Wide Area Protection and Control - Today and Tomorrow

As the electric industry powers into the 21st century, the ability to take a wide area "dynamic" view of the power system and to take real-time control actions based on that view has become a critical need. This need has been most recently validated by the NERC analysis of the August 14, 2003 blackout where visualization of the phase angle between Cleveland and the rest of the east coast power grid shows Cleveland slowly slipping away from the rest of the eastern power grid with step changes in angle following various critical events. This panel takes a structured view of wide-area monitoring, protection and control including: 1) the need, 2) analysis & design and visualization & warning tools, 3) solution implementation examples, 4) testing and system restoration methodologies, and 5) future technologies and applications