Wide Area Monitoring Protection and Control - WAMPAC

Market driven grid management, increased number of renewable/distributed generation sources, complexities to address reactive support, and a progressively more stressed transmission network have increased the complexity of operation, monitoring, control and protection of large interconnected electric power systems considerably. Power-grid congestion issues and disturbances worldwide have emphasized the need to enhance power grids with Wide Area Monitoring, Protection, and Control (WAMPAC) systems as a cost-effective solution to improve grid planning, operation, maintenance, and energy trading. WAMPAC systems take advantage of the latest advances in sensing, communication, computing, visualization, and algorithmic techniques. Synchronized Measurement Technology (SMT), including Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) and its applications are an important element and enabler of WAMPAC. Major utilities worldwide have experiences with Synchronized Measurement technologies implemented in a WAMPAC system. Synchronized Measurement Technology (for applications in the power industry) was developed near the end of 1980s and the first products appeared on the market in the early 1990s. Presently, a number of vendors are either offering or developing products using this technology. PMUs, together with Phasor Data Concentrators (PDCs), have already been implemented worldwide.