Time synchronization of automation controllers for power applications

This paper investigates various forms of industrial time synchronization and attempts to apply them to Programmable Automation Controllers (PACs) for power system applications. PACs have been used in industry for many control applications, but advancements in synchronization technology has allowed for PACs to be used in high speed control and data acquisition systems. This paper looks at utilizing a PAC as a time synchronized Sequence of Events recorder (SER) for substation automation. It is shown that a PAC can be time synchronized to multiple time references and provide accuracies accepted by the power industry.