Source Location of Forced Oscillations Using Synchrophasor and SCADA Data

Abstract

Recent advances in synchrophasor based oscillation monitoring algorithms have allowed engineers to detect oscillation issues that may have previously gone undetected. Although such an oscillation can be flagged and its oscillation shape can indicate the general vicinity of its source, low number of synchrophasors means that a specific generator or load that is the root cause of an oscillation cannot easily be pinpointed. Fortunately, SCADA serves as a much more readily available telemetered source of data if only at a relatively low sampling rate of 1 sample every 1 to 10 seconds. This paper shows that it is possible to combine synchrophasor and SCADA data for effective source location of forced oscillations. For multiple recent oscillation events, the proposed automatic methods were successful in correct identification of the oscillation source which was confirmed in each case by discussion with respective generation plant owners.