Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories Pvt. Ltd. (SEL) announces that Power Grid Corporation of India Limited's (POWERGRID) comprehensive synchrophasor system has resulted in both expected and unexpected reliability, visualization and benefits to the POWERGRID system and the customers it serves.

POWERGRID discovered that the system — designed to enable grid operators to act proactively in the event of power system imbalance and to carry out systemwide analysis and diagnosis — provided information that the SCADA system missed.

“Synchrophasors enabled us to view the inside behavior of our power system, which was never visible before,” said P.K. Agarwal, POWERGRID deputy general manager. “Part of this is the variation in df/dt observed during a disturbance. In fact, synchrophasors gave us an MRI of our power system.”

“POWERGRID observed that with the information available from the SCADA system, it is not possible to study system behavior during disturbances,” reported SEL regional marketing and sales manager Neeraj Goel. “It was a revelation for POWERGRID to see streaming data of angle difference and df/dt updating in milliseconds, parameters which they earlier could only calculate and estimate.”

The system includes SEL-451 protection, automation and control systems and SEL-2404 satellite-synchronized clocks installed in four 400-kV substations. Additionally, an SEL-3378 synchrophasor vector processor with SEL-5078 SYNCHROWAVE console software was installed in the utility's NRLDC in New Delhi.

For more information, visit www.selinc.com.