I

Robed E. Wdson
Roberl Wilson

In the spring of 1993,

a major new 500 kV

automotive navigation.
The power industry is
transmission line was put
now using GPS to synin service in northern
chronize measuring units.
California. Test engiAn instrument called a
neers initiated a series of
Phasor Measurement
artificial short-circuit
Unit (PMU) was develfaults to test the line
oped by researchers at
installation. As an experVirginia Polytechnic
iment, the steady-state
Institute. A company
and transient responses
based near Syracuse, NY,
of the power system
now produces PMUs.
were recorded. During
The basic idea of the
testing of the new CaliPMU is shown in Fig. 1.
The goal is to measure
fornia-Oregon Transmission Project (COTP), a
the difference between
PMU was installed at
the positive-going zerocrossings of the same
Olinda Substation near
phase voltage at different
Redding, CA, and at
Tracy Substation, near Depattment of Energy power system engineers inspect series substations. The PMUs
San Francisco, CA capacitors on the new California-Oregon transmission line lock their internal clocks
before testing starts.
to the global GPS referroughly 320 kilometers
apart. PMU (Phasor Measurement Unit) is a new measuring
ence and measure the time of the zero-crossing. This is convertunit that recorded power system voltages and currents at the
ed to degrees with respect to the 60 (or 50) Hz reference. The
two substations. The PMUs use a navigational satellite system
phase angle of the one substation chosen as a reference point
to synchronize digital sampling at different substations.
will have some value with respect to GPS. This bias is subtractThat summer we analyzed the data using modem digital siged from the measurements at other substations to obtain a sysnal processing software. h this article we will compare actual
tem-wide picture.
field measurements of the steady-state pre-fault power system
Potential and current transformers reduce the power system
angle with a classic relation for calculating real power flow on a
voltages and currents to safe working levels. The PMU records
transmission line. The agreement between the state-of-the-art
fifteen channels of the real and imaginary parts of the secondary
measurements and the classic calculations was very close.
voltages and currents. An analog-to-digital converter (ADC)
samples each channel 2,880 times each second. The ADCs in
Measuring
each PMU are synchronized to within one microsecond. GPS
Electric power systems are very large and may cover parts
synchronizes sampling between different PMUs. A Discrete
of several states. To measure phase angles across a power sysFourier Transform (DFT) is used calculate the magnitude and
tem, you need a global reference. Thls global reference must
phase angle 720 times each second. When the power system is
somehow tie measuring instruments together in substations
in steady-state, the DFT calculations are exact. When a shortcircuit fault occurs, the power system is in a transient state and
hundreds of kilometers apart. The global reference currently in
a DFT can only estimate a current or voltage phasor. Simultause is the microsecond timekeeping provided by the U.S.
neously with DFT calculations, the PMU software calculates a
Department of Defenses Global Positioning System (GPS).
power system quantity called the positive sequence.
GPS is sometimes called the NAVSTAR system.
Before GPS, microsecond timekeeping was very expensive
The GPS is a satellite-based military navigational and posiand not practical for measurements in operating substations.
tioning system that is nearly complete. The system uses 21 midElectric utilities had to estimate the angle 6 using large computer
dle-altitude satellites to provide users with three dimensional
position and velocity fixes. Because GPS uses the speed of light
programs called state estimators. A state estimator program
in ranging calculations, the same system also provides subwould estimate 6 many seconds or minutes after voltage and
power measurements were made. By the time 6 was estimated,
microsecond timekeeping. The U.S. military used GPS in the
the power system probably would have changed. The price of
Middle East during Operation Desert Storm. Surveyors use
GPS receiver-clock cards have dropped every month and this has
GPS to position control stations to within three centimeters of a
helped to make nearly real-time measurements of 6 practical.
global coordinate system. GPS may also be used in aircraft and
26

0278-6648/94/$4.00 01994 IEEE

IEEE POTENTIALS

where:
IE I = magnitude of voltage phasor,
I I I= magnitude of current phasor,
0 = angle between the local voltage
and current phasors.
The PMUs recorded all the needed
information to solve Equations 2 and 3
for angle 6. The calculated value of 6
will be compared with the measured
value of 6.

Data analysis

Fig.7 A simplified representation of how the power angle 6 (delta) is

measured. The GPS synchronized clock could be replaced with any
microsecond timeskeeping service.

Real power flow

In a senior level course in power systems, a simple relation between real
power flow (PI and power system quantities is developed. When transmission
line resistance R is much less than line
reactance, the real power flowing
through a transmission line is related to
the phase angle across that line by:

measurement. A missing piece of the

puzzle is an exact value for real power
flow, P. Since the PMU synchronizes
voltage and current channels, a second
phase angle between the voltage and
current can be derived from the recorded
data. This second angle is usually called
theta (0).
Specifically, for single phase quantities,

The PMU stores its estimate of

power system phasors in a one second
long file of the real and imaginary parts
for each phasor. The real and imaginary
parts are each a digital time-series of
values. All the needed time-series were
brought into a modem digital signal processing spreadsheet program. The program has resident functions such as
arc-tangent, square root, and so forth.
The data can be manipulated and displayed in a multiple window format
such as that shown in Fig. 2. Windows 1
and 2 (W1 & W2j of Fig. 2 show the
time-series of the real and imaginary
parts of a voltage phasor from the Tracy
Substation. In window 3, the scaled
magnitude of the phasor is calculated by
calculating the square root of the sum of
the squares of windows 1 and 2. Window 4 uses the arc-tangent function to
calculate the angle of the phasor relative

where:
P = real power flow, measured in
watts,
E, = magnitude of the bus 1 voltage,
E, = magnitude of the bus 2 voltage,
X = net reactance between the point
of voltage measurement
= X of the line minus X of any
series capacitors,
d = phase angle difference.

If the voltages, real power flow, and

net reactance are known, Equation 2 can
be used to solve for 6. Close agreement
between calculated and PMU measured
values would help to validate the technique of time synchronized phase angle
APRIL 1994

Fig. 2 A four window signal processing spreadsheet showing the

timelseries calculation of phasor voltage magnitude and phase angle.
27

the calculated and measured values for pre-fault

and post-fault steady-state
conditions with an average
difference of 0.46 degree.
FUtUE

Real-time measurement of the phase angles

of power systems is a
recent development. Use
of high-technology navigational satellites to synchronize power system
measurements to within
one microsecond is a new
development. In this paper
we have reviewed a wellknown equation that
relates real power flow to
the voltages at substations
and the phase angle across
transmission lines. Using
voltages and current measurements at only one substation, we predicted the
value of the phase angle.
During the same experiment, the PMUs measured
new 500 kV transmission line tests the pmtec- the same phase angles.
The two approaches protive relays and lights up a Califkwnia evening.
duced values that differed
to the GPS timekeeping. We are interby an average value of 0.46 degree. The
ested in the horizontal steady-state preclose agreement improves the credibility
fault angle values. The induced
of GPS time synchronized phase meashort-circuit fault starts approximately
surements.
midway in each window.
The phase angles and the magnitude
Real power P and the angle 6 were
of the voltages at the electric substations
calculated in a 19 window spreadsheet.
are the state vectors of the power sysThe angle of the current phasor is calcutem. The state vector is a very powerful
lated with respect to the time synchrotool in modern closed loop system
nized reference. The phase angle of the
control. In the future, phase angle meavoltage phasor is calculated relative to
surements may be a central part of a
the same reference. Simple substraction
high-speed computationally-intensive
yields the angle between the local voltcontrol scheme that helps improve the
age and current phasors. Knowing P at
efficiency of transmission lines. The
every sample point, the value of the line
good agreement
reactance, the impedance of the series
between calculatcapacitors, and the voltage magnitudes
ed and measured
at Tracy and Olinda Substations, equaphase angles was
tion 2 was solved for angle 6.
achieved using a
Table 1 shows the results of comparsimple R-L transing measurements made in the field with
mission
line
calculations. In Table 1, the measuremodel.
ments were between the two line-side
potential devices of the faulted line. 8
Read more
Measured by PMUs refers to steadyabout it
state pre-fault phase angle differences.
Results for the steady-state pre-fault
0A.G. Phadke,
periods are listed Calculated 6. The
Synchronized
numbers in parentheses are the differPhasor Measureences between the second method of calments in Power
culations and PMU measurements.
Systems, IEEE
Table 1 shows close agreement between
Computer Appli28

cations in Power, Vol. 6, No. 2, April

1993, pp. 10-15.
*J. Hum, GPS. A Guide to the Next
Utility, Trimble Navigation, Sunnyvale,
CA, 1989 (available from Trimble Navigation, P.O. Box 3642, Sunnyvale, CA
94088-3642).
0R.E. Wilson, Uses of Precise Time
and Frequency in Power Systems, Proceedings of the IEEE Special Issue on
Time and Frequency, July, 1991.
*C.Slivinsky, S . Stanton, J. Esztergalyos, J. Nordstrom, K. Martin, P.S. Sterlina, P.K. Lemme, V.A. Centano,
Phase Angle Measurement Applications, A New Transducer that Measures
State Variables in Real Time, Western
Protective Relay Conference, Spokane,
Washington, October 20-22, 1992.

About the author

Robert E. Wilson (S73-M80SM92) was born in Omaha, NE on May
4, 1946. He received the B.S.E.E. degree
from the University of Nebraska in 1969,
and Masters degrees in 1973, 1980, and
1989. From 1980 to 1990 and during the
summer of 1992 he was with the Western Area Power Administration, U.S.
DOE. His job assignmentsincluded relay
settings, technical analysis, system planning, timekeeping networks, substation
additions, major equipment commissioning and construction administration.
Bob Wilson is a Visiting Assistant
Professor at the University of Wyoming
and recently earned a Ph.D. from the
University of Idaho. His research interests include power system protection
and applications of precise timekeeping.
He is a member of the IEEE Power
Engineering Society Power System
Relay Committee, chairs a task force on
relay and control system modeling, and
is a registered Professional Engineer in
the state of Colorado.

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