Impact of Measurement Errors on Synchrophasor Applications

Data from phasor measurement units (PMUs) inform powerful diagnostic tools that can help avert catastrophic failures in the power grid. Because of this, understanding PMU measurement errors is particularly valuable. This paper examines internal and external factors contributing to PMU phase angle and frequency measurement errors and gives a reasonable explanation for each. Based on these explanations, the impact of those measurement errors on several synchrophasor applications are analyzed: event location detection, oscillation detection, islanding detection, and dynamic line rating.