A Fast Harmonic Phasor Measurement Method for Smart Grid Applications

System-wide monitoring and reliable identification of power quality (PQ) events and their source is one of the critical requirements of smart grid implementation. The concept of phasor measurement has tremendously helped in fast and reliable state estimation and wide area monitoring of power system. This paper proposes a fast and reliable method for estimation of harmonic phasors that is considered as the most serious PQ problem in the emerging scenario with growing proportion of power electronics based devices in the power system. In the absence of a dedicated standard for harmonic phasor measurement, the IEEE Std. C37.118.1 for a fundamental synchrophasor measurement has been followed as the reference for formulation and evaluation of the proposed method. The performance of the proposed method has been investigated on the variety of simulated and actual power system signals for steady-state and dynamic conditions.

I. Introduction

The power quality (PQ) has been identified as one of the principle characteristics of the smart grid [1]. Due to the proliferation of power electronics based non-linear elements, waveform distortion has emerged as one of the most serious concerns among many PQ problems. At present the situation is such that the sources of waveform distortions are present at all levels of the power systems, viz. generation (renewables integration, distributed energy resources), transmission (HVDC, FACTS) and distribution (variable speed drives, consumer appliances, etc.). Waveform distortion is quantified using harmonics, and requires significant attention because of many associated operational and technical problems [2], e.g., increased losses, interference, control and protection mal-operation, etc.