Synchrophasor events in the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) grid

Synchronized phasor measurements, or synchrophasors, allow the measurement of voltage phase angle and frequency, and through the comparison of two or more phasor the stability of the grid can be studied. The acquisition of synchrophasors in possible using Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) and Global Positioning System Technology (GPS).

The purpose of this research is to study synchrophasor events in the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) grid. Several studies have been made in the Texas grid, and that allows a comparison of events in both grids.

During this study, five different types of synchrophasor events were observed. The first type of events, which consist of a change in phase angle difference value followed by damped oscillations has also been observed in the Texas grid; however, the other 4 types of events are not common occurrences in the Texas grid. The characteristics of each of the five types of synchrophasor events have been analyzed in this thesis.