A virtual instrumentation-based embedded system integrated with power quality and synchrophasor measurements

Power quality monitoring helps to lower energy cost and to prolong instrument life span while synchrophasor measurement provides situational awareness on real-time grid conditions and early identification of potential problems. The trend for complex measurement instruments over the last decades has moved towards virtual instrumentation. Though virtual instrumentation shares many of the same functional blocks as its traditional counterpart - standalone box instruments, virtual instrumentation differs primarily in the ability of end users to define the core functionality of an instrument through software.