The Impact of Wireless Communication Networks on Wide Area Monitoring and Protection Applications

The fast deployment of the Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs), especially in the transmission level of the power systems, enables the development of wide area monitoring, protection and control (WAMPC) applications that enhance the situational awareness of the power system operator as well as the stability of the power system. Such applications are dependent on the communication network that supports the transfer of the PMU measurements to a central monitoring application or to a local protection application (situated in a substation). It is therefore of paramount importance to ensure the transfer of measurements with the least delay, while at the same time to ensure the integrity of the PMU measurements. In this work, the impact of using a wireless communication network for transferring the PMU measurements to the WAMPC applications is examined and the advantage of the 5G communication network over 4G and 3G in such real-time monitoring and control applications is demonstrated.