Wide-Area Identification of the Size and Location of Loss of Generation Events by Sparse PMUs

Timely identification of the size and location of loss of generation (LoG) events improves the effectiveness of remedial actions taken against this type of disturbances. This paper sets forth a novel method for LoG localization and size estimation by phasor measurements received in the control center within a reasonable wait time following the event inception. The bus impedance matrix is utilized to obtain a transfer function from the LoG location to variations of voltage and current phasors following the event. This results in an overdetermined system of linear equations whose closed-form solution provides the LoG location and size based upon the sum of squared residuals concept. The proposed method removes the need for the reception of specific measurements in the control center, and/or knowing the system inertia. This is in contrast with previous methods resorting to the swing equation of the center of inertia. The method lends itself to real-time applications for its robustness against partial communication network failures and losses of the time synchronization signal. Extensive simulations conducted on the IEEE 39-bus and 118-bus test systems verify the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method over existing ones.