NIST support of phasor measurements to increase reliability of the North American electric power grid

The importance of developing better tools for observing the status of the North American power grid is described. Focus is on the performance of the phase measurement units being deployed to give the raw data for this improved observability. How the availability of this information would have appeared during the August 2003 power blackout is described. IEEE is developing a standard for these units but no calibration service is available to use as a common reference to assure the interchangeability of units from different manufacturers. The program under way at NIST to develop such a calibration service and the coordination with the power industry to develop a guideline for performing these calibrations is presented. The future directions of work in this area are given