to anticipate how the future expansion of the
system may unfold.

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Figure 3: Typical Phasor Measurement Device Architecture with PDCs at different levels

2.3 Gateways and other communications requirements

The overall communication architecture for synchrophasor systems may look more involved if IEC
61850 standard is used. Typical architecture for transmission applications is shown in Figure 4. Many
types of gateways, switches, and routers may be used to interface the substation PMUs to various
control centers at different levels, such as transmission operating companies, market operators, or
reliability coordinators.

Figure 4: Typical synchrophasor system architecture using IEC 61850 standard

2.4 Conclusions
From the discussion in this chapter, it appears that the synchrophasor systems are rather complex
and require appropriate life cycle management that not only focuses on individual devices such as
PMUs and PDCs but also on end-to-end system solutions comprising many devices and
communication requirements. The end-to-end solutions may span across a single company or across
different organizations. While the discussion in this section is focused on the transmission
applications, the use of PMUs and synchrophasor systems in distribution companies will also require
similar end-to-end lifecycle considerations as discussed in Section 6.

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3. Review of Related Standards and Practices

This section provides a review of the standards mentioned in section 1.3. The purpose of the standard
is briefly described, and a short history of the synchrophasor standard is given. More detailed
information on the standards is available by reading the standards directly.

3.1 IEEE Standards

Various IEEE standards apply to the topic of synchrophasors. The first synchrophasor standards have
been developed as early as 1995 (IEEE 1344) and have evolved over the years into the latest
standards published today. Standards that apply to this technical topic are shortly explained below.
3.1.1 Synchrophasor Measurement Accuracy and Performance
IEEE C37.118.1-2011 and its amendment IEEE C37.118.1a-2014 “IEEE Standard for Synchrophasor
Measurements for Power Systems” provide basic accuracy requirements as well as time response
requirements for a synchrophasor measurement to made by a Phasor Measurement Unit. The main
concept defined in 1995 has basically stayed the same, measurements need to be within 1% Total
Vector Error (TVE). Adjustments have been made for frequency and Rate of Change of Frequency
(ROCOF).
The IEEE C37.118.1-2011 standard has been revised in 2014 to relieve some of the performance
requirements, as it was found that after publishing the original standard, some of the requirements
could not be met by the proposed reference algorithm. It was noted that full conformance to
C37.118.1-2011 is therefore not possible using the reference algorithm, and reference should hence
always be made towards IEEE C37.118.1a-2014.
In 2018 the latest revision to C37.118.1 had been finished. This revision includes an optional
extension to the 1% TVE requirement. Manufacturers can now specify accuracy for Phase as well as
for Magnitude separately. This optional extension can be very helpful for specifying PMUs that require
higher than 1% TVE accuracy for certain applications. Another option given to manufacturers is to
claim conformance at a certain report rate, therefore limiting the need to perform and test at all
possible report rates. The published standard is a so-called “dual logo” standard with IEC. The
published standard is titled IEEE 60255-118-1-2018, or IEC/IEEE 60255-118-1 Edition 1.0 2018-12.
3.1.2 Synchrophasor Time Synchronization
For comparison of the aforementioned synchrophasor measurements, it is very important that the
measurement is accurately time synchronized. The consensus is that this needs to be done within 1µs
accuracy, although not specified in the standard, as only TVE is considered. For this requirement,
modern PMUs use the IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol (PTP) to get highly accurate time over
packet-based networks inside substations.
For the power industry, 2 PTP profiles have been developed and can be used to synchronize PMUs
within 1µs accuracy. These are IEC/IEEE 61850-9-3-2016 as well as IEEE C37.238-2017. Other ways
of time synchronization are also possible and can be found in IEEE P2030.101-2018 “IEEE Guide for
Designing a Time Synchronization System for Power Substations.” Common ways include IRIG-B time
synchronization or build-in GPS/GNSS receivers.
3.1.3 Synchrophasor Data Transfer
Originally IEEE C37.118 was a standard that included the measurement accuracy as well as the
communication requirements for data transfer. In 2011 however, the IEEE Working Group split the
communication part off in a separate standard, namely IEEE C37.118.2-2011, which is still an active
standard today.
3.1.4 Guide and Conformity Assessment
The IEEE also introduced a Guide for Synchronization, Calibration, Testing, and Installation of Phasor
Measurement Units, this is IEEE C37.242-2013. This standard can be used as a reference document
for implementing PMUs in a Wide Area Measurement System (WAMS). It is due for revision, so a
revised version will be published soon.
The IEEE offers a Conformity Assessment Program (ICAP) for IEEE C37.118.1-2011 as well as IEEE
C37.118.1a-2014. Also, the IEEE offers a separate program for IEC/IEEE 61850-9-3:2016. These

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programs have selected labs that carry out testing on PMUs as well as timing products to ensure
conformance to these standards.
The IEEE will be starting a conformance assessment for IEEE C37.238-2017 as well as IEC/IEEE
61850-9-3-2016 too. The IEEE Conformity Assessment Program makes sure that whenever ICAP
testing is being carried out, the IEEE guarantees that the results are within IEEE standards
specifications. Besides ICAP, some other labs are also performing similar certification tests.
Another examples of how the conformance testing may be done is discussed in APPENDIX C.

3.2 IEC Standards

The latest release Synchrophasor standard, as mentioned before, is a dual-logo standard, and
therefore also an IEC standard, namely IEC/IEEE 60255-118-1 Edition 1.0 2018-12.
IEC has also incorporated IEEE C37.118-2005 into a Technical Report IEC TR 61850-90-5:2012. This
report makes sure that the data from IEEE C37.118-2005 are transported in a way that is compliant
with IEC 61850 concepts. Please note this document is not a standard.
As already mentioned under the IEEE Standards section, the IEC and IEEE have developed the latest
PTP profile IEC/IEEE 61850-9-3:2016 as a dual logo standard for time synchronization of PMUs as
well.

3.3 National and other industry standards

3.3.1 PMU standards in China
DL/T 1405.3-2018 “Synchrophasor measurement unit for smart substation Part 3：Test specification”
is a latest PMU standard of Chinese power industry. Similar as IEC/IEEE 60255-118-1, accuracy
requirements and response time requirements for PMU measurement performance under static and
dynamic conditions are provided in this standard. Besides, other requirements, such as, device
function detection, power supply impact detection, environmental conditions impact detection, and
electromagnetic compatibility performance testing, are also included in this standard. Other typical
PMU standards include a national standard GB/T26862-2011 “Test specification of synchrophasor
measurement unit for power systems”, and a standard of State Grid Corporation of China
Q/GDW1131-2014 “Technology specifications of power system real time dynamic monitoring system”.
The measurement performance of PMUs under static and dynamic conditions is the focus of attention.
However, there are some differences in evaluation indicators, measurement limitations, test types, and
other aspects for IEEE and Chinese standards. Note that only M-class PMU testing standards and no
P-class are applied in China, and thus the following comparisons focus on M-class PMU measurement
performance requirements of China and IEC/IEEE standards.
(1) Evaluation indicators: TVE is determined by amplitude accuracy and phase accuracy. If
phasor errors become larger, it is difficult to locate the reasons of amplitude or phase only
from TVE indicators. Therefore, in Chinese standards, instead of TVE, amplitude, and phase
angle measurement errors are calculated separately to evaluate the performance of PMUs.
However, the delay time and overshoot of amplitude and phase are not applied in step tests.
(2) Measurements: Besides three-phase voltage and current phasor, voltage frequency, and
ROCOF, active power and reactive power are also measured in China.
(3) Measurement performance: Under steady state conditions, the amplitude and phase error
limitations for current and voltage are different due to different transfer characteristics of the
current transformer and voltage transformer, and the error limitations of the current phasor are
larger. In addition, performance requirements are higher in China, such as:
o For steady state tests such as off-nominal tests, ROCOF limitation is 0.01 Hz/s in
Chinese standards, but 0.1 Hz/s in IEEE standards; The ROCOF accuracy is required
for harmonic distortion tests in Chinese standards.
o In phase modulation tests, amplitude, phase, and ROCOF requirements are 0.2%,
0.5°, and 3 Hz/s, but 3% in TVE and 14 Hz/s in ROCOF for IEEE standards. In
amplitude modulation tests, amplitude, phase, frequency, and ROCOF error
limitations are 0.2%, 0.3°, 0.025Hz, and 0.3Hz/s, but 3% in TVE, 0.3Hz in frequency
error, and 14 Hz/s in ROCOF error for IEEE standards.
o In step tests, when the reporting rate is 100 Hz, the response time of amplitude and
phase is 70 ms, and the corresponding judgment criteria is 0.2% in amplitude error
and 0.2° in phase error. However, the phasor response time is 140 ms, and the

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judgment criteria is 1% of TVE. The frequency and ROCOF response time are the
same for Chinese and IEEE standards.
(4) Test types: Except amplitude sweeping tests, frequency sweeping tests, harmonic distortion
tests, out-of-band interference tests, amplitude modulation tests, phase modulation tests,
frequency ramping tests, amplitude step tests, and phase step tests, three-phase unbalance
test is added to measure the accuracy of voltage and current in unbalance power system,
including amplitude unbalance and phase unbalance tests; power test is used to verify the
accuracy of active and reactive power measurement under different power factors; amplitude
and phase simultaneous modulation test are tested, because the amplitude and phase of
power often fluctuate simultaneously in power system oscillation.
(5) Test conditions: Frequency deviation often occurs in power system faults. Therefore, the
measurement accuracy is verified when the fundamental frequency offset is ±0.5Hz in
harmonic, out-of-band, and modulation tests. The fundamental frequency is the nominal
frequency in the above tests in IEEE standards. Moreover, for amplitude sweeping tests, the
detection range of the fundamental amplitude is the nominal amplitude of 0.1~2.0 times
(0.1~1.2 times in IEEE standards).
(6) Reporting rate: Only reporting rates of 50Hz and 100Hz are required in Chinese standard;
however, the reporting rate includes 10Hz, 25Hz, 50Hz, and 100Hz for 50-Hz system in
IEC/IEEE standards.
(7) Communication protocol: In addition to real-time data transmission, PMU measurement data
can also be transmitted offline in China.
In addition, PMUs have a special function of sub-synchronous oscillation monitoring: PMUs are also
required to measurement inter-harmonics that may result in sub-synchronous oscillation, which is a
very severe problem in western China. Further details of standards development in China are
discussed in Appendix III.
3.3.2 PMU standards in Russia
The System Operator UPS of Russia developed 3 national Standards:
• “Phasor Measurement Units Requirements” based on IEEE C37.118.1 and IEEE
C37.118.1a-2014 addendum;
• “Phasor Data Concentrators Requirements” based on IEEE C37.244;
• “Wide Area Measurement, Control Systems Requirements.”
The Standard “PMU Requirements” defines requirements for:
• PMU functionality (minimal requirements);
• time synchronization accuracy;
• certification procedure of PMU.
The Standard “PMU Requirements” includes a set of PMU certification tests.
The Standard “PDC Requirements” defines requirements for:
• PDC functionality (minimal requirements);
• off-line data PDC communication;
• certification procedure of PDC.
The Standard “PMU Requirements” includes a set of PDC certification tests. PMU and PDC
certification is carried out in accordance with the requirements of these Standards.
The Standard “Wide Area Measurement, Control Systems Requirements” defines requirements for:
• structure of WAMS of United Power System of Russia;
• installation and commissioning procedures of PMUs, PDCs, WAMS at electric power
facilities;
• functionality of WAMS installed at electric power facilities;
• data transfer at WAMS of United Power System of Russia.

3.4 Options for calibration and certification

The mentioned ICAP programs are testing for compliance with the existing standards. One may or
may not require full compliance with the aforementioned standards, which is up to the end-user to
decide. In-house verification can be carried out as well, commercial calibrators are available for this
purpose, or external, ISO certified labs can be used to carry out testing as well. ISO certified labs are
able to verify measurements with traceability to a national standard. This is important, as, without

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traceability to a national standard, there is no way of proving whether the testing carried out is
compliant or not.
Commercial calibrators are generally calibrated to an in-house standard, that is in turn, traceable to a
national standard. Therefore, commercial calibrators need to usually be sent to be verified and/or
recalibrated yearly. For PMUs, this is especially important, as, from all the IEDs in the Power Industry,
the PMU likely is the most accurate measurement device in the Substation.

3.5 Conclusions
This section was focused on the review of various international standards related to synchrophasor
systems, mainly coming from IEEE and IEC. Since some of the standards are under a revision cycle,
the status of such standards may be outdated when this report gets published. The reader will need to
make sure that the latest status of such standards is checked at the time the report is used. The only
National standards that are mentioned are the ones developed by Chinese EPRI and the Chinese
national standard. At the time of writing this report, the National standard was not yet updated, and
hence the comments that are made about the use of the standard are mostly related to the standard
developed by the Chinese EPRI.

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4. Integration Requirements
Modern secondary systems are usually made up of equipment from multiple vendors. Sometimes this
is by necessity, for instance, when a particular vendor has a solution which offers functionality that
other vendors do not. Sometimes this is because the end user prefers a particular device or solution.
Often the use of equipment from multiple vendors is mandated by the end user to minimize the effect
of a common "Type fault" in the equipment of one supplier. If this occurs, there is a good chance that
the equipment from the other manufacturer will not be affected. Also, there is an implicit risk in using
equipment from only one vendor only in case that vendor goes out of business.
There is thus a need to integrate equipment from different manufacturers into a completed system.
The individual pieces of equipment must be able to communicate with each other using common
standards – this is referred to as interoperability. This is different from Interchangeability, in which any
component can be swapped out with another component without affecting the functionality of the
overall system. When two or more pieces of equipment are interoperable, is it possible to integrate
them together, but some engineering effort will be required in order to ensure that they work correctly
together. These concepts are particularly important for synchrophasors because these signals can be
produced by a multitude of different types of devices, from stand-alone units to protection relays or
dedicated fault recorders.

4.1 The concepts of interoperability and interchangeability and their

importance
PMUs that claim compliance with standard C37.118.2-2011 should be interoperable with any PDC that
is compliant with C37.118.2-2011. The big advantage is that being compliant in this case means being
interoperable, and therefore an end-user could choose any PMU or a mix of PMU from different
manufacturers to work with any PDC. There is currently no test lab that will certify this interoperability
compliance to the standard. At this moment, this does not seem to be an issue, though, as all of the
commonly used PMUs have been sending C37.118.2-2011 data streams to any of the commonly used
PDCs on the market today, and they seem to work, or if not, have been adapted to work together.
Therefore, certification in regard to protocol compliance for communication of Synchrophasor data
may generally not be required at this moment in time.
Although the current IEC/IEEE 60255-118-1-2018 Synchrophasor standard provides a reference
algorithm to meet the requirements set out in the standard, manufacturers are free to use any
algorithms they want to meet the outlined specifications. This basically means that all PMUs
conforming to the standard should perform within the boundaries set out in the standard but can
respond quite differently to applied signals and might, therefore, not always be interchangeable. For
example, if one would take PMU 1 and look at its performance, it might be within the limits mentioned
in the standard, but a PMU 2 from another manufacturer might perform 10x better and, of course, also
be within the limits. End-users should be aware that even if a PMU does not comply with the latest
standards, it might still perform well for what they want to use it for. This just points out that
compliance with the standard doesn’t always guarantee the best PMU for your application.
This fact does not necessarily have to cause problems, but users of synchrophasor data should be
aware that this might influence applications performance or the entire application itself. If someone
would decide to develop an application and test it on a PMU from manufacturer 1, it does not
automatically mean that this application will also run using PMUs from manufacturer 2 or in a system
using a mix of PMUs from various manufacturers. Looking at applications developed today that are
based on synchrophasor data, this does not seem to be a problem just yet, but as new applications
evolve, this might become an issue in the future.
The more complex situation is when it comes to compliance with the data viewing analysis software.
The data formats for such software are typically confidential, so it is not easy to interchange such
software packages. There is also an issue of lack of interoperability of such viewing software with
some common data storage software packages such as PI Historian from OsiSoft. It is important to
note that any applications which use data from multiple synchrophasors devices must consider the
differences in the settings of the individual devices which produce the synchrophasor signals.

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4.2 The concepts of calibration and certification and their importance

There are several PMU devices on the market claiming to be in accordance with the C37.118.2-2011
standard. Some devices are standalone units, whereas others comprise of a number of functionalities,
like protection, fault recording, metering, as well as PMU.
In large countries like the USA, China, Brazil, and Russia, it’s very likely that different regions will
deploy different vendors, or even within the same operator, they might end up with multi-vendor units
in their system. Examples of PMU specification in different countries are given in APPENDIX E.
As mentioned previously in this report, although several PMU devices from different vendors might
claim to be in accordance with the C37.118.2-2011 standard, they might be within very different
acceptable limits of the standard, and they use different algorithms to achieve that.
It is very important to define what is the PMU needed for, what acceptable limits the operator would be
willing to approve for their specific application, and how the operator should interpret the PMU data. In
this context, calibration and certification are vital to ensure the quality of the output is as expected.
The difficulty is to produce a test procedure that will fit all purposes for the various units available in
the market due to the differences in algorithms and output within the standard.
For this reason, it is very common for operators to produce their own set of requirements, which will
consider the C37.118.2-2011 standard as well as their own local requirements. In this way, at least,
some consistency can be achieved for their specific applications, without given preference to specific
vendors.
The key to such considerations is the application that the synchrophasor measurements are used for.
Different applications may require different certification test procedures, and this area still largely
unexplored in the industry. Future efforts may be focused on asking the vendors to offer certification
test procedures for acceptance of various applications that are supported by their equipment. This
becomes particularly critical when real-time control and protection applications are deployed in the
future. Their performance criteria will need to be established so that it can be tested and certified.

4.3 The concepts of component and end-to-end testing and their

importance
This problem has different aspects: responsibility, standards, and in-house interoperability testing
procedures.
The responsibility aspect is focused on whose responsibility is to verify that a system that consists of
many components if functioning properly. If a vendor is responsible for delivering an end-to-end
solution, they should be responsible for providing test procedures to verify that such solutions are
compliant with the standards. However, if the solution is created by piece-wise purchases from
different vendors, then the end-user needs to decide how and by whom the overall solution will be
certified, particularly as upgrades are made over time.
It is important to note that there are no standards for end-to-end implementations, so any testing of
end-to-end solutions will have to be defined in terms of component/subsystem centric standards. Any
parts of the testing that goes beyond such standards will have to be defined with the help of vendors
and/or consultants.
As of the time of writing this report, no interoperability testing procedures for end to-end solutions were
available to review and recommend. The new standards and PMU models, when being developed,
should consider back-compliance. This is because the replacement of devices in utilities could be very
slow due to the cost consideration. The back-compliance could ensure that both old and new PMUs
could work together for the users’ applications

4.4 Backward compatibility and interoperability

The concept of backward compatibility is quite important since the synchrophasor systems are getting
updated continuously. Any new equipment and software that is added to the legacy system need to be
compatible so that it can operate once integrated with the older vintage. The importance of this
requirement on the life cycle management needs to be addressed at the time the new additions are
planned. Depending on the extent of the new additions, some parts of the system where the additions
are integrated may have to be recommissioned. Typically, if the additions are purchased from the

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same vendor that was the original OEM supplier, it will be known what their products are that are
backward compatible.
The issue is a bit more complex when the updates are purchased from a vendor that is used for the
first time. In that case, the backward compatibility requirement may be addressed through a
specification indicating that the new additions need to be interoperable with the legacy solutions.
Whether addition of a new PMU or PDC would require acceptance testing is left to the decision of a
given user. The interoperability requirements are typically imposed on the equipment and software
that is purchased from different vendors than the original OEM supplier and means that such
components can be freely interchanged with the legacy solutions when integrating them into a system
solution.

4.5 Conclusions
Based on the status in the industry, most of the testing, including calibration and type testing, is done
in the early stages during the acceptance step. The effort is performed by specialized labs using rather
complex test equipment, often including real-time simulators. Such testing is mostly focused on
requirements in accordance with the existing standards, which are mostly focused on
components/subsystems.
Provided that the equipment has been type-tested to assure that the functionality fulfills the
requirements of the applicable standards, for both its accuracy and interoperability with other
equipment, currently performed commissioning tests are likely to be minimal, consisting of checks on
magnitude and directionality, the local settings of the device (sampling rates for example), and the
correctness of the time stamping.
The end-to-end testing is not commonly used at the acceptance level due to its complexity and
requirements for in-field testing tools and procedures. Since the existing synchrophasor installations
still experience substantial bad data issues (NASPI Report 2017-TR-002, “PMU Data Quality: A
Framework for the Attributes of PMU Data Quality and a Methodology for Examining Data Quality.
Impacts to Synchrophasor Applications,”), it is prudent to explore how such issues may be detected at
the commissioning and in-service stages of life-cycle management.
Special attention should be paid to the issue of backward compatibility and interoperability and how
such requirements are validated using lab and/or field testing.

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5. Life cycle testing requirement

This section gives a summary of testing practices in different countries. Full details are given in
APPENDIX F.

5.1 Existing testing steps

In China, PMU testing is divided into three steps:
1) Commissioning: Before deploying PMUs into power systems, two steps are taken to ensure
the measurement performance. Firstly, each vendor selects a PMU prototype to be tested in
China Electric Power Research Institute. Secondly, vendors test their PMUs by themselves in
their laboratories.
2) Periodic: When PMUs run in a power system for a period of time, the measurement accuracy
will decrease due to hardware aging and other reasons. Thus, periodic tests organized by
State Grid Corporation of China for PMUs are carried out to ensure continued high
measurement performance of PMUs.
3) Troubleshooting tests: In a regional power grid, if the measurement results of one PMU are
different from other PMUs or measurement devices, the PMU must be tested to find out
causes.
The PMU testing practices in Finland can be divided into tests that are performed when the devices
are commissioned (commissioning tests) and tests that are performed periodically after the
commissioning (periodic tests). In this classification, testing related to research and development
activities is not considered.
In Russia, SO UPS had organized the System of Voluntary Certification (SVC). The requirements for
the certification organization are defined in the national standards. These documents regulate the
procedure for voluntary certification and procedures for admission of SVC to the certification process.
Since 2017, all PMU & PDC vendors in Russia have to be tested and certified devices by an
independent organization.
In Brazil, steady state tests, dynamic tests, and latency test tests have been performed, verifying if the
PMUs complies with the standard IEEE C37.118.1 in CEPEL (Energy Research Center).

5.2 Existing testing tools

Two kinds of PMU testing platforms have been built in China. One is based on a high-precision signal
generator named OMICRON 256-plus. In this testing system, the signal generator is treated as a
reference source. Another PMU testing system is based on a PMU calibrator, where the PMU
calibrator provides reference values.
In Finland, there are no specific testing requirements regarding testing tools. However, real-time digital
simulator systems (RTDS) and OMICRON precision signal generators are being used for PMU testing.
In Russia, PMU and PDC certification is carried out in accordance with the requirements of national
standards:
• “PMU Requirements” based on IEEE C37.118.1 and IEEE C37.118.1a-2014 addendum;
• “PDC Requirements” based on IEEE C37.244.
Testing platforms for PMUs and PDCs testing are built using RTDS and commercial software.
In Brazil, a FLUKE Calibrator (Fluke 6135A) is used for lab testing. As a result, the vendor
adjustments in hardware or software before field installation are suggested (APPENDIX G).

5.3 Existing testing practices

The Chinese EPRI are using two testing systems to test all the PMUs from the Chinese PMU
manufacturers before their installation. For example, PMUs from 4 manufacturers were tested in 2010
to evaluate their measurement performance. Test results showed that the measurement accuracy of
PMUs is high under steady-state conditions, but the measurement errors do not meet the
requirements in Chinese standards under dynamic conditions. Then, in 2013, the tests organized by
China Electric Power Research Institute were performed to evaluate the performance of improved
PMUs from 7 manufactures in China, where most PMUs’ performance satisfied the requirements. In
addition, a troubleshooting testing was undertaken as described next.

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In May 2018, one vendor’s PMU measured the following results: three-phase amplitudes were
modulated at a frequency of about 0.14Hz, but positive sequence amplitude was non-modulation;
frequency was also modulated at the same modulation frequency. The measured amplitude and
frequency from other PMUs and measurement devices were not modulated, but the fundamental
frequency offset to about 49.93Hz (nominal frequency is 50Hz). After a series of tests, it was
determined that the PMU cannot measure the phasor and frequency accurately under the condition of
the fundamental frequency deviating from nominal frequency, resulting in amplitude and frequency
oscillations. Positive sequence amplitude was not modulated because the oscillations in three phases
were cancelled out.
In Finland, the existing PMU testing practices are as follows:
1) Commissioning: There are no specific testing requirements for PMUs that are being used only
for power system monitoring. PMU devices used to control, for example, SVC installations are
commissioned together with the SVC control systems.
2) Periodic testing: there are no general requirements for the periodic testing of PMUs that are
used for power system monitoring. The same applies to PMU devices that provide control
signals for SVCs or other controlled FACTS installations. It is currently being investigated if
PMU devices providing control signals for SVC or FACTS installations would require periodic
testing. The key target in the testing of the PMU devices controlling FACTS devices would be
to verify the accuracy and latency of the measurement unit that is essentially part of a control
system that is critical for the power system stability.
In Russia, the existing PMU and PDC testing practices are as follows:
1) Certification
PMU and PDC certification is carried out in accordance with the requirements of national
standards.
2) Commissioning
Each WAMS of Power Station and Substation including PMUs and PDC had been tested
during one week before it was put into operation as follows:
o testing of correct time synchronization;
o testing of correct of synchrophasor angle measuring;
o testing of archive creation function;
o clarification of compliance of transmitted PMU data in regional PDC.
3) Periodic testing
o SO UPS supports the strategy of constantly monitoring of PMU&PDC operation. SO
UPS developed software for automatically monitoring PMU data. As experience
shows, daily end-to-end monitoring of PMU data quality in a large distributed system
is very effective.
o National Standard requires owners to perform periodic maintenance of object WAMS
complexes.
In Brazil, several PMUs were tested in the Lab environment by CEPEL. A specific model of PMU was
tested for the first time, and some non-conformities were detected regarding frequency and ROCOF
measurements in the static tests. The vendor did some modifications in hardware and software, and
the PMU was verified again. The problems verified at the first tests were solved, but new non-
conformities appeared at the step tests. The manufacturer was informed and modified the firmware
again. Finally, the PMU was compliant with the standard. During the last four years, the lab has been
testing PMUs from more than six different vendors, some of them present at the Brazilian Electric
System. Further details are given in APPENDIX G.

5.4 Conclusions
Based on practices from a few countries where synchrophasor systems are deployed at a large scale,
it is evident that commissioning and in-service tests are needed. While the commissioning tests are
performed, since the procedures are not standardized, the specification requirements documents were
not available for the WG review. In general, as much as commissioning has been clearly the target of
testing, it is not clear how individual upgrades to the system are commissioned, i.e., it is not clear
whether the entire system would need to be re-commissioned after major upgrades.

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From the testing experiences from the mentioned countries, it was clear that the interoperability testing
was not pursued since the vendor compliance to individual standards was deemed sufficient to
guarantee the level of interoperability among different synchrophasor system components.
It appears that the commercial testing tools are sufficient to perform the commissioning and in-service
test. Examples of worldwide suppliers of PMU test equipment are Omicron, Doble, and Fluke. Doble
precise signal generator and Fluke PMU Calibrator 6135A are used in field and lab testing,
respectively. Omicron’s CMC 256plus protection relay test set is recommended by Omicron for both
field and lab testing. Since the end-to-end testing was not explicitly mentioned as the requirement, no
tools that may be used for such testing were defined.

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6. Recommendations
6.1 Future testing protocols
The IEEE standard that is most relevant to this recommendation is the revised version of the standard
"IEEE Guide for Synchronization, Calibration, Testing, and Installation of Phasor Measurement Units
(PMUs) for Power System Protection and Control," IEEE C37.242-2013. This revision is expected to
be approved soon, and sections 6 (PMU installation, commissioning, and maintenance) and section 7
(Testing and calibration) should be applied as applicable. If a country has more detailed standards that
guide such testing steps, these standards should supplement the IEEE standards. Detailed IEEE
and/or IEC testing standards and methods are needed in the future.

6.2 Future testing tools and methodologies

As the PMU gets applied to more critical real-time applications such as control and protection, more
rigorous testing practices should be developed, particularly in-service testing. As of now, based on the
reviews of the practices in a few countries with the largest PMU deployment (Appendix V), it appears
that such practices are not yet well defined and implemented. It is highly recommended that such
procedures and practices be developed and implemented as soon as possible.
The lack of testing tools and procedures for in-service tests is apparent. Under the circumstances, the
end users should reach out to academic institutions, vendors, and consultants and encourage them to
focus their efforts on developing such testing tools.
The end-to-end testing that includes applications is not well defined either. This is due to the
complexity of the specification requirements for different applications that may be utilizing the same
(synchrophasor) measurement system. Again, it is highly recommended that end users explore the
need for end-to-end testing, keeping in mind that real-time applications have rather tight performance
requirements that need to be assured at all times for successful operation that uses such applications.

6.3 Staff training

It has been recognized that end-users do not have enough highly qualified staff that may be used to
calibrate, test, maintain and monitor the performance of the synchrophasor systems. This may be due
to financial and/or organizational issues. Since this reality may be prevailing, it is recommended that
such practice be changed by recognizing the importance of testing and allocating adequate resources
to perform related tasks. We also recommend that this practice and its importance for successful
deployment of synchrophasor system be revisited frequently to determine whether any procedures
and relate test equipment need to be updated, and consequently, whether their staff need to be
trained/re-trained. The role of academic institutions in the training programs is highly encouraged.

6.4 Distribution application of synchrophasor systems

It will be highly desirable that future Study Committee B5 efforts in the synchrophasor life-cycle
management area are focused on the distribution PMUs (DPMUs). This area is rapidly expanding and
yet has different requirements than the transmission applications. Further details are given in
Appendix VII. In many countries around the world, DPMUs projects are underway, and the industry
needs guidance regarding lifecycle management, so forming a WG to address such issues will be
timely.

6.5 Conclusions
Overall, synchrophasor systems will need more scrutiny in the use of calibration and testing of end-to-
end solutions. To ensure adequate performance, the specification requirements for life-cycle
management of synchrophasor systems will need to be developed. In most end-user organizations,
further upgrade of the existing practice, and additional training of the related staff will be needed.

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7. Next Steps
The next steps may have to be defined based on the requirements of different stakeholder groups:
• End users should persist in looking at the synchrophasor systems in a holistic way by
defining the life-cycle test and calibration procedures. If such proceedings are not in place,
they should be developed
• Vendors should be ready to offer and perform interoperability tests as needed to verify
that end-to-end legacy systems may be upgraded with a variety of products on the market
going forward.
• Standards organizations should develop procedures for application testing that will also
encompass end-to-end testing of the underlying synchrophasor infrastructure.
• Consultants, vendors, and academic researchers should look into the fundamentals
needed to better understand the synchrophasor system performance under transient
conditions and recommend adequate calibration and test procedures beyond what is
currently defined in the standards.

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APPENDIX A. Definitions, abreviations and symbols

A.1. General terms

Table A.1 - Definition of general terms used in this TB

Acronym Phrase Definition

TB Technical Brochure A publication produced by CIGRE representing the
state-of-the-art guidelines and recommendations
produced by an SC WG. Hardcopy TBs can be
purchased (www.e-cigre.org), or Individual
Members, or staff of a Collective Member can
download the PDF for free using their login
credentials (copyright restrictions for use within
their own CIGRE Membership only)
SC Study Committee One of the 16 technical domain groups of CIGRE
WG Working Group A group formed by a SC to develop a TB on a
particular subject of interest

A.2. Specific terms

Table A.2 - Definition of technical terms used in this TB

Acronym Definition
CEPEL Center for Energy Research, Brazil
CT Current Transformers
DDR Digital Disturbance Recorder
DFR Digital Fault Recorder
DPR Digital Protective Relay
EPRI Electric Power Research Institute
ERCOT Electric Reliability Council of Texas
FACTS Flexible AC Transmission System
GNNS Global Navigation Satellite System
GPS Global Positioning Satellite System
ICAP IEEE Conformity Assessment Program
IEC International Electrotechnical Commission
IED Intelligent Electronic Devices
IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
ISO Independent System Operator
NASPI North American SynchroPhasor Initiative
OEM Original Equipment Manufacturer
PDC Phasor Data Concentrator
PMU Phasor Measurement Units
PT Potential Transformer
PTP Precision Time Protocol
ROCOF Rate of Change of Frequency
SCADA Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition
SO UPS System Operator for Unified Power System
SVC System of Voluntary Certification
TOR Terms of Reference
TSO Transmission System Operator
TVE Total Vector Error
WAMS Wide Area Measurement System

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APPENDIX B. Terms of Reference

Scope, deliverables and proposed time schedule of the Group:
Background:
Throughout the world, the deployment of Phasor Measurement Units (PMU) and Synchrophasor
Systems is gaining huge momentum. The report of WG B5.14 has discussed the reasons, uses and
benefits. This WG will discuss how the performance of PMUs and Synchrophasor Systems may be
assessed through testing and certification to assure the infrastructure and related application are
reliable and robust. The cybersecurity testing is excluded from this report.
Scope:
The scope of the document should include a thorough discussion of all issues related to certification of
PMUs and life cycle testing (acceptance, commissioning, periodic field, and troubleshooting) of
Synchrophasor Systems of interest to protection and control engineers, with an emphasis on
guidelines and recommendations in response to the following commonly asked questions:
• What are the existing PMU and Synchrophasor system standards, and what is their
impact on testing and certification?
• What is the importance of the concept of interoperability and why it matters?
• Why the certification may be needed and who is authorized to do it?
• How certification may be accomplished and what are associated costs?
• What are acceptance, commissioning, periodic maintenance and troubleshooting test
procedures and how do they relate to the life-cycle management of synchrophasor
systems?
• Why such life cycle test procedures matter and how are they implemented today?
• How to plan for the PMU certification and the lifecycle testing of PMUs and Synchrophasor
Systems?
• The final document will be of interest to utilities, vendors, consultants and others in the
T&D industry, as well as educational establishments providing:
• Discussion of the standards and interoperability requirements to be observed when
implementing the testing and certification process.
• The role of components and end-to-end testing of Synchrophasor Systems in the field and
assessment of impact of errors on the synchrophasor applications
• The role of testing, field evaluation and troubleshooting for PMUs and Synchrophasor
Systems, as well as related support tools for the infrastructure lifecycle management
• Guidelines for proposed testing requirements/specification

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APPENDIX C. Test Use Cases

C.1. Finland
C.1.1 PMU
In some power systems, stability problems such as inter-area power oscillations and voltage stability
may limit the power transfer capability of the system. One example of such a system is the Nordic
power system. The Finnish transmission system operator Fingrid uses PMU measurements for
monitoring the stability of the system, especially the damping of electromechanical oscillations and the
performance of the power oscillation damping controllers in the system.
In this case, it is important that PMU parameters such as filtering settings are configured so that the
devices are robust and are able to record the relevant phenomena present in the system. Moreover, it
is important that this ability is verified during the commissioning of the devices. However, it is also
critical that the measurement characteristics of the PMU devices does not change, for example, due to
maintenance tasks such as firmware upgrades. For this reason, it is important to consider the need for
test the measurement capabilities and settings of the devices during the life cycle of the device:
• At the time when the unit is commissioned
• During significant maintenance tasks such as firmware upgrades.
Fingrid does not currently have any recommendations or practices related to the testing of the
measurement characteristics of the devices. However, real-time digital simulation tests at testing
facilities have indicated that there may be differences between the devices in how they are able to
capture the critical dynamic stability phenomena on the power system. Currently, the RTDS testing or
similar is not a common practice at Fingrid, and the need for the tests is evaluated for each
measurement use case separately.
C.1.2 Recommendations
C.1.2.1 Future testing steps and protocols
The following steps could be used for determining the need for testing of PMU measurements in a
power system, where the measurements are used for monitoring the critical stability phenomena:
• Determine the criticality of the measurement for the application
• Understand the impact of PMU settings, such as filtering parameters on the relevant PMU
measurement characteristics.
• Identify the events that could potentially affect the measurement characteristics of both
PMUs and PDCs, such as firmware and software upgrades.
C.1.2.2 Future testing tools and methodologies
Real-time digital simulator (RTDS) tests could be used to analyze the measurement characteristics of
PMU devices and PDCs before the commissioning. In this approach, the measurement characteristics
of the devices could be analyzed using RTDS equipment, which simulates the interesting events in the
power system using electromagnetic transient modeling techniques. However, this approach is time
consuming and may be impractical for analyzing the performance of the devices after the
commissioning.

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APPENDIX D. National standards and related test

practices
D.1. China
D.1.1 PMU standard in China
D1.1.1 Error evaluation method
In Chinese PMU test standards, measurement requirements have no distinctions between the P class
and M class. Compared with the total vector error (TVE) used to evaluate synchrophasor error in IEEE
standards, the amplitude error (AE) and phase error (PE) are used to evaluate synchrophasor
measurement accuracy in China. However, the frequency error (FE) and rate-of-change-of-frequency
(ROCOF) error (RFE) are consistent with the IEEE standard. The detailed calculation methods are as
follows:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

where, 𝑋̃𝑚 is the measured amplitude, 𝑋𝑚𝑟 is the true amplitude, and 𝑋𝑟𝑒𝑓 is the reference amplitude,
such as 70V in voltage and 1.2A in current; 𝜑̃ is the measured phase angle and 𝜑𝑟 is the true phase
angle; 𝑓̃ is measured frequency and 𝑓𝑟 is the true frequency; 𝑑𝑓̃/𝑑𝑡 is the measured ROCOF and
𝑑𝑓𝑟 /𝑑𝑡 is the true ROCOF.
In addition, the reporting rate in IEC/IEEE 60255-118-1-2018 has 10Hz, 25Hz, 50Hz, and 100Hz for
50-Hz system. However, only reporting rates of 50Hz and 100Hz are included in the Chinese PMU
standard.

D.1.1.2 Steady-state tests

In China PMU standards, steady-state tests are divided into 6 types of tests, namely the amplitude
scan test, off-nominal test, unbalanced test, harmonic distortion test, out-of-band interference test, and
power test. Among them, the unbalanced test and power test are not defined in IEEE standards, and
some parameters in other tests are different from those regulated in IEEE standards. The details are
as follows:
Amplitude scan test: This test obtained the measured accuracy under different voltage and current
levels. The test signal frequency is nominal frequency 𝑓𝑛 and the amplitude is in the range of 0.1𝑋𝑛 to
2.0𝑋𝑛 (𝑋𝑛 is the nominal amplitude). The measurement requirements are listed in Table E.1, where 𝑈𝑛
is nominal voltage amplitude and 𝐼𝑛 is nominal current amplitude. PEs are different for voltage and
current signals and under the different amplitude levels.

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Table D.1 - Measurement Requirements in Amplitude Scan Test

Test conditions AE (%) PE (°) FE (Hz) RFE (Hz/s)

0.1𝑈𝑛 ≤𝑈<0.5𝑈𝑛 0.5
0.5𝑈𝑛 ≤𝑈<1.2𝑈𝑛 0.2 0.2 0.002 0.01
1.2𝑈𝑛 ≤𝑈<2.0𝑈𝑛 0.5
0.1𝐼𝑛 ≤𝐼<0.2𝐼𝑛 1
0.2 —
0.2𝐼𝑛 ≤𝐼<2.0𝐼𝑛 0.5

Off-nominal test: The amplitude of the test signal is 𝑋𝑛 and fundamental frequency is in the range of
45Hz and 55Hz. The measurement requirements are listed in Table E.2, where ∆𝑓 is the frequency
offset. PEs are different for voltage and current signals and under the different frequency offsets.

Table D.2 - Measurement Requirements in off-nominal Test

PE (°) for
∆𝑓 (Hz) AE (%) PE (°) for current FE (Hz) RFE (Hz/s)
voltage
1 0.2 0.5
0.2 0.002 0.01
5 0.5 1

Unbalanced test: This test is divided into amplitude unbalanced test and phase unbalanced test. The
fundamental frequency of test signals is 𝑓𝑛 . In amplitude unbalanced test, three phase angles are
balanced, the signal amplitude is 𝑋𝑛 in balanced phase, but the amplitude is in the range of 0.0𝑋𝑛 and
1.2𝑋𝑛 . The measurement requirements are listed in Table E.3.

Table D.3 - Measurement requirements in unbalanced test

Test conditions AE (%) PE (°) FE (Hz) RFE (Hz/s)

0.0𝑈𝑛 ≤𝑈<0.5𝑈𝑛 0.5
0.2 0.002 0.01
0.5𝑈𝑛 ≤𝑈<1.2𝑈𝑛 0.2
0.0𝐼𝑛 ≤𝐼<0.2𝐼𝑛 1
0.2 —
0.2𝐼𝑛 ≤𝐼<1.2𝐼𝑛 0.5

Harmonic distortion test: This test verified the harmonic rejection capability of PMUs. The range of the
superimposed harmonic frequency ranges from second to twenty-fifth, and the magnitude is 10% of
the fundamental frequency in each test signal. Note that the fundamental frequency is 49.5Hz, 50Hz,
and 50.5Hz, different from IEEE standards. The measurement requirements are listed in Table E.4,
where RFE is not defined in IEC/IEEE 60255-118-1.

Table D.4 - Measurement requirements in harmonic distortion test

Harmonic AE (%) PE (°) FE (Hz) RFE (Hz/s)

10%, each harmonic up to 25th 0.5 1 0.025 3

Out-of-band interference test: The inter-harmonic magnitudes are 10% of the fundamental frequency,
where the amplitude is 𝑈𝑛 and the fundamental frequency is 49.5Hz, 50Hz, and 50.5Hz. In China, the

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PMU is only required to be tested under the reporting rate of 100Hz, and the corresponding
measurement requirements are listed in Table E.5.

Table D.5 - Measurement requirements in out-of-band test

Report rate (Hz) Out-of-band range (Hz) AE (%) PE (°) FE (Hz)

100 100 ～150 0.5 1 0.025

Power test: The test signal frequency is in the range of 49Hz and 51Hz, and the power factor angle is
from 0° to 90°. The measurement accuracy of the active and reactive power should not exceed 0.5%.
D.1.1.3 Dynamic tests

The dynamic tests contain the amplitude modulation (AM) test, phase modulation (PM) test,
amplitude, and phase modulation (hereafter called combined modulation) test, frequency ramp test,
and step test. Among them, the combined modulation test is not defined in IEEE standards. The
detailed test condition and requirements are as follows:
Modulation tests: The measurement requirements are listed in Table E.6, where 𝑓𝑚 is the modulation
frequency, 𝑘𝑥 is the amplitude modulation depth and 𝑘𝑎 is the phase modulation depth. In the AM test,
𝑘𝑥 = 0.1 and 𝑘𝑎 = 0; 𝑘𝑥 = 0 and 𝑘𝑎 = 0.1rad in PM test; 𝑘𝑥 = 0.1 and 𝑘𝑎 = 0.1rad in combined test.

Table D.6 - Measurement requirements in modulation tests

Test type Test conditions AE (%) PE (°) FE (Hz) RFE (Hz/s)

AM 𝑓𝑚 : 0.1~5.0Hz 0.2 0.3 0.025 0.1

PM 𝑓0 : 49.5, 50 and 0.2 0.5 0.3 3

50.5Hz
Combined 𝑘𝑥 = 0.1
0.2 0.5 0.3 3
modulation
𝑘𝑎 = 0.1rad
𝑓0 : 45~55Hz
Frequency ramp 0.2 0.5 0.01 0.2
𝑅𝑓 = 1Hz/s

Frequency ramp test: The measurement requirements are listed in Table D.6, where 𝑅𝑓 is the
frequency ramp rate.
Step test: This test is divided into amplitude step test and phase step test. The test signal frequency is
𝑓𝑛 . In the amplitude step test, the step change is 10%𝑋𝑛 ; but in the phase step test, the step change is
10°. In China PMU standard, only response time needs to be tested, and the requirements are listed in
Table D.7. It can be seen that the response time requirements are different in different report rate.

Table D.7 - Response time requirements in step tests

Response time (ms)

Report rate (Hz)
Amplitude Phase Frequency ROCOF
50 140 140 280 280
100 70 70 280 280

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D.1.1.4 Special tests

(1) Sub-synchronous oscillation monitoring test

The test is to verify the PMU function to monitor sub-synchronous inter-harmonics and output alarm
information. Specifically, the device should have the function of sub-synchronous oscillation (SSO)
monitoring based on sampled data. It can send the amplitude and frequency of the sub-synchronous
oscillation dominant components to the dispatching master station. When the power system exists
sub-synchronous oscillation, PMUs start the sampling data recording, set the trigger mark and cause
in the state character of data frames, and sends out the corresponding alarm.
Sub-synchronous oscillation criterion: the sub-synchronous oscillation component in instantaneous
power exceeds the preset threshold 𝑃𝑠𝑠𝑜 and lasts for X seconds; 𝑃𝑠𝑠𝑜 and X values can be set. The
sub-synchronous oscillation frequency monitoring range is 10Hz to 40Hz, and the frequency resolution
is 1Hz.
The detailed test steps are as follows:
a) the sub-synchronous oscillation threshold of the tested PMU is 𝑃𝑠𝑠𝑜 = 10%𝑃𝑛 (𝑃𝑛 is the active
power of the fundamental frequency), and X = 10s.
b) Produce a three-phase test signal containing inter-harmonics, where the sub-synchronous
oscillation power in the test signal is 11%𝑃𝑛 . The output voltage signal is a three-phase rated
voltage, and the 10%𝐼𝑛 inter-harmonic signal is superimposed on the rated three-phase
current as the output current signal. The inter-harmonic frequency contained in the power
signal is 10Hz, 25Hz, and 40Hz, respectively.
c) Check whether the measured sub-synchronous oscillation frequency and amplitude in the
tested PMU are in accordance with the true frequency and amplitude. The inter-harmonics
frequency should be 10Hz, 25Hz, and 40Hz, and the amplitude error is less than 1%𝑃𝑛 .
d) When the sub-synchronous oscillation signal reaches 10s, PMU should alarm and trigger the
recording.

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APPENDIX E. Synchrophasor System Specification

Requirements
E.1. Summary of PMU Specifications from India
E.1.1 PMU
• The PMUs shall communicate to the Phasor Data Concentrator (PDC) at the Control
Centre as per the latest IEEE C37.118 standard.
• Minimum 2 PMUs shall be offered at all Substations along with industrial grade layer-3
LAN switches, and the number of ports shall be based on the PMUs, including 50%
expandability (spare capacity) in the ports.
• The PMU shall support data ‘Reporting Rates’ of 25 and 50 frames per second for 50 Hz
System. The actual rate to be used shall be user selectable. The PMU hardware and
software shall be sized, considering 50 frames per second.
• PMU shall meet all requirements specified for both P and M Class of performance, which
shall be user selectable.
• The PMUs shall be used to measure the following:
− 3-phase voltage phasors (from Bus PT or CVT),
− 3-phase current phasors,
− positive sequence voltage & positive sequence current,
− 4 Digital Inputs
− 2 Analog values (MW & MVAR)
− Frequency,
− Rate of Change of Frequency (ROCOF)
Provision shall be made for user selection of the above measured values.
• The PMU output shall communicate with the PDC as per the latest IEEE C37.118
standard.
• The PMU shall be provided with one Ethernet 10/100 Base Tx port and one optical fiber
port of 100 Mbps for streaming the data.
• Remote configuration facility shall be provided in PMU
• The PMU shall have an internal clock, which shall be synchronized with the GPS clock.
Upon loss of signal from the GPS source, the PMU shall detect a loss of signal, generate
an alarm and revert to an internal time base. The internal clock shall have minimum
stability of 1 part per million. Re-synchronization accuracy shall be less than 1.5 micro-
second of UTC.
• Proper correction of leap second shall be provided.
• PMU shall be capable of sending data in Multi-cast as well as Uni-cast.
• PMU shall support multiple data streams; each stream shall be configurable independently
based on the following.
− Contents
− Sampling rate
− Class of service (P or M)
− Communication mode (TCP/UDP)
− Different destinations with separate IDCODE.
E.1.2 GPS
• The PMUs shall be time-synchronized from GPS using either IRIG-B port or IEEE 1588
v2.0 on Ethernet port.
• The time receiver shall include propagation delay compensation and include an offset to
permit correction to local time to achieve a time accuracy of ± 0.2 μs. Within one minute of
signal reacquisition, the time shall return to within 0.2 μs of UTC.

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• Proper correction of leap second shall be provided.

E.1.3 Environmental Requirements
• The PMU & GPS shall be capable of operating in ambient temperatures from -10o C to
+55o C and relative humidity up to 10-90% non-condensing.
E.1.4 PMU Functional Testing

Test Type Routine Field

DESCRIPTION OF THE TEST
Nos, test test test

FUNCTIONAL TESTS FOR PMU

1.
Check for BOQ, Technical details, Construction & ✓ ✓ ✓
Wiring as per PMU drawings
2. Check for PMU database & configuration settings ✓ ✓ ✓
Check the operation of all Analog inputs, Digital and ✓ ✓ ✓
3.
Status input points of PMU
4. Check operation of all communication ports of PMU ✓ ✓ ✓
5. Check for communication between PMU and PDC ✓ ✓
6. Test for downloading of PMU database from PDC ✓ ✓
7. Test for PMU time synchronization from GPS ✓ ✓
Test Power Supply Voltage Margin, Ripple Levels and ✓
8.
Short Circuit Protection
Test for PMU operation with DC power supply voltage ✓
9.
variation
Check for auto restoration of PMU on DC power ✓ ✓ ✓
10.
recovery after its failure
11. Test for PMU diagnostic feature ✓
12. Accuracy tests as per IEEE C37.118 ✓
13. Test for PMU internal Clock stability ✓
Test for Peak-Peak variation in PMU measurement ✓
14.
Noise: During each Step of the Steady State

E.1.4.1. PMU Type Testing

• EMI/EMC immunity tests as per IEC 61000-4 & IEC 60255-22
• Insulation test as per IEC 60255-22-5
• Environmental as per IEC60068-2
E.1.4.2. Availability Tests
• PMU shall exhibit 98% availability during a test period of 500 hours.
• Availability tests shall be performed along with the Master station. The PMU shall be
considered available only when all its functionality and hardware is operational.
• The non-available period due to external factors such as failure of DC power supply,
communication link etc. shall be treated as hold-time & availability test duration shall be
extended by such hold time.

E.2. Summary of PMU Specifications from Brazil

E.2.1 Introduction
• The synchrophasor measurement process aims at reading the voltage and phase currents
amplitude values and their respective angles - known as voltage and current
synchrophasors, for system disturbance analysis, mainly the ones related to
electromechanical transients, as well as to support the real-time decision-making process
• This process is implemented through Phasor Measurement Units (PMU), Phasor
Measurement System (CC-PMS), synchronized by the Global Positioning Satellite System

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(GPS), with synchrophasor transmission capabilities via the agent's Synchrophasor

Network to ONS's Phasor Data Concentrators (PDC).
• The sub-module mentioned here is:
Sub-module: Minimum telecommunications requirements.
E.2.2 Objectives
The objective of this sub-module is to define minimum requirements for PMU and the agent's
communication network, assign responsibilities and determine the main guidelines for PMU
deployment, and define the management of CC-PMS synchrophasors’ submission, whose deployment
coordination and use is performed by ONS.
E.2.3 Products
The products of the process described in this sub-module are:
(a) Synchrophasor Computational Packages;
(b) Operation Grid PMU Database; and
(c) Action Plan for the Implementation of PMU
E.2.4 Responsibilities
E.2.4.1 Operador Nacional do Sistema Elétrico – ONS
(a) Coordinate the deployment of CC-PMS;
(b) Implement and maintain PDC infrastructure;
(c) Define PMU minimum requirements;
(d) Define PMU location to obtain subsidies for the operation of the BIPS;
(e) Provide the Agents with information regarding unavailability of Synchrophasor
Computational Data Packages at ONS's Phasor Data Concentrators (PDC);
(f) Prepare the Action Plan for PMU Implementation, in which PMU deadlines and
implementation timetable must be defined, along with the operation agents; and
(g) Monitor and record nonconformities regarding deadlines for PMU implementation by
the operation agents, as described in the action plan of item (e).
E.2.4.2 Operation agents
(a) Define, together with ONS, the deadlines and PMU's implementation schedule;
(b) Acquire and install PMU, in accordance with the minimum requirements determined
by ONS, complying with the Action Plan for PMU Implementation;
(c) Provide the entire data communication network required to enable synchrophasor
measurements made by PMU to ONS's PDC; and
(d) Transmit the synchrophasors through dedicated communication channels to ONS's
PDC.
E.2.4.3 Requirements and description of processes phases
E.2.4.3.1 CC-PMS Architecture
CC-PMS architecture consists of:
(a) PMU installed in the Operation Grid substations;
(b) Telecommunication channels to submit the measured synchrophasors to ONS's PDC;
and
(c) PDC installed at ONS.
E.2.4.3.2 CC-PMS minimum requirements
General requirements
• It is necessary that the PMUs indicated by ONS are previously tested and able to operate
together with additional equipment.

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• PMU shall meet the minimum requirements demanded by ONS.

Types of Measurement
PMUs shall be configured as type M PMU (measurement). The following measurements should be
included in the Synchrophasor Computational Packages:
(a) Voltage, module, and 3 phase angle measurement of all transmission line terminals
indicated by ONS and belonging to the Operation Grid. Frequency measurement and
rate of frequency variation should occur in only one of the phases, and the same
phase that has measurement in the substation bar of the monitored transmission line
output must be chosen;
(b) Measurement of module and angle of the 3 currents phases of all the transmission
line terminals indicated by ONS, which belong to the Operation Network. To calculate
current synchrophasors, the PMUs must use the signals provided by the CT windings
of the Protection System;
(c) Measurement of module, angle, frequency, and rate of frequency variation of the
voltage phase of the bus section where the transmission line terminal is connected.
Measurement Accuracy
• All voltage measurements shall be carried out by equipment whose accuracy class
ensures a minimum accuracy of 1%. Current measurements should have a minimum
accuracy of 10%.
• Such accuracies shall encompass the entire chain of the equipment used, such as PT,
CT, transducers, etc.
• Synchrophasor measurements shall meet the performance requirements of IEEE
C37.118.1-2011 and IEEE C37.118.1a-2014 addendum. The maximum admissible Total
Vector Error (TVE) for estimating a synchrophasor measurement is 1%.
Latency
The maximum latency of the data is defined as the maximum time elapsed between the instant of its
installation value and the time it is received by ONS in its PDC. The maximum latency of a
synchrophasor measurement is 500 milliseconds.
Synchrophasor measurements transmission rate
The measurements shall be synchronized by Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), e.g., Global
Satellite Positioning (GPS), and transmitted at a rate of 60 samples per second, with time stamp in the
UTC (Universal Time Coordinate) standard.
Data delivery
• The measurements shall be delivered by the agents in the PDC indicated by ONS through
a telecommunications network defined specifically for this purpose.
• The telecommunications network SLA (Service Level Agreement) index should be
maintained at 99.98% in order to guarantee maximum availability and data delivery quality
to the concentrators at ONS.
• Agents may use the phasor data generated in their installations provided that the data flow
to ONS continues to be sent through an exclusive means.
Communication protocol
• Synchrophasor Computational Packets may be transported using UDP / IP or TCP / IP
communication protocols encoded in accordance with IEEE C37.118.2-2011, Unicast or
Multicast addressing. If the agent decides to use Unicast, it should provide 2 data flows for
2 IPs indicated by ONS. If the agent chooses Multicast, it must provide only 1 data flow for
the IP indicated by ONS. The protocol can be established directly between ONS and the
Agent's PMU equipment, or with an Agent concentrator (PDC) that transfers the data from
that equipment, as long as the latency requirements for delivering the data packets at
ONS and the percentage of link availability and tolerance for packet loss specified in this
procedure are kept.
• The PMU shall send the data flow (s) to ONS uninterruptedly and unsolicited
communication, which means the agent's PMU shall initiate the transmission to ONS's
PDC.

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• The PMU configuration information contained in the CFG2 package shall be entered into
the PMU Database of the Operation Grid, the CFG2 package being automatically sent
every minute to the same address (s).
• The Agent's PMU / PDC will be allowed to send the IP protocol packets by managing the
QoS / ToS (QualityOfService / TypeOfService), loading values agreed with ONS in the
ToS to use the Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) as a resource for managing the
use of communication band in the Agent's networks, ONS's, and possible service
providers.
E.2.4.3.3 IED (Intelligent Electronic Device)
• IEDs with PMU function shall have the resources to enable the intervention of
maintenance teams without disconnection of primary components.
• The materials and equipment to be used shall be designed, manufactured, assembled,
and tested in accordance with the latest revisions of the Brazilian Association of Technical
Standards - ABNT, where applicable, and, failing that, with the latest revisions of the
International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) or the American National Standards
Institute (ANSI) standards in that order of preference.
• All digital equipment and systems shall meet the requirements of the standards for
electromagnetic compatibility applicable to the appropriate severity levels for installation in
extra-high voltage substations.
• IEDs with PMU function shall be capable of updating firmware for the correction of bugs at
any time when requested by ONS. IED with PMU function should be independent from the
protection IED.
• The IEDs to be installed shall comply with the IEEE C37.118.1 2011 standard and its
addendum IEEE C37.118.1a-2014, as well as the IEEE C37.118.2-2011 standard.
E.2.4.3.4 Data communication features for synchrophasor measuring network
Data services shall be provided in accordance with the Class A specifications regarding the availability
and quality requirements set out in Sub-module 13.2.
Action Plan for PMU Implementation
• ONS draws up the Action Plan for PMU Implementation and defines, together with the
operation agents, the deadlines and the implementation schedule.
• ONS monitors and records the nonconformities regarding the deadlines established in the
action plan by the operation agents.
PMU Acquisition and installation
• The operation agent responsible for the asset to be monitored acquires and installs the
PMU, following the minimum requirements defined in item 6.2 of this sub-module.
• The agent shall provide the means of communication necessary to make the PMU
synchrophasors available until ONS's PDC, in compliance with the minimum
requirements.
E.2.4.4 Horizon, periodicity, and terms
ONS draws up the Action Plan for the Implementation of PMU and defines, together with the operation
agents, the deadlines and the implementation schedule.
Maintenance and update of the PMU Database Operation Network
The configuration data of the new PMU and the modifications of those installed in the Operation Grid
shall be communicated to ONS within one (1) business day after its installation or modification.

E.3. Summary of PMU&PDC Specifications from Russia

E.3.1 General PMU requirements
E.3.1.1 The PMUs are divided into the following classes:
− PMU of class M;
− PMU of class P.
E.3.1.2 Depending on the class, the PMU must comply with the requirements for the algorithm
implemented in it, tuning and measurement errors as set in the following tables.

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E.3.1.3 Steady-state synchrophasor measurement requirements (M class)

Error requirements for

Parameter Range
compliance

frequency TVE ≤ 1%,

FE ≤ 0.001 Hz,
f = 45..55 Hz
RFE ≤ 0.1 Hz/s,

Δδ ≤ 0,1°
voltage U = (0.2..1.2) Unom
current I = (0.1..2,0) Inom
phase angle δ = -π..+ π
< 10% (each harmonic up to 50th)
at Fs ≥ 25: TVE ≤ 1%,
(for PMU to be installed at the lines U
< 110 kV) FE ≤ 0.025 Hz, Δδ ≤ 0,1°
harmonic distortion
(single harmonic)
< 2% (each harmonic up to 50th) at Fs ≤ 10: TVE ≤ 1%,

(for PMU to be installed at the lines FE ≤ 0.005 Hz, Δδ ≤ 0,1°

U ≥ 110 kV)
TVE ≤ 1.3%,
Out-of-band interference <0.2% of input signal magnitude
FE ≤ 0.01 Hz, Δδ ≤ 0,1°

E.3.1.4 Steady-state synchrophasor measurement requirements (P class)

Parameter Range Error requirements

for compliance
frequency f = 46..52 Hz
TVE ≤ 1%,
voltage magnitude U = (0.5..1.4) Unom
FE ≤ 0.005 Hz,
current magnitude I = (0.1…2.0) Inom
RFE ≤ 0.4 Hz/s,
phase angle δ = -π…+π
Δδ ≤ 0.1°
harmonic distortion (single < 1% (each harmonic up to 50th)
harmonic)

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E.3.1.5 Dynamic synchrophasor measurement requirements (M class)

Parameter Range Error requirements for compliance

phasor magnitude fm = 0.1…5 Hz at Fs ≥ 25: TVE ≤ 3%, FE ≤ 0.3 Hz,

and phase
(fstep = 0.2 Hz) RFE ≤ 14 Hz/s
modulating
(separately) fm = 0.1…2 Hz at Fs ≤ 10: TVE ≤ 3%, FE ≤ 0.12 Hz, RFE ≤ 2.3
(fstep = 0.2 Hz) Hz/s
linear frequency ramp F = 45..55 Hz TVE ≤ 1%, FE ≤ 0.01 Hz,
(ramp rate Rf= ± 1 RFE ≤ 0.2 Hz/s
Hz/s) range of exclusion, s: greater of (7/Fs, 0.14 s)
phasor magnitude magnitude: ± 10% TVE ≤ 1%
and phase for input
(ka = ± 0.1) (Тresponse = greater of (7/Fs, 0.14 s)),
step change
(separately) phase: ± 10° FE ≤ 0.005 Hz
(kx = ± π/18) (Тresponse = greater of (14/Fs, 0.28 s)),
RFE ≤ 0.2 Hz/s
(Тresponse = greater of (14/Fs, 0.28 s)),
Тreaction ≤ 0.25/Fs s, overcontrol ϭ ≤ 5%

E.3.1.6 Dynamic synchrophasor measurement requirements (P class)

Parameter Range Error requirements for compliance

phasor magnitude fm = 0.1…2 Hz at Fs ≥ 25: TVE ≤ 3%, FE ≤ 0.06 Hz, RFE ≤ 2.3
and phase
Hz/s,
modulating (fstep = 0.2 Hz)
(separately)
at Fs ≤ 10: TVE ≤ 3%, FE ≤ 0.03 Hz, RFE ≤ 0.6
Hz/s

linear frequency F = 46..52 Hz TVE ≤ 1%, FE ≤ 0.01 Hz,

ramp
(ramp rate Rf= ± 1 Hz/s) RFE ≤ 0.4 Hz/s

range of exclusion, s:

greater of (2/Fs, 0.04 s)

phasor magnitude magnitude: ± 10% TVE ≤ 1% (Тresponse = 0.04 s),

and phase for
input step change (ka = ± 0.1); FE ≤ 0.005 Hz (Тresponse = 0.09 s),
(separately)
phase: ± 10° RFE ≤ 0.4 Hz/s (Тresponse = 0.12 s),

(kx = ± π/18) Тreaction ≤ 0.25/Fs s, overcontrol ϭ ≤ 5%

E.3.1.7 The class of each PMU is determined by the manufacturer of the device. It is allowed to
implement the algorithms in one device, the separate functioning of which allows one PMU to
simultaneously satisfy the requirements of two classes.

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E.3.2 Requirements for PMU functionality

E.3.2.1 The following functions shall be implemented in the PMU:

− performance of PMU data with normalized measurement errors in steady-state and dynamic
conditions;
− synchronization with global navigation systems;
− forming a PMU data frame on each set time interval;
− transfer of PMU data as per one of the protocols established by the standards IEEE Std
C37.118.2-2011, IEC 61850-8-1-2011, IEC 61850-9-2-2011, IEC TR 61850-90-5-2012 with an
adjustable transmission rate;
− inclusion of UTC timestamp in each frame of PMU data;
− PMU data transfer to two or more receivers;
− registration and transmission of discrete signals;
− self-diagnostics of operation.

E.3.3 Requirements for the rate of PMU data transfer

E.3.3.1 The transfer of PMU data frames with transmission rates of 1, 10, 25, 50 frames of PMU data
per second shall be implemented.
E.3.3.2 The timestamp of the first PMU data frame per second must correspond to the moment of the
UTC second change.
E.3.3.3 The intervals between the timestamps of the PMU data frames should be equal and determined
by the transmission rate.
E.3.3.4 The technical documentation for PMU should indicate all the values of the PMU data
transmission rate that the PMU supports.
E.3.4 Requirements for the composition of the phasor measurements
E.3.4.1 The PMU shall perform measurements of the following parameters:
− the phasors of phase-to-phase voltages, where the modulus is the effective value of the
fundamental harmonic of the phase-to-phase voltage (Ua, Ub, Uc), and the phase angle is the
corresponding absolute angle (δUа, δUb, δUc);
− the phase-to-phase phasors, where the modulus is the effective value of the fundamental
harmonic of the phase-to-phase current (Ia, Ib, Ic), and the phase angle is the corresponding
absolute angle (δIa, δIb, δIc);
− frequency of phase-to-phase and direct sequence (fa, fb, fc, fU1);
− frequency change rate (dfa/ dt, dfb/dt, dfc/dt).
E.3.4.2 If it is necessary to measure the parameters of the generators excitation system in PMU or a
separate remote module connected to PMU or supporting the transfer of PMU data according
to the protocol established by the standard IEEE Std C37.118.2-2011, the following
measurements shall be implemented on a time interval equal to the period of the industrial
frequency:
 excitation voltage (rotor voltages) of the generator (Uf);
 excitation current (rotor current) of the generator (If);
 excitation voltage of the exciter (Uff);
 excitation current of the exciter (Iff).
E.3.5 The requirements for the PMU measurements synchronization
E.3.5.1 To synchronize PMUs, the global navigation systems signal receivers should be used with
synchronization accuracy of no worse than 1 µs.
E.3.5.2 Synchronization signals must comply with the UTC scale.

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E.3.5.3 Information on the synchronization quality of measurement results in accordance with the
requirements of IEEE Std C37.118.2-2011 shall be included in the PMU data frames.
E.3.6 Confirmation of the PMU compliance with the requirements of the Standard
E.3.6.1 Confirmation of the PMU compliance with the requirements of the Standard in terms of meeting
the requirements for the composition of PMU measurements and the rated accuracy (with
observance of the requirements for measurement errors established by the Standard) is carried
out by voluntary certification in the SO UPS VCS. Confirmation of the PMU compliance with the
requirements of the Standard may be carried out by voluntary certification in other voluntary
certification systems registered in due order in the united register of voluntary certification
systems, subject to compliance with the requirements provided for in this Section of the
Standard.
E.3.6.2 The object of certification is the PMU of the defined class (M or P). The certification is to be
carried out in respect of type (serial) copies of the devices. The certificate of conformity applies
to the type (brand) and class of PMU.
E.3.6.3 Certification of PMU is carried out in accordance with the rules of operation of the relevant
system of voluntary certification with the obligatory observance of the requirements established
by this section of the Standard.
E.3.6.4 MU certification can be carried out for compliance with the requirements for devices of one of
the classes (M or P) or two classes at the same time. When implementing in one device the
algorithms, whose separate functioning allows the PMU to simultaneously fulfill requirements of
the two classes, the independent tests of PMU for each class must be performed. In this case,
the voluntary certification body shall issue separate certificates of conformity for each PMU
class.
E.3.6.5 The applied PMU certification scheme must necessarily include implementing measures for
analyzing documents and information submitted by the applicant and conducting certification
tests of the PMU.
E.3.7 The minimum list of documents and information on the PMU to be submitted by the applicant
for consideration by the voluntary certification organization.
E.3.7.1 Technical requirements for the manufacture of PMU or technical specifications (in the absence
of technical requirements).
E.3.7.2 The Manual (instructions) on assembling, PMU pre-commissioning and commissioning.
E.3.7.3 The Manual (instructions) for the PMU operation, including as follows:
 technical description with obligatory indication of the type, scope, as well as instructions for
operation, maintenance, and repair, considering the presence of a self-diagnostic system;
 general technical description of PMU, including type, class, communication interfaces, and
technical characteristics.
E.3.7.4 Copies of protocols and methods of PMU factory testing, containing data on the characteristics
of the test bench, which carried out these tests.
E.3.7.5 Operators’ manual on the human-machine interface and service software.
E.3.7.6 Certificate of type approval of measuring instruments with an indication of the period of validity.
E.3.7.7 Certificate of PMU compliance requirements for electromagnetic compatibility issued by a
certified organization.
E.3.7.8 The manual (instructions) on the operation of the receiver of global navigation systems signals,
used to synchronize PMU during the certification tests.
E.3.8 PDC requirements
E.3.8.1 General requirements
E.3.8.1.1In the structure of UPS WAMS, the PDC are divided into the following categories, differing in
the volume of functional requirements:
− Local: installed at generation stations and substations;

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− Regional: are established in united control rooms of the branches of JSC

SO UPS and in regional control rooms of branches of JSC SO
UPS, as well as in the systems for collecting information from
owners and other legal users of electric power facilities that
provides collecting PMU data from two or more local PDC;
− The main: is to be installed in the main control room.

E.3.8.1.2 PDC shall provide information exchange with PMU and other PDC in accordance with IEEE
Std C37.118.2-2011.
E.3.8.2 Requirements for PDC functionality
E.3.8.2.1 The following functions should be implemented in the local PDCs:
a) receiving the PMU data as per protocol IEEE Std C37.118.2-2011;
b) PMU data transfer as per protocol IEEE Std C37.118.2-2011:
- at least two independent data streams;
- to at least two receivers;
c) transfer the PMU data as per protocol in accordance with IEC 60870-5-104;
d) PMU data aggregation;
e) including the timestamp, associated with UTC, in each output frame of the PMU data;
f) PMU data modification;
g) monitoring the quality of data received from PMU;
h) self–diagnostics of correctness of the work of the software modules with the recording of
events in the log;
i) archiving, storing, and transmitting on request the archival PMU data;
j) user interface functions.
E.3.8.2.2 In addition to the local PDC functions, the following functions shall be implemented in the
regional and main PDC:
a) simultaneous operation in the mode of data aggregation and transfer with the transfer of
at least four independent data streams as per protocol IEEE Std C37.118.2-2011;
b) data streams control:
- prioritization of input data streams with duplicated information;
- splitting input data streams;
c) monitoring the quality of PMU data received from other PDCs;
d) receiving, storing, and transmitting information about the quality of measurement results
in accordance with IEEE Std C37.118.2-2011;
e) receiving the archived PMU data from the PDC.
E.3.8.2.3 Requirements for implementation of the data aggregation PDC function.

E.3.8.2.3.1 When operating the PDC in the aggregation mode, processing of PMU data with a given
timestamp must be performed when one of the following conditions occurs: receipt of all
required PMU data with a given timestamp within the relative waiting time limits or elapsing the
specified value of the relative waiting time regardless of the amount of received PMU data with
a given timestamp.
E.3.8.2.3.2 In the PDC, it shall be possible to set the value of the relative waiting time for each data
stream received by the PDC.
E.3.8.2.3.3 When the PDC operates in the data aggregation mode, the information about
timestamps and the synchronization quality of measurement results shall be duplicated in the
output frames of the PMU data.

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E.3.8.2.3.4 PDC should provide the ability to set the relative wait time in the range of:
 for local PDC  20-100 ms;
 for regional PDC  20-2000 ms;
 for the main PDC  20-15000 ms.
E.3.8.2.3.5 PDC must ensure implementation of the data aggregation for a time, not exceeding as
follows:
 for local PDCs  50 ms;
 for regional and main PDCs  100 ms.

E.3.8.2.4 Requirements for implementation of the data modification in the PDC.

E.3.8.2.4.1 PDC should provide data modification in the mode of data aggregation.
E.3.8.2.4.2 In PDC, the following data modification methods should be implemented:
a) additional calculation of parameters in accordance with PDC configuration:
b) adjustment of the phase (amplitude) of the phasors by the preset offset and/or
correction factor;
c) scaling of the PMU data by linear transformation with specified offsets and/or factors
for each individual parameter in the data stream;
d) calculating the following parameters:
- values of phase and three-phase active, reactive, and apparent power (Pa, Pb, Pc,
P, Qa, Qb, Qc, Q, Sa, Sb, Sc, S);
- the synchronized phase-to-phase phasors, where the modulus is the effective value
of the fundamental harmonic of the phase-to-phase voltage (Uab, Ubc, Uca), and the
phase angle is the corresponding absolute angle (δUab, δUbc, δUca);
- the synchronized voltage phasors of direct, inverse, and zero-sequence, where the
modulus is the value of direct, inverse, or zero-sequence voltage (U1, U2, U0), and
the phase angle is the corresponding absolute angle (δU1, δU2, δU0);
- the synchronized current phasors of direct, inverse and zero sequence, where the
modulus is the value of the current of the direct, inverse or zero sequence (I 1, I2, I0),
and the phase angle is the corresponding absolute angle (δI1, δI2, δI0);
e) reducing the rate of PMU data transmission to any of the following values - 1, 5, 10, 25
frames per second;
f) direct and inverse conversion of the PMU data format from the integer format to the
floating-point format;
g) direct and inverse transformation of the PMU data format from rectangular to polar
ones.
E.3.8.2.5 Requirements for implementation in the PDC the functions of receiving and transmitting
the archival PMU data.
E.3.8.2.5.1 PDC should provide automatic archiving and storage of the PMU data in a linear archive
in accordance with the specified configuration.
E.3.8.2.6 Requirements for the functions of the PDC user interface.
E.3.8.2.6.1 The following functions must be implemented in the PDC user interface:
a) setting the parameters of the address information of the connected PMU or PDC;
b) setting up a list of received and calculated PMU data;
c) monitoring and diagnostics of the correctness of the program modules operation;
d) viewing the event log:
- communication errors;

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- PDC software errors;

- time synchronization errors of the PMU data sources;
- facts of system reboot;
- lack of computing resources and memory;
- change the state of the input and output data streams.
E.3.8.2.6.2 The user of regional and main PDC interface shall support as follows:
a) presentation of the electrical mode the parameters in the form of graphs and vector
diagrams, the ability to add the discrete signals to the graph;
b) indication of the status of the received/transmitted data streams;
c) registration of all user operations: logging in, configuring, changing/deleting files from
the storage, etc.
E.3.8.2.7 The regional and main PDC should determine the amount of data delay for each
received frame of the PMU data.
E.3.8.2.8 The alphanumeric version number of the PDC software should consist of the main and
additional parts. The main part of the number is responsible for the invariance of the software
functionality in case of its modification. The alphanumeric number of the PDC software version
shall be indicated on the PDC package, as well as in the PDC supporting documentation.
E.3.8.2.9 The PDC shall provide the ability to set the PDC identification number and identification
number for each output data stream in accordance with IEEE Std C37.118.2-2011.
E.3.8.3 Confirmation of the PDC compliance with the requirements of the Standard
E.3.8.3.1 Confirmation of the PDC compliance with the requirements of the Standard is carried
out by voluntary certification in the SO UPS VCS.
E.3.8.3.2 Confirmation of the PDC compliance with the requirements of the Standard may be
carried out by voluntary certification in other voluntary certification systems registered in due
order in the united register of voluntary certification systems, subject to compliance with the
requirements provided for in this Section of the Standard.
E.3.8.3.3 The object of certification is the PDC in one of two categories (local or regional one)
with the software installed on it. Certification is to be carried out in respect of type (serial) copies
of the PDC.
E.3.8.3.4 The certificate of conformity applies to a specific type (brand) of the PDC and the version
of the PDC software installed on it.
E.3.8.3.5 In case of the kind, type (brand) of the PDC identity, the certificate of conformity does
not apply to the PDC, the software version number of which is different from the version number
corresponding to the certified software.
E.3.8.3.6 The certificate of conformity verifies the fulfillment of the requirements of the Standard
in relation to the PDC category in relation to which the certification was performed.
E.3.8.3.7 If the PDC was certified as a regional one, there is no need for additional certification of
such PDC as a local one. The PDC certified as regional one is recognized as complying with
the requirements of the Standard imposed on local PDCs.
E.3.8.3.8 Certification of PDC is carried out in accordance with the rules of operation of the
relevant system of voluntary certification with the obligatory observance of the requirements
established by this section of the Standard.
E.3.8.4 The minimum list of documents and information on the PDC to be submitted by the applicant
for consideration by the voluntary certification organization.
E.3.8.4.1 Guidance (instruction) for the PDC operation, including as follows:
- a general technical description indicating the type (model) and the category of PDC;
- a list of functions performed by the PDC;
- guidelines for the PDC configuration and commissioning;

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- a methodology of selecting the PDC configuration settings for all declared functions
of the PDC application;
- description of communication interfaces, functions of the PDC, and its configuration
rules.
E.3.8.4.2 PDC passport or form with the PDC software version number.
E.3.8.4.3 Written commitment of the PDC manufacturer to:
- use of the corresponding PDC software version number exclusively in relation to
the PDC being certified;
- mandatory indication of the PDC software version number in the PDC
documentation in order to identify the PDC software version being used;
- notify the voluntary certification body of changes to the PDC software being certified
that affect the PDC functionality, indicating the numbers assigned to the modified
(new) software versions.

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APPENDIX F. Testing practices

F.1. Brazil
The Cepel Synchronous Phasor Measurement Laboratory (LabPMU) is dedicated to conducting tests
and applied research in Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs). The main objective of LabPMU is to
provide the Cepel with the capacity to meet the needs of performing tests, studies, and experimental
research involving synchrophasor measurement.
LabPMU will also support the Center's activities in the development and integration of new
methodologies and techniques for its products in use in the National Interconnected System (SIN) and
in power systems in general. It is able to carry out advanced research in order to contribute to the
elaboration and improvement of the national and international specifications and technical standards
involved, considering needs, specific characteristics, and experience acquired in the scope of the
Brazilian electro energetic system.
LabPMU is able to provide technological support for PMU applications to SIN, support to ONS,
transmission companies, and equipment manufacturers. The laboratory supports the investigation of
new phasor measurement applications and the implementation of a network of PMUs in the country,
applicable to their conditions. The main areas of activity of LabPMU are:
• Reference tests on equipment with a PMU function, seeking to verify its suitability to the
pertinent norms and necessary adjustments in hardware or software before the installation
in the field;
• Evaluation of software and phasor concentration equipment, by analyzing their results in a
controlled environment;
• Evaluation of new applications, prior to their availability for use in the field.
The various PMUs can be previously tested for these applications in situations typical of the SIN,
aiding in the development of new technologies and products.
The first area of operation comprises of a PMUCal System calibrator, a pioneer in Latin America. The
second and third areas of activity have a high-speed data network infrastructure (with internet access),
as well as several workstations where PMUs from different manufacturers are installed, different PDCs
( PMU data hubs), such as the Open PDC and commercial PDCs, as well as test tools developed in
LabView.

The implementation of LabPMU has Cepel's own resources and also with funding from the
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), through the Technical Assistance
Project for the Energy and Mineral Sectors of the Ministry of Mines and Energy (META Project), which
aims to contribute to broadening and consolidating the advances of the energy and mining sectors,
supporting the country's competitiveness and sustainable economic growth.
Please, for any additional information, consult the link: http://www.cepel.br/laboratorios-e-
centros/menu/laboratorio-de-medicao-fasorial-sincrona.htm.

F.2. China
F.2.1. Existing Testing Tools
Two kinds of PMU testing platforms have been built by our research group in China. One is based on
a high-precision signal generator. In this testing system, the signal generator is treated as a reference
source. As testing waveforms are generated according to mathematical equations, the theoretical
phasor, frequency, and rate-of-change-of-frequency (ROCOF) of different testing signals are obtained
according to the same mathematical equations. Measurements of PMUs under test (PUT) have been
comparatively analyzed to obtain measurement errors represented by total vector error (TVE),
frequency error (FE), and ROCOF error (RFE). Another PMU testing system is based on a PMU
calibrator. In this type of system, a signal generator generates static and dynamic testing signals to the
PMU calibrator and PUT simultaneously. Then, measurement errors of the PUT are obtained by taking
the measurements from the PMU calibrator as references. Therefore, the measurement precision of
the calibrator must be sufficiently high to serve as a reference in error analysis.
F.2.2. Existing testing practices

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The Chinese EPRI are using these two testing systems to test all the PMUs from the Chinese PMU
manufacturers before their installation. The test has been done for several rounds since 2013.
a. Acceptance
To evaluate the measurement performance of PMUs in China, PMUs from 4 manufactures
were tested in 2010. Test results showed that the measurement accuracy of PMUs is high
under steady-state conditions, but the measurement errors do not meet the requirements
listed in PMU standards under dynamic conditions.
After the above tests, PMU manufactures paid more attention to improving their phasor
measurement algorithms. Thus, in 2013, the test organized by North China Electric Power
University and China Electric Power Research Institute was performed to evaluate the
performance of improved PMUs from 7 manufactures in China. This test results were the
basis for bidding PMUs of State Grid Corporation of China. During the test, the measurement
accuracy of the PMU C does not meet the requirements in amplitude and phase modulation
test as well as Fs is 25Hz. But beyond that, the performance of PMUs satisfies the
requirements listed in PMU standards.
b. Commissioning
Before deploying PMUs into power systems, two steps are taken to ensure the measurement
performance. Firstly, each vender selects a PMU prototype to be tested in the China Electric
Power Research Institute. Secondly, venders test their PMUs by themselves in their
laboratories.
c. Periodic
When PMUs run in a power system for a period of time, the measurement accuracy will
decrease, suffer from hardware aging and other reasons. Thus, periodic tests organized by
State Grid Corporation of China for PMUs are carried out to ensure high measurement
performance of PMUs.
d. Troubleshooting tests
In a regional power grid, if the measurement results of one PMU are different from other
PMUs or measurement devices, the PMU must be tested to find out causes. For instance, one
vender’s PMU measured the following results: three-phase amplitudes were modulated at a
frequency smaller than 1 Hz, but positive sequence amplitude was non-modulation; frequency
was also modulated at the same modulation frequency. However, the measured amplitude
and frequency from other PMUs and measurement devices were not modulated, but the
fundamental frequency offset to about 49.93Hz (nominal frequency is 50Hz). After a series of
tests, we found out that the PMU cannot measure the phasor and frequency accurately under
the condition of the fundamental frequency deviating from nominal frequency, resulting in
amplitude and frequency oscillations. Positive sequence amplitude was not modulated
because the oscillations in three phases were canceled out.
F.2.3. Staff training
An advanced and comprehensive measurement system is the basis for revealing the nature of power
systems, perceiving their states, and guaranteeing their and even the nation’s security. With the
increasing development of renewable sources and smart grids, a large scale of power electronic
devices have been introduced into generation sources, transmission lines, and loads. The nature,
analysis methods, and operation modes have been changed dramatically, and the existing
measurement devices, system, and relevant theory and technology cannot meet the needs. A full-view
synchronized measurement system (SYMS) for the power system spanning renewable sources, grid,
and loads is developed. Based on the analysis of the characteristic of power systems with large scale
of power electronics, the synchronized measurement methods which are suitable for renewables,
active loads, and power system close loop control are proposed, and the corresponding synchronized
measurement devices are developed. The system integration technologies, including communication,
data compression, and storage, considering multiple kinds of big data, are studied to establish the
SYMS. Then, a data recovery method, dynamic state estimation, and a disturbance identification
method are proposed based on the SYMS.

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Figure F.1 - Framework of SYSM

F.3. Finland (Device testing)

F.3.1. PMUs in power system operation and planning
The Finnish transmission system operator Fingrid Oyj uses the PMU measurements to monitor the
damping of inter-area power oscillations, voltage stability, and power system inertia. In addition,
automatic data processing routines analyze and report power system disturbances automatically. The
PMU devices used for the monitoring are of different ages and from different vendors.
The PMU measurements have originally been designed to monitor electromechanical dynamics. Thus,
there is no specification of how the measurements should perform when there are fast transients,
step-wise changes, or harmonics in the system. In practice, however, the PMU measurements are
typically the best available measurements in addition to the conventional SCADA measurements. For
this reason, control center dispatchers, operators, and back office experts tend to use these
measurements as the best available information in power system analysis, and the measurements are
commonly used for power system monitoring.
F.3.2. Problems related to power system transients
The experience from the measurements in Finland has shown that PMUs are important tools for
monitoring the system dynamics. However, the experience has shown that in certain cases, PMU
devices respond in a different way to step-wise changes in grid voltages and currents caused by, for
example, a fault or HVDC connection trip. The deviations could be seen, for example, as changes in
voltage, frequency, and power reported by the devices, which may last a few seconds.
The problem with these deviations is that they may, in certain cases, lead to misinterpretation of the
event, which took place in the power system. In addition, automatic processing of PMU data is
challenging if the PMU measurements are not measuring the event in the same way.
F.3.3. Experience and requirements of testing of transient performance of PMU devices
The transient performance of the PMU devices could be analyzed using, for example, a Real-Time
Digital Simulator (RTDS) in a testing laboratory. In the setup, a power system model is run in a
simulator in real time, and different types of faults are applied in the system. The simulator is
connected to the analyzed PMU devices via power amplifiers, which emulate the potential and current
transformers at a substation.
Currently, there are no general specifications regarding the testing of PMU devices in setups, such as
RTDS in Finland. However, some of the PMU devices used in the transmission system have been

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tested in RTDS in order to broaden the understanding of the impact of power system transients on the
PMU measurements and their application. The testing also makes it possible to analyze how the
response of the devices can be effected using device settings such as filtering parameters.
Furthermore, the results from the tests can be used to analyze what kind of disturbances can be
monitored with PMUs and what are the risks of the misinterpretation of the results.
The operational experience and the RTDS analysis have shown that different devices respond to
power system transients differently. However, there are differences between PMU device vendors and
different versions of the same device regarding the nature of the deviations and how the response of
the devices could be affected by changing, for example, filtering settings. In addition, the significance
of the difference is dependent on multiple factors, such as the application where PMU data is used.
Although there are currently no testing requirements, the experience suggests that the testing would
be beneficial if PMU devices would be used in an application critical for power system monitoring. In
addition, it would be beneficial if there were international standards or recommendations regarding the
testing.

F.4. Finland (System testing)

F.4.1 The concepts of component and end-to-end testing and their importance
One of the problems related to the testing of large distributed systems such as WAMS is the validation
of the performance of the whole system covering both measurement equipment, communications
systems, and applications. In a large WAMS network, the testing of both components and end-to-end
performance of the live system might be challenging.
One concept to overcome this issue is testing the selected components and equipment in a test
facility. For example, a real-time digital simulator (RTDS) could be used to test both the performance
of the measurement equipment but also the software processing the measurement data.
The Finnish transmission system operator Fingrid Oyj has tested the transient performance of PMU
equipment using an RTDS setup similar to the schematic diagram shown in Fig. G.2. However, a
similar approach could be used to test the performance of other components such as phasor data
concentrators (PDC), PMU and PDC communication protocols, and WAMS applications.

Figure F.2 - Schematic Diagram of an RTDS System

In the concepts, the tested system is connected to a test system, which simulates power system
currents and voltages and uses power amplifiers, which generate signals similar to current and
potential transformers at the power system substations. This approach enables testing both selected
equipment such as PMU or end-to-end of the selected part of the system. For example:
• Verification of the performance of PDC software
• Verification of the performance of PMU equipment
• End-to-end performance of the PMU-PDC-Application system
The advantage of the end-to-end performance testing is that it enables testing and identification of
issues that are related to the interoperability of the system, which are unlikely detected during
component testing. However, this kind of testing requires that the tested system is sufficiently
replicated in a test facility. Depending on the size of the system, this might be time consuming and

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expensive. For this reason, it is important that the system being analyzed and tested is carefully
selected so that it includes the key system components.
Currently, there are no specific testing requirements in Finland regarding either equipment testing or
end-to-end testing of the systems. Currently the RTDS tests have been performed more for research
and development purposes. However, as the importance of WAMS and its applications increases in
power system operations, equipment testing, and end-to-end testing of the components become more
critical. Moreover, sufficient testing practices shall be developed. In addition, standardized testing
practices and performance indicators would make it easier to analyze and compare the results.

F.5. Russia
F.5.1 PMU data is information about electromechanical transient processes, PMU data is used for
different tasks in emergency & monitoring complexes. Any PMU data collapse can lead to violation of
the functioning of these complexes. For this reason, quality of PMU data is properly considered as:
A. Accuracy and clear information about electromechanical transient processes.
Possible problems: data inaccuracy (static, dynamic), data incorrect (false configuration),
operation problems (CT & PT & wires defects, etc), time synchronization loss (lead to angle error
measurement), etc.
B. Quality of communication connection of PMU – local PDC – regional PDC – main PDC-
software.
Possible problems: data delays, data loss (for different reasons).
Both of these problems (“A” and “B”) make the ICO&TCO software incorrect.
F.5.2 Discussing PMU data quality, we need to see the difference between «A» and «B»
QUALITY «A»
Static and dynamic PMU accuracy
It is required by Standard IEEE C37.118.1 and IEEE C37.118.1a-2014 addendum and depends on
PMU testing & certification quality. SO UPS had organized the System of Voluntary Certification
(SVC). The requirements for the certification organization are described in the standard of SO UPS.
This document regulates the procedure for voluntary certification and procedures for admission of
SVC to the certification process.
Since 2017 all PMU&PDC vendors in Russia have to be tested and certified devices by an
independent organization. In addition, PMUs have to be included in the Russian State register of
measuring instruments. PMU certification is carried out in accordance with the requirements of SO
UPS Standard «PMU. Requirements» based on IEEE C37.118.1 and IEEE C37.118.1a-2014
addendum.
Ability to measure synchrophasor angle and to calculate angle difference
It depends on correct installing PMU and time synchronization devices.
PMU-data verification or clarification
It is divided into two parts: primary monitoring and everyday online monitoring.
QUALITY «B»

• PMU data sampling (basic decision – 50 (60) fps)

It’s required by IEEE C37.118.2 and ISO & TCO requirements depending on task (influences on
channel capacity).
• time synchronization accuracy of PMU data - 1 µs
It depends on object system synchronization reliability and PMU algorithms. Correct/incorrect
synchronization is checked during automatic monitoring.
• online protocol IEEE C37.118.1 realization
Depends on PMU & PDC & software testing (interoperability and interchangeability).
SO UPS experience: PMU & PDC testing by SVC.

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F5.2.1. Methods of data quality monitoring.

Possible problems: time delay & frames PMU-data losses & unsynchronized data. These
characteristics depend on communication channels reliability and interoperability.
SO UPS experience: automation monitoring is realized by:
• PhasorPoint (GE, USA);
• WAMS Data Acquisition and Processing System (AlteroPower, Russia).
The basic SO UPS requirement to the characteristics of PMU data stream:
• time delay of PMU data transfer to control room Tdelay ≤ 1 s (actual time delay in WAMS
of Russia ≤ 100..200 ms);
• % of PMU data loss ≤ 1 % (actual % of data loss ≤ 0.2 %);
Periodically, we see a significant increase in data loss. This is due to a malfunction or reconfiguration
of the communication system. Such problems are solved in the process of operation.
Any application based on real time PMU data critically depends on the PMU data quality. To ensure
the correct operation of applications, it is necessary to monitor the quality of PMU data in real time.
For PMU data quality assurance for its application in real-time monitoring and control systems, it is
necessary to ensure continuous monitoring of PMU data. PMU, communication networks, and PDC
are the elements that should not lower the indicators of quality, completeness, and speed of data
delivery. The main objective of monitoring is to identify "weak link" in the communication infrastructure
of PMU data transfer from the level of power facility to the main control room. Two main areas could
be identified:
• development of data management tools on every level of communication system. When
recording the fact of permanent data loss, it is necessary to involve the effective
functioning automatic methods and techniques for the identification and handling of error
(missing) data (data backup, recognition of erroneous data, extrapolation, substitution, as
well as the criteria for identifying the data as insufficiently reliable to use);
• application-level requirements in terms of data handling. Synchrophasor technology-based
applications should be designed in such a way that the moderate deterioration of PMU
data quality does not have a significant impact on the results of its operation. The best
approach is to include data quality control modules in synchrophasor-based applications
that will alert the user and block the execution of an application function if incorrect data
can have a critical impact on the operation of the software.
System solution of the data quality assurance task involves the following steps:
• creation a set of terms and definitions to describe and define the quality indicators of PMU
data;
• preliminary definition of requirements for data quality indicators of PMU data (may vary for
the different applications);
• conduct research to identify PMU data quality received by the control centre;
• analysis and identification of problems encountered in the transfer and processing of data
from the PMU to super PDC;
• development of the method of determining the correctness of applications operating on
the base of PMU data with different levels of quality;
• implementation of PMU data quality control modules at all nodes of the communication
system;
• identifying and addressing the causes of the deterioration of the quality of the PMU data,
bringing data quality to the required level.
To fully solve the task of monitoring PMU data quality, it is necessary to develop a tool that provides
complete and accurate information about PMU data quality at each level of WAMS.
For clear identification of the loss of PMU data quality needs:
• automatically identify the element that is causing data quality degradation (PMU data
quality monitoring should be implemented at each level);
• to assess the degree and trend of loss of data quality PMU (permanently calculate
percentage of lost / erroneous data);
• to identify the cause of the loss of PMU data quality (by means of processing of error flag
sets and statistical analysis of information obtained at different levels).

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Proposals for determining the characteristics of PMU data quality (during time period) are given in the
following table

№
Characteristic of PMU data quality Formula
п.п.

1 Maximum number of data frames Nmax = Fs*t,

Fs – frames per second

2 The number of received data frames (data received) Nf

3 Total number of data frame loss (during time period) Nloss. = Nmax-Nf

4 Real-time calculation of the number of consecutive losses data Nloss.1-2, Nloss.3-4, Nloss.5-10,
frames (1-2, 3-4, 5-10, 11-20, 21-50, 51 and over) Nloss.11-20, Nloss.21-50,
Nloss.over 50

5 Determination of the maximum duration of the data frame loss Nloss.max

6 Completeness of data P=(1-Nloss./Nmax)*100

7 The reliability (R) of the data by two criteria:

a.) value of data quality indicator, Ndq (data invalid, PMU error,
sync lost, share of data frames with correct values in STAT fields
and Time Quality (TQ));

b.) the measuring parameter is in the correct interval, Ndd)

c.) the number of data that meets both criteria Nd= Ndq+ Ndd

Note: data validation process should be brought to the R=Nd/Nf*100

station/substation level

8 Latency Z

9 Min (max) latency (during time period) Zmin (Zmax)

10 Number of data frames with a delay not exceeding the allowable,

Nz
Z allowed (user-defined)

In addition to the listed characteristics at the lower level of WAMS communication system, it is
advisable to monitor the following characteristics:
• the number of received data frames;
• % correct data frames;
• % data frames with incorrect header frame;
• % incorrect measurements (comparison with state estimator and SCADA);
• % data frames with incorrect timestamp;
• % of losses PMU data frames;
• % of losses PDC data frames;
• % data frames with big latency;
• % data frames with incorrect CCR-CCITT (IEEE C37.118.2);
• additional criteria,

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and identification of duplicate data frames (data frames with one ID with the same timestamps),
termination of data transmission for various reasons (PMU failure, PDC failure, communication system
failure).
In the future, software modules that provide monitoring of PMU data quality in real time should be
implemented at each WAMS hierarchical level: both at the power facility level and in the control
centers

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APPENDIX G. Test Results

G.1. Brazil
In Brazil, steady state tests, dynamic tests, and latency test tests have been performed, verifying if the
PMUs complies with the standard IEEE C37.118.1 in CEPEL (Energy Research Center), using a
FLUKE Calibrator (Fluke 6135A). It is suggested to the vendor adjustments in hardware or software
before field installation. The following picture depicts an example of that. A specific model of PMU was
tested for the first time, and some non-conformities were detected regarding frequency and ROCOF
measurements in the static tests. The vendor did some modifications in hardware and software, and
the PMU was verified again. The problems verified at the first tests were solved, but new non-
conformities appeared at the step tests. The manufacturer was informed and modified the firmware
again. Finally, the PMU was compliant with the standard.

Figure G.1 - Firmware Evolution of a PMU model

During the last four years, the lab has been testing PMUs from more than six different vendors, some
of them present at the Brazilian Electric System. The following picture shows the results. The case of
the first vendor was already told. The manufacturer of PMU “2” said that model “1” was only compliant
with IEEE Std C37.118-2005, and PMU “3” told the same. Regarding vendor “6”, there are some
important issues: a “protection firmware” was not completely compliant with the standard.
Nevertheless, a “metering firmware” provided good results. Another important notice is that a merging

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unit (SV 61850 compliant) associated with a specific PMU model was tested and was completely
compliant.

Figure G.2 - Results of Reference Tests

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APPENDIX H. Future PMU Technology developments

H.1. United States
H.1.1. Optical CT and PT with built-in PMUs.
Conventional PMUs use potential transformers (PTs) or current transformers (CTs) to obtain the input
signals. However, these transformers introduce large instrumentation errors due to inherent
deficiencies, including temperature and electromagnetic interference (EMI) sensitivity, saturation
magnetization, and nonlinear induction. Furthermore, as most PMUs are installed at high-voltage
substations, the traditional CTs and PTs with oil or sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) gas requirements for
insulation would complicate the installation process and bring high maintenance cost, especially under
conditions of harsh and explosive environments.
Optical device is the future of power industry measurement technology. Optical sensors convert light
rays into electronic signals and measure the physical quantity of light, and then translates it into a form
that is readable by an instrument. Optical transducer is able to output highly accurate current and
voltage, providing electrical isolation, linearity, and temperature stability, and having great potential for
future applications. Therefore, it is not hard to envision the majority of future voltage, and current
measurements will be replaced with optical devices. Compared with existing PMUs connected with
conventional CT/PTs, the optical PMUs will be immune to electrical noise with higher measurement
accuracy and more tolerant of solar magnetic disturbance and electromagnetic pulses
H.1.2. Ultra-fast devices
Understanding vital parameters throughout the electric power network is necessary to assess the
operating condition of the grid in real time, predict behavior, and respond to events. Early control
actions will be especially important in the future grid, which will be more heavily loaded, tightly
interconnected, and dependent on renewable energy. For example, to prevent fast drops in frequency
under low-inertia conditions (due to large penetration of renewable), load control is potentially the
fastest, most effective method of limiting initial frequency drops. Fast reaction for load control requires
an advanced algorithm to deliver very accurate measurements very rapidly and obtain the true rate of
frequency drop in order to perform smart load control during the initial frequency decline. PMU
capability to achieve fast and accurate measurements during transient conditions will allow control
actions during the critical first swing after a major disturbance in the system. Moreover, it allows
reliable and immediate triggering of appropriate load control and ride-through of inverters at the initial
frequency drop stage.
Commercial PMUs are generally based on discrete Fourier transform (DFT) and use a 2–6 cycle or
longer window for phasor estimation. Their dynamic response accuracy is limited by the wide window
size, which is not adequate to capture system transients to initiate control actions to stabilize the grid.
The ultra-fast devices will utilize an adaptive window size technology and instantaneous phasor
estimation algorithm to extend the dynamic accuracy of existing PMUs to the level that enables
transient capture and prediction. It makes the possibility of transient stability control during the most
critical first disturbance swing. Overall bulk grid stability will be improved as a result of taking control at
a very early stage of any instability.
H.1.3. Higher reporting rate devices
Given that the IEEE C37.118 standard for PMUs prescribes a low reporting rate requirement,
commercial PMUs are designed and manufactured to have typical data rates ranging from 10 Hz to
120 Hz, which is not fast enough for dynamic response prediction and transient stability control of
power grids. Consequently, neither fast dynamic response (e.g., within one cycle) nor reliable and
accurate measurements during transients (due to sudden changes in power generation and/or power-
consuming loads in the power grids) may be provided by current commercial PMUs. A high reporting
rate of frequency and angle measurements will benefit power grid situational awareness, event
analysis, and transient stability control. Devices with a high reporting rate provide more observation
points to extend power grid visibility during transients, dynamics, oscillation, first swing, frequency
instability, voltage instability, etc. High data rate also allows for dynamic response prediction and
increases the accuracy of power system model validation.
When shifting the phasor calculation window by a single sample, ideally, the reporting rate can be as
high as the sampling rate. To meet the real-time requirement in practical implementations such as in
DSP and FPGA, an adaptive phasor calculation algorithm has to be developed to reduce the
computational complexity with high resolution and memory use efficiency. Moreover, the large volume

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of data communication and storage associated with a high reporting rate is another challenging task to
cope with.
H.1.4. Include odd and even harmonics
With the increasing numbers of power electronic devices for renewable generation involved in the
power grid, the quantity of nonlinear components and periodical time-varying loads increases fiercely,
which leads to harmonic distortion. The harmonic pollution has severely degraded the power quality
and caused serious damages to facilities working in the power system. Therefore, it is of great
importance to measure the level of harmonic distortion in a quick and accurate way for the reliable
operation of power systems. On the other hand, nowadays, PMUs have been extended from the
transmission to distribution level. Different from the high voltage transmission systems with relatively
fewer harmonics, distribution grids have much worse power quality due to the harmonics and
distortions produced by various electric appliances at the customer side. Including odd and even
harmonics in PMU will provide the grid operators with valuable information to promote a better
observation of distribution-level PQ issues, especially in the region of high renewable energy
penetration. The harmonic analysis also can help better understanding the impact of harmonics on
their power delivery service and how the phasor calculation is tampered with or influenced by the
harmonic. Furthermore, analysis of power spectral density can be further applied by combing the
calculation of inter-harmonics and harmonics to study the noise level of the power grid and the effect
of noise on phasor measurement accuracy.
H.1.5. PMU with alternative/backup Timing Source
In the USA, PMUs rely on Global Positioning System (GPS) signal to provide precise time
synchronization reference. Nevertheless, various uncontrollable and unpredictable factors (e.g.,
atmospheric disturbances, weather change, GPS signal attack, or solar activity) may cause GPS
receivers inside PMUs to lose signal occasionally, even if their antennas are placed in a location with
an unobstructed view of the satellites. This will inevitably influence the quality of measurement data
and consequently make the synchronized measurement-based applications vulnerable to GPS signal
loss (GSL). As an increasing number of PMUs are deployed, the necessity to address the GSL issue
arises.
Equipping with an alternative/backup Timing source (Atomic clock or e-Loran) in PMUs is an effective
solution for reliability improvement in PMU with GSL. The redundancy assures more resilient timing
reference solution.
1.) With the advent of the commercial chip scale atomic clock (CSAC), it provides the
opportunity to use a CSAC for PMU time synchronization purposes. Taking the Microsemi
Quantum SA.45s as an example, it can keep the timing drift within 890 ns in 24 hours, which
is small enough for accurate phasor measurement. With the reduced cost, it is promising for
the CSAC to be widely used in PMUs in the future.
2.) In some parts of the world, the eLoran is an alternative high-power, low frequency, ground
wave-based system which can provide UTC timing and PPS. The UTC timing traceability of
eLoran is less than 50ns that can comply with the timing accuracy requirement of IEEE PMU
Standard C37.118. As a ground-based technology, the reliability and accuracy of eLoran is
influenced by human activity and environmental change, which needs to be taken into
consideration in future implementation.
H.1.6. Portable devices
Traditional PMUs are physically connected to transmission lines or buses to acquire input signals via
CTs and PTs for phasor measurement, which complicates the installation and maintenance process
and endangers the safety of the personnel, especially for high-voltage apparatus in substations at the
transmission level. Moreover, in some remote areas, far from any substation or microgrid operated in
either grid-connected mode or islanded mode, it is difficult to install and maintain PMU due to the lack
of facilities and high installation cost. However, it is critical to continually monitor the phasor
information in such areas to maintain reliable and stable operation, especially during disturbance
events, e.g., a generation trip or islanding process. Therefore, a portable PMU is required.
H.1.7. Non-contact measurement
One direction to develop the portable PMU is to integrate the technologies of wireless sensors and
mobile platforms. First, according to electromagnetic theory, any electric conductor naturally generates
electric and magnetic fields in the vicinity area. An electric or magnetic sensor can be developed to
translate the alternating field signal into an alternating current or voltage signal. Thus, an input signal

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can be obtained without a direct physical connection. Second, phasor calculation can be implemented
in an embedded mobile platform taking its advantages of portability, built-in communication channels,
and computation speed. The development of portable devices will not only improve the convenience
but also reduce the cost for manufacturer, installation, and maintenance of PMU, which will facilitate
wide application of future wide-area phasor monitoring of the entire electric power network.
H.1.8. Multifunctional units
Since PMU applications have been extended to distribution level, knowledge of power quality would
become natural addition due to the increasing numbers of power electronic devices for renewable
generation on customer side. Devices that combine phasor and power quality values (such as
harmonics, voltage sag, swell, signal to noise ratios (SNRs), and voltage flickers) provide better value.
Power quality data can be streamed using IEEE C37.118.2 format. Several prototypes are available.
In addition to power quality, PMUs could easily provide point on wave (POW) data. POW data for both
transmission and distribution level are becoming necessary recently since detailed temporal
voltage/current waveform are useful for transient analysis and inverter behavior characterization. With
the benefits from the synchronization timing source, PMUs can sample and transmit burst of real-time
synchronized POW data at high speed and provide data to the PDC or server centers and function like
a DFR. These POW data can help better understand the events and bring significant benefit to
anomaly detection and analysis at distribution level.
In conclusion, the future PMUs will likely take another path by integrating functions of many other
devices and become comprehensive power system monitoring units.

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 ISBN : 978-2-85873-548-8

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Reference 843 - September 2021