Only an electrical engineer is likely to see the future of system reliability in a bunch of imaginary numbers. If everything were simple, there would only be ohms, volts, amps and watts. Everything would be real. If everything were simple, there wouldn't be those pesky reactive elements of power systems that cause us to deal with complex or imaginary numbers.

The “Phasor Measurements” panel session was one of the high points of the 2005/2006 IEEE PES T&D Conference for me. No, these aren't the same phasors that Captain Kirk used in Star Trek. Here, the phasors are simultaneous voltage, current and impedance measurements across the wide area of a grid to monitor network behavior. The promise of phasor measurements was first proposed at Virginia Tech in the 1980s. Now we finally have a technology infrastructure that lets us get really serious about this stuff.

For instance, if you can monitor the voltage angle across your system and how rapidly it changes, you will know the stability of your system. This same information across the geographic area that includes your interconnected neighbors can warn of events that might affect your system. When applied to the power-delivery system, do the words “cascade” or “collapse” cause you a foretaste of heartburn?

PLANNING AND OPERATIONS TODAY

It is almost hackneyed to note our power system is arguably the most complex machine mankind has ever built. But, how do we control this beast? Well, one operator picks up a phone and talks to another operator. How charming! How quaint!

Now, don't get me wrong, this works for the vast majority of situations. Our industry is incredibly reliable at delivering the promise of power behind every light switch. But, when things go bad — like the 2003 blackout — they can go really bad.

Planning is centered around pre-envisioned events. If we can figure out what might go wrong, we can figure out how to prevent really bad consequences. Take California's Path 15, for example. Contingencies caused a line to overload with pretty bad consequences. The system was fixed to prevent this from happening. We moved on.

However, it was a lot more difficult for planners or operators in New York to envision how those events in Ohio would lead to their system shutdown. Heck, it took literally months of collecting data and rationalizing the timing and sequence of events before our industry could say with certainty what really happened and when. It is no coincidence that the Eastern Interconnect Phasor Project (EIPP) took off in the aftermath of 2003.

TOWARD THE FUTURE

From a standing start back then, the EIPP now has almost 25 utility participants. More than 40 compatible phasor measurement units (PMU) are installed, a number that is expected to increase by 50% in 2006. PMUs on more than 50 lines are reporting to the super data concentrator at TVA, which is then made available to the entire EIPP. And, at least 12 vendors supply instruments for this endeavor. This has all happened because some utilities got together, under U.S. Department of Energy auspices, and decided something remarkable had to be done.

The vision is still ambitious: Improve power system reliability through wide-area measurement, monitoring and control. Utility response is similarly ambitious. Fourteen months ago Entergy did not have a single PMU; today it operates one of the largest and most sophisticated systems in the country. Hurdles are huge. Not only must enormous quantities of data be converted to information, but it must be presented to operators in a meaningful way. And, the ultimate is to develop the capability to have this real-time information acted upon in real time by an intelligent system.

The technology of making measurements is a done deal. Now implementers must wrestle with how to get from the status quo to dynamic security assessment and control. While a generation of graduate students mines the oceans of data from widespread PMU deployments, the next-generation operational tool concepts must be forged and developed.

As with most remarkable technology advances, the blood, sweat and tears are spilt, largely unnoticed, by a dedicated cadre of enthusiasts until, as if by magic, the known world changes. My buddy Floyd Galvan at Entergy says, “Phasor technology is changing our industry and will have a profound affect on our future.” He, his EIPP associates and a similar contingent in the West are inventing our future right now. And, T&D World will be providing reports on this activity. Look forward to it!