PMU placement considerations — A roadmap for optimal PMU placement

Recent investments in the Synchrophasor technology have energized the industry and a significant number of Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) are being deployed. By some estimates, just in North America, the number of PMU installations is expected to grow five-fold — from approximately 200 today to over a 1000. The first step in PMU deployment is a clear roadmap of the process for selecting the location of the additional PMU devices and establishing guidelines to assist with this decision-making process. Many of the existing optimal PMU placement approaches are mainly focused on a particular application (such as improving State Estimation). This paper proposes a more comprehensive, holistic set of criteria for optimizing PMU placement based on sound practical solutions by experienced industry practitioners. The methodology offers the flexibility for considering multiple, diverse factors that can influence the PMU siting decision-making process, including incorporating several practical implementation aspects (e.g. communications infrastructure, prohibitive deployment cost, etc). Application needs, reliability requirements, and infrastructure challenges that drive the overall solution for optimal PMU location selection are formulated and described.