Investigation of communication delays and data incompleteness in multi-PMU Wide Area Monitoring and Control Systems

Phasor based Wide Area Monitoring and Control Systems (WAMC) are becoming a reality with increased international research and development. Many potential control applications based on these systems are being proposed and researched. An aspect which is less well investigated is the WAMC system´s dependence on high performance communication systems. This paper presents the results of simulations performed in order to determine the characteristics of communication delays incurred in WAMC systems using multiple PMUs distributed over a large geographic area. Such systems normally include one or several Phasor Data Concentrator (PDC) that collect and sort the data from the PMUs. Two specific parameters, completeness and currency of the PMU data has been studied as part of the simulations. The results indicate that configuration of central nodes such as the PDC needs to be optimized based on the intended WAMC application being supported.