Advancing China?s Smart Grid: Phasor Measurement Units in a Wide-Area Management System

In developing a smart grid the measurement technology used plays a fundamental role for advanced power-system analysis and control. Phasor measurement units (PMUs), as part of a wide-area measurement system (WAMS), increasingly constitute the critical measurement infrastructures for transmission and generation systems. As of 2013, approximately 2,400 PMU sets had been deployed in power grids in China, covering all 500-kV substations in the country and a number of important power plants and 220/110-kV substations. In addition, more than 30 WAMS center stations are in service, providing important dynamic information about power system operation. Most of these PMU devices were deployed after 2006, when an article introducing the basic PMU/WAMS architectures and functions in China was published in IEEE Power & Energy Magazine. Here, we will briefly summarize recent and emerging developments in China?s PMU/WAMS communication and synchronization network and then present some major advanced applications and novel pilot projects utilizing synchrophasor measurement technology.