Wide Area Power System Monitoring Device Design and Data Analysis

Abstract

The frequency disturbance recorder (FDR) is a cost effective data acquisition device used to measure power system frequency at the distribution level. FDRs are time synchronized via the global positioning system (GPS) timing and data recorded by FDRs are time stamped to allow for comparative analysis between FDRs. The data is transmitted over the internet to a central server where the data is collected and stored for post mortem analysis. Currently, most of the analysis is done with power system frequency.

The purpose of this study is to take a first in depth look at the angle data collected by FDRs. Different data conditioning techniques are proposed and tested before one is chosen. The chosen technique is then used to extract useable angle data for angle analysis on eight generation trip events. The angle differences are then used to create surface plot angle difference movies for further analysis.

A new event detection algorithm, the k-means algorithm, is also presented in this paper. The algorithm is proposed as a simple and fast alternative to the current detection method. Next, this thesis examines several GPS modules and recommends one for a replacement of the current GPS chip, which is no longer in production. Finally, the manufacturing process for creating an FDR is documented.

This thesis may have raised more questions than it answers and it is hoped that this work will lay the foundation for further analysis of angles from FDR data.