Power grids have become less stable and reliable in the recent years due to the grids complexity as well as increasing number of renewable sources. New challenges were difficult to follow with existing measurement technology and regulations, therefore the phasor measurements units (PMUs) have been developed. The PMUs are devices that record crucial grids parameters like amplitude, frequency, phase and rate of change of frequency in real time and then send the data to grid operators. The core of each PMU is a microprocessor with embedded algorithm that estimates grids parameters from the signal sampled within the certain observation time interval. Several different algorithms have been developed and investigated in the recent years and their performance differs significantly. However, the errors of the estimation process should never exceed values specified in IEEE Standard for Synchrophasor Measurements for Power System (IEEE Std C37.118.1-2011) otherwise the algorithms should not be implemented in the PMU.
In my thesis, a simulation platform in Matlab environment was used to test how eight algorithms response to different static signals (i.e. linear deviation of amplitude/phase/frequency or harmonically distorted signals) as well as dynamic signals (amplitude/frequency step/ramp). These test signals are either required by the IEEE Std. C37.118.1-2011 or the signals are readily presented on the power grid. The simulations showed that the fast Fourier transform and three parameter sine fit algorithms are not appropriate since a constant nominal frequency 50 Hz is always presumed. The four parameter sine fit and multi harmonic frequency estimation showed poor performance when the signal was harmonically distorted while the three point interpolated DFT with Hann window, spectrum leakage correction algorithm, interpolated phase sensitive frequency estimation algorithms showed poor performance when a frequency ramp was applied. On the contrary the phase sensitive frequency estimation algorithm showed the best overall performance.
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