Wide-area measurements of three nOrth America interconnections at distribution level

The North American frequency monitoring network (FNET) takes GPS-synchronized wide-area measurements in a low-cost, easily deployable manner at the 120 V distribution level. A situational awareness system has been implemented on the server located at Virginia Tech to detect and analyze power system disturbances in near-real time. Power system disturbances are examined in this paper based on wide-area frequency, voltage and phase angle data from FNET. Frequency characteristics of events in three major North America power Interconnections are investigated. Typical frequency patterns of generation loss and load drop events are analyzed for the Eastern Interconnection (EI), the Western Electricity Coordinating Council system (WECC), and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas system (ERCOT). Several significant disturbances in the EI are also discussed. The recordings and analysis show that a great deal of valuable information about dynamics in bulk transmission systems can be obtained at a lower voltage level.