WAMPAC 2012 - IEEE SmartGridComm Symposium on Wide-Area Monitoring, Protection & Control (WAMPAC)

“Wide Area Monitoring, Protection & Control (WAMPAC)” technology helps to monitor power system dynamics in real time, identify system stability related weaknesses and helps to design and implement countermeasures. This technology is based on Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs), which can deliver precisely time synchronized values of voltage and current Phasors and other power system related quantities like frequency, breaker positions etc. to a central data processing system, generally using Phasor Data Concentrators (PDCs).

Due to the fact that several large countries like Brazil, India, China, and Russia are installing new very large power plants (Nuclear, Hydro and Coal) far away from major load centers, the number of transmission corridors is growing. European countries like Germany, Denmark and United Kingdom are facing a similar challenge with the installation of very large offshore wind parks. As a consequence, the load on the related transmission corridors is growing, and power system stability, especially in case of a contingency gains increased attention.

One basic application is “Wide Area Real Time Monitoring & Disturbance Recording”, which helps to understand the reason for power system dynamics followed by an outage or blackout after a very short analysis time. A significant higher challenge is the evolutionary replacement of voltage and current sensors of a SCADA/EM System with PMUs to establish a highly dynamic “State Measurement System”.

WAMPAC technology involves the use of system-wide information and the communication of selected local information to a remote location to counteract the propagation of large disturbances. Probably one of the most exciting challenges of the new technology is the design and application of System Integrity Protection Schemes, which can automatically identify upcoming power system instabilities and minimize its effect with switching operations.

A successful novel monitoring, control & protection application requires a carefully designed WAMPAC architecture, including thoroughly considered communication delay time, cyber security and high system reliability including equipment (PMU, PDC) and communication channel health monitoring.

Papers addressing research and development activities on this area, but especially description of practical applications are appreciated.
Topics of Particular Interest

The symposium aims to focus on following Wide Area Monitoring, Protection & Control topics, including (but not limited to):

WAMPAC architecture and concepts:
NASPI and NASPInet updates
Wide Area Monitoring System Architectures
WAMPAC related standards:
IEEE and IEC Standards Harmonization
IEC 61850-90-5 (Synchrophasors over IEC 61850) developments
IEEE C37.118 and its revision
PMU-PDC and PDC -PDC communications
IEEE 1588 time synchronization and Synchrophasor Applications
IEC 61970 & IEC 61968 (CIM)
Testing Guide (NASPI and IEEE)
Wide Area Monitoring
Real time visualization of power systems
Design of advanced early warning systems
Benchmarking and validation of system models
Disturbance propagation monitoring
Wide Area Monitoring & Disturbance Recording
Inter area oscillation monitoring
Voltage Stability Monitoring
Power system dynamics & thermal limits monitoring with bulk wind generation
Wide area state estimation
Integration of PMUs into State Estimation
State estimation using information of different control centers
Multi-Area state estimation
Dynamic state estimation & applications
Real-time generation / network / load model & parameter estimation
Security Assessment
Power System Dynamic Security Assessment
Real time congestion management
Protection Security Assessment
Fault Location using Synchrophasor Information
Classification and location of disturbance(s)
Settings free algorithms
Improved fault analysis
Equipment and System Test
Test of PMUs and PDCs under dynamic conditions
Test of Wide Area Monitoring, Control and Protection systems
Application tests
Conformance and interoperability tests
Wide Area Control
Power System Stabilizer optimization using Synchrophasor Information
HVDC and FACTS control for system stabilization
Wide Area Reactive Power Control
Improved control of mixed DC and AC networks
Wide Area Protection
System Integrity Protection Applications
Improved Backup Protection Applications
Adaptive Protection Using Synchrophasor Information
Intelligent controlled islanding schemes
Detection, classification and mitigation of cascading events
Grid Dependencies on ICT
Affect on power schemes of performance problems or failures in ICT: message drops, over-budget latencies, complete failures of networking or databases, etc
Characterizations of power grid dependencies on ICT
SIPS and communcations problems