Wide Area Monitoring System based on the third generation Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) for event identification

•Wide area monitoring.•Smart grid.•Identification of the generator trip.•Frequency/voltage monitoring system.

Smart grids are one of the most essential infrastructure components in the world today. Power systems have been becoming more and more complex, as a result of a considerable variety of new components being added, such as High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) and power electronic devices, and numerous recent technologies continually being put into application, such as distributed generation. In recent years, wide-area voltage and frequency measurements are used to identify different events that occur in power systems. One of the most important events is the generator trip identification. This event could be easily identified as a sudden drop in both the system voltage level and frequency. On the other hand, high-speed, reliable and scalable data communication infrastructure is crucial in both construction and operation of wide-area voltage and frequency measurements. Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS), the 3G standard for mobile communication networks, was developed to provide high speed data transmission with reliable service performance for mobile users. Therefore, UMTS is considered a promising solution for providing a communication infrastructure for WAMS. 3G based EWAMS (Egyptian Wide Area Monitoring System) is designed and implemented in Egypt through deployment a number of Frequency Disturbance Recorders (FDRs) devices on a live 220 kV/500 kV Egyptian grid to identify the location of tripped generator in the power system. WAMS systems are used for both off-line studies and real-time applications. An important feature of these systems is their ability to provide continuous dynamic measurements that are precisely time synchronized across the power system. With real-time WAMS, the continuous measurements feed out as a data stream which can be applied to on-line applications such as monitoring and control. This paper focuses on developing an efficient and reliable wide area voltage and frequency measurements through UMTS mobile communication technology in addition to the analysis these measurements using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in order to determine a specific signature and properties for each tripped generator in the power system network.