Field PMU Test and Calibration Method—PartII: Test Signal Identification Methods and FieldTest Applications

Abstract

Synchrophasor measurement units (PMUs) provide synchronized measurement data for wide-area applications. To improve the effectiveness of synchrophasor-based applications, field PMUs must be tested to ensure their performance and data quality. In the companion paper (Part I), we proposed a field PMU test and calibration framework consisting of a PMU calibrator and analysis center. Part I presents the development and test of the PMU calibrator. This paper focuses on the analysis center and field test applications. First, the critical component of the analysis center is the signal identification module, for which the step and oscillation signal identification methods are proposed. Here, the performance evaluation criteria of PMU in these two cases are different from others. The methods include a step signal detection method based on singular value decomposition (SVD), which has the capability of weak step detection to account for energy leakage of the signal during the step process, and an oscillation signal identification method based on SVD and fast Fourier transform, which can accurately extract oscillation components that benefit from the adaptive threshold setting method. Second, the analysis center software is implemented based on identification results. By integrating the PMU calibrator in Part I with the analysis center in Part II, we can examine in depth the field PMU test applications in three test scenarios, including standard, playback, and field signal test. Results demonstrate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed field PMU test methods from both Parts I and II.