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Paper accepted for presentation at 2003 IEEE Bologna Power Tech Conference, June 23th-26th, Bologna, Italy

Observation of Frequency Oscillation in


Western Japan 60Hz Power System Based on
Multiple Synchronized Phasor Measurements
Masahide Hojo, Member, IEEE, Tokuo Ohnishi, Member, IEEE, Yasunori Mitani, Member, IEEE,
Osamu Saeki, and Hiroyuki Ukai, Member, IEEE

Abstract-- Western Japan 60Hz power system is a longitudinal


power system which consists of interconnected six major electric
power companies. Though the power system has some interesting
oscillation characteristics, there were few researches based on
observation as a whole system. Authors have constructed an
online global monitoring system of the power system dynamics,
which is based on multiple synchronized phasor measurement
technique using time stamp of the Global Positioning System
(GPS) and Internet. This paper presents some results of
observing system frequency oscillation and discussed the
difference among the measured point. System dynamics due to
the Load Frequency Control (LFC) can be extracted from
observed frequency oscillations by time-frequency analysis based
on the Wavelet transform. Because variations of phase difference
between the interconnected two areas are closely related with tieline power flow variations, relations between the frequency
oscillations and the LFC are also investigated.
Index Terms-- Global Positioning System, Interconnected
power systems, Phase measurement, Power generation control,
Synchronization, Time-frequency analysis, Wavelet transform.

I. INTRODUCTION

ESTERN Japan 60Hz power system is a longitudinal


and huge power system which consists of six major
electric power companies interconnecting with each other by
high-voltage AC or DC transmission lines. Due to its
longitudinal structure the power system is known to have
some significant oscillation modes represented by the long
term oscillation.
Frequency oscillation dynamics of the 60Hz power system
may indicate some interesting changes. So far, as concerns the
Load Frequency Control (LFC), one of the electric power

This work was financially supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific


Research of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan (No.
14350145)
Masahide Hojo and Tokuo Ohnishi are with the Department of Electrical
and Electronics Engineering, The University of Tokushima, Japan (e-mail:
hojo@ee.tokushima-u.ac.jp and ohnishi@ee.tokushima-u.ac.jp).
Yasunori Mitani is with the Department of Electrical and Electronic,
Computer Engineering, Kyusyu Institute of Technology, Fukuoka, Japan (email: mitani@ele.kyutech.ac.jp).
Osamu Saeki is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Osaka
University, Osaka, Japan (e-mail: saeki@pwr.eng.osaka-u.ac.jp).
Hiroyuki Ukai is with the Department of System Management and
Engineering, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya, Japan (e-mail:
ukai@elcom.nitech.ac.jp).

0-7803-7967-5/03/$17.00 2003 IEEE

companies employed the Flat Frequency Control (FFC) and


the others employed the Tie-line Bias Control (TBC) in the
60Hz power system. Recently the all six companies have
independently adopted Tie-line Bias Control (TBC) for
increasing importance of tie-line power flow regulation. The
system dynamics is also affected by independent power
producers which do not contribute anything to the LFC. In the
circumstances, dynamics of the frequency oscillation and its
control become important issue for power system engineers.
However, it was difficult for many of researchers to observe
the dynamics of a whole power system because of difficulties
in measuring system variables synchronously at some points
which are distant from each other.
In recent years time stamps of the Global Positioning
System (GPS) can be utilized for precise time synchronization
at different locations. Based on the time synchronizing method
and recursive Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) algorithm,
time synchronized voltage or current phasor measurement
technologies have been developed [1], [2] and some useful
application studies have already started by many researchers
all over the world [3]-[7].
Authors have constructed an online global monitoring
system of the Western Japan 60Hz power system [8] based on
the time synchronized phasor measurement techniques. In the
system six manufactured PMUs as commercial products [9],
which can accumulate time sequential data of the voltage
phasors synchronously using the time stamps of GPS, are
located at six universities. The universities are in large cities
and each of them belongs to the demand area supplied by the
different major electric power company. The PMU uses an
outlet on the wall of laboratory for single-phase terminal
voltage measurement. Additionally the PMUs have a network
interface for remote access via Internet. The accumulated data
are also automatically collected in a data server by utilizing
the well-formed campus information network. Therefore it is
easy for us to construct the global monitoring system of the
power system.
This paper presents some results of observed frequency
oscillation and discussed the difference among the PMU
locations. System dynamics due to the Load Frequency
Control (LFC), which is a long term variation with from a few
to ten and a few minutes, is extracted from observed
frequency oscillations by time-frequency analysis based on the
Wavelet transform. As variations of phase difference between

the interconnected two areas are closely related with tie-line


power flow variations, relations between the frequency
oscillations and the LFC are also investigated.
II. MULTIPLE SYNCHRONIZED PHASOR MEASUREMENT
SYSTEM
A. System Configuration
As shown in Fig. 1, authors have constructed the multiple
synchronized phasor measurement system for Western Japan
60Hz power system.
The power system consists of six power systems denoted
by circles in Fig. 1, which are supplied by six major electric
power companies respectively. The six power systems are
interconnected by AC tie-line (solid line) or high-voltage DC
transmission lines (doted line) with each other. PMUs are
located at six laboratories of following university in each of
six power systems; Miyazaki University, Hiroshima
University, The University of Tokushima, Osaka University,
Fukui University and Nagoya Institute of Technology. The
power system including Osaka University is the largest scales
in the six power systems. The 60Hz power system is known as
a longitudinal power system.
The phasor measurement system employs manufactured
PMUs as commercial products, NCT2000, as shown in Fig. 2.
The PMU measures the single-phase instantaneous voltage of
100V outlets on the wall of laboratories with correcting its
clock based on the time stamps of GPS.
As the PMU uses the time stamps of GPS for its clock
correction, time synchronization among PMUs located at
distant place is easily accomplished only by keeping its
internal clock synchronous with the time stamps of GPS.
The PMU has 10BaseT network interface and we can
download the data accumulated in the PMU through the well: GPS Satellites
Fukui Univ.
Hiroshima Univ.

: PMU with UPS


: AC interconnection
: DC interconnection

Osaka Univ.
Miyazaki Univ.
TokushimaUniv.

Nagoya Institute
of Technology

Internet

Fig. 1. Multiple synchronized phasor measurement system for Western


Japan 60Hz power system.

Fig. 2. Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU) with cigarette case.

formed campus information network. We can also browse the


measured data by every 1 second on an internet browser,
therefore the measurement system can be operated as an
online monitoring system. The accumulated data are
automatically collected from every PMUs to a data server by
utilizing the campus network.
In order to continue the synchronized phasor measurement
even if the interruption or voltage sag occurs at the observed
outlet and the outlet for power source of the PMU, the PMU
needs some power supply. For this purpose the PMU is
accompanied by an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). By
the UPS, the PMU can continue the synchronized phasor
measurement for at least 15 minutes in case of losing power
source.
B. Phasor Measurement Technique
Based on the recursive DFT algorithm, the voltage phasor
&
V is given by
M
M

vk sin k + j vk cos k ,
(1)
k =1
k =1

where vk is sequential data of the instantaneous voltage of


100V outlet measured through A/D transformer, M is the
number of times for sampling of the voltage and is the
sampling angle. In the case of this apparatus, M =96 and
=3.75[deg]. From (1), we have the phase angle as follows:
V&
= tan 1 & .
(2)
V
The phase angle is accumulated in the PMU as time
sequential data. The PMU can also change the time interval of
accumulating phase angle even by remote access.

V& =

2
M

{}
{}

C. Characteristics of Accumulated Data


It should be noted that phase angle is calculated as a
phase difference between observed instantaneous voltage and
60Hz signal precisely produced by the PMU based on the time
stamps of GPS, so the value itself means nothing in this case.
The reason why it has no means is that every observed point is
at the end of power system and system configuration is not
clear for us. Three-phase power system lies between two
points and it may have some transformers which changes
phase angle directly. By same reason, phase difference value
itself between observed two points also means nothing.
On the other hand time-domain behaviors of both phase
angle and phase difference between two points give us a very
useful information.
Increasing phase angle represents that the frequency of the
observed voltage is higher than the system nominal frequency,
60Hz. Decreasing phase angle means that the frequency of the
observed voltage is lower than 60Hz. The time derivative of
phase angle corresponds to the deviations of system frequency.
So the frequency deviations can be calculated as

n
,
(3)
f n = n +1
360t n
where tn [s] is sampling interval of sequential phase data n
and N is the number of accumulated phase angle data.

Therefore frequency variation can be observed by the PMU


with accumulating the sequential frequency deviations fn.
The variation of phase difference between two points
means that the power flow between the two points has
changed. Increasing the phase difference represents the power
flow has been increased, and decreasing the phase difference
means the power flow has been decreased conversely.
The frequency deviation is regarded as a local behavior
limited in the area supplied by single power company as the
frequency control is independently operated by each power
company. However, difference of frequency deviation
between two areas supplied by different power company may
be very small when the 60Hz power system is stable as a
whole.

-4000
-6000
0

Fukui

-2000
-4000
-6000
0

Osaka

-2000
-4000
-6000
0

Tokushima

-2000
-4000
-6000
0

Hiroshima

-2000
-4000
-6000
0

Miyazaki

-2000
-4000
-6000

10

time [min]

15

20

Fig. 3. Variations of phase angle


258

Nagoya

256

8 [deg]

D. Accuracy of Measured Data


The PMU corrects its internal clock by the time stamps of
GPS. The time error of the clock is guaranteed within 1s. In
this paper, phase angle of the terminal voltage at the outlet
on the wall is used as measured data. The error of phase angle
is guaranteed within 0.1deg.
The accuracy of time and phase angle is enough to analyze
the frequency oscillations as a whole power system. The
reason is that oscillations with short term within the time error
or small amplitude within the phase angle error is out of the
range to which the LFC is responsible. In addition to this, as
the PMU uses the outlet on the wall of laboratories for phasor
measurement, those oscillations must be subjected to local
influences like a sudden load change near the outlet.

Nagoya

-2000

254

III. OBSERVATION AND ANALYSIS OF FREQUENCY


OSCILLATIONS

250
130

Fukui

8 [deg]

128
126
124
122

-35

Tokushima

8 [deg]

-37
-39
-41
-43
70

Hiroshima

8 [deg]

phase differences [deg]

68
66
64
62

11

Miyazaki

8 [deg]

In this section an example of observation and analysis of


frequency oscillations in the Western Japan 60Hz power
system based on one of the measured data. The data was
accumulated in night time, from 23:50 on Sunday, July 21,
2002 to 0:10 on Monday, July 22, 2002 in JST. The phase
data is accumulated in the PMU by every 0.033 seconds. In
this case the number of sampled phase data is 36000.
Fig. 3 shows observed waveforms of phase angle variation
at each university. As averaged values of all phase angle
waveforms are negative value in Fig. 3, averaged system
frequency is to be lower than 60Hz. Fig. 3 also shows the all
waveforms are very similar. It means that phase angle
difference among the six power system is very small and all of
the six power system are operated, keeping synchronization
with each other.
Fig. 4 shows variations of phase difference between each
university and Osaka University. Compared to Fig. 3, we can
see varied range of the phase differences among the six
measured points are much smaller than the phase angle
variations. As mentioned before, phase difference values itself
means nothing because the system parameters and
configurations which lies among PMUs are unknown, so Fig.
4 only shows the scale of variation. Although, in this case, we
cannot find the amount of power flow between the two point,

252

7
5
3
0

10

15

20

time [min]
Fig. 4. Variations of phase difference between each university and Osaka
University

it can be presumed that the power flow has been changed by


some tie-line power flow controls. Increasing phase difference,
for example, means an increase in power flow between the
two points. As shown in Fig. 4, the phase differences among
Osaka, Tokushima, Nagoya and Fukui hardly varied with time,
on the other hand Hiroshima and Miyazaki shows remarkable
variations of phase difference from 10 to 15 minutes. Those
two phase difference changed, so it means that the power flow
was changed from Miyazaki to Osaka via Hiroshima, that is,
from the west to the east along with the high voltage AC
interconnecting tie-line.
Fig. 5 shows oscillations of frequency deviation calculated
by (3) with sequential phase angle data measured at each
university. All oscillations are within the frequency range
from 59.9Hz to 60.1Hz. As concerns about the frequency
oscillation measured at the University of Tokushima, the
0.10
0.05
0.00
-0.05
-0.10

Nagoya

0.10
0.05
0.00
-0.05
-0.10

Fukui

0.10
0.05
0.00
-0.05
-0.10

Osaka

0.10
0.05
0.00
-0.05
-0.10

maximum value of the frequency deviations is 0.0967Hz, the


minimum value is -0.103Hz, a standard deviation is 0.0355Hz,
and the averaged system frequency is 59.996Hz. Among
synchronized power systems, general behaviors of long term
frequency oscillations are almost identical. On the other hand,
short term frequency oscillations indicate some individuality.
The short term oscillation may include the influence of the
local load variations on the abrupt shifts of phasor because the
PMUs measured at 100V outlets on the wall of laboratory.
The FFT spectrums of the frequency oscillations measured
at Osaka University are shown in Fig. 6. Fig. 6 shows
frequency oscillations of 20 mHz or below is larger than other
spectrums. Those oscillations are long term oscillations with
about one minute or above. The LFC deals with those long
term frequency oscillations and they are almost identical in all
of six power system, so the long term frequency oscillation
should be carefully investigated.
In order to concentrate our analysis on the dynamics
associated with the LFC operations, the short term
components of the frequency oscillations, which is shorter
than a few minutes period, are eliminated by Daubechies
Wavelets as shown in Fig. 7. Fig. 7 shows that almost same
oscillating components with a few or more minutes period
were included in the frequency oscillations at each result.
Therefore these waveforms indicate the dynamics as a whole
system and it represents the results of the LFCs.
To investigate the differences between the frequency
0.10
0.05
0.00
-0.05
-0.10

Tokushima

0.10
0.05
0.00
-0.05
-0.10

0.10
0.05
0.00
-0.05
-0.10

Miyazaki

10

time [min]

15

20

Fig. 5. Oscillations of the frequency deviations at each university.


0.025
0.020
0.015

frequency deviations [Hz]

Hiroshima

0.10
0.05
0.00
-0.05
-0.10

Nagoya

Fukui

0.10
0.05
0.00
-0.05
-0.10

Osaka

0.10
0.05
0.00
-0.05
-0.10

Tokushima

0.10
0.05
0.00
-0.05
-0.10

Hiroshima

0.10
0.05
0.00
-0.05
-0.10

0.010
0.005
0.000
0

20

40

60

oscillating frequency

80

100mHz

Fig. 6. FFT spectrums of the frequency oscillation measured at Osaka


University in Fig. 5.

Miyazaki

10

15

20

time [min]
Fig. 7. Comparison of frequency oscillation among the universities based
on Wavelet transforms.

60x10

processing method based on Wavelet transform.


The acquired data can be used for improving the wide-area
power system modeling, control, and extending them to the
online system.
With observing the terminal voltage at the end of power
system, which is an outlet on a wall, we can observe some
dynamics of a whole system, even if the parameters and
configuration of power system are unknown. This technology
gives us a method to investigate the power system dynamics
individually and free, and may be an important technology in
the coming deregulated power system.

Miyazaki

-6

frequency deviation [Hz]

Hiroshima
40

Tokushima
20
0
-20

Nagoya
-40

Fukui
-60
0

10

15

V. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

20

time [min]
Fig. 8. Comparison of the denoised frequency oscillations based on the
frequency deviations at Osaka University.

deviations in further detail, the each waveform is redrawn


based on the result at Osaka University as shown in Fig. 8.
Taking into account that the phase difference variation was
observed after 10 minutes, the oscillations in Fig. 8 show
some interactions of LFCs as a whole system. After 10
minutes, at first, the frequency deviation at Miyazaki
University started to decrease slowly. Similar behavior was
found at Hiroshima University but its variation was smaller
than the variation at Miyazaki University. In this period, the
phase difference between Miyazaki University and Osaka
University is remarkably changed. As shown in Fig. 1, three
power companies including Miyazaki University, Hiroshima
University and Osaka University form a line from the west to
the east, and interconnected by high-voltage AC tie-line. The
power system including Osaka University has a largest city in
Western Japan and supplies twice the maximum demand
power of the system including Miyazaki University. Taking
into account these circumstances, it is supposed that LFCs was
started to operate after 10 minutes.
Adding to this, around 15 minutes the oscillations in Fig. 8
show some interactions of LFCs between the power system
including Miyazaki University and the one including Nagoya
Institute of Technology (or Fukui University), where the
oscillating results are in order from the west to the east
(Miyazaki, Hiroshima, Tokushima, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukui).
Thus, the frequency differences among the areas, as shown in
Fig. 8, may reveal the results of the LFCs in a sense.
In Fig. 8, amplitudes of all waveforms are very small, but
they does not lose their accuracy. For example, when the
phase difference changes 1 degree for 1 minute, the difference
of frequency deviations between the two points can be
presumed as 46.3x10-6 Hz.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
This paper introduces the online global monitoring system
for Western Japan 60Hz power system based on multiple
synchronized phasor measurement techniques. The measured
data by PMUs are applied to observe the system behaviors
resulting from the LFC with applying appropriate signal

The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of H.


Sasaki, Hiroshima University, J. Matsuki, Fukui University,
M. Ohtsubo, Miyazaki University, and their laboratories
staffs for their cooperation in setting up the PMUs.
VI. REFERENCES
[1]
[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

A. G. Phadke, "Synchronized Phasor Measurements," IEEE Computer


Applications in Power, vol. 6, pp.10-15, Apr. 1993.
A. G. Phadke, "Synchronized Phasor Measurements ~A Historical
Overview," in Proc. IEEE/PES Transmission and Distribution Conf.
2002, vol. 1, pp.476-479.
H. Saitoh, "GPS Synchronized Measurement Applications in Japan," in
Proc. IEEE/PES Transmission and Distribution Conf. 2002, vol. 1,
pp.494-499.
M. Akke, "Phasor Measurement Applications in Scandinavia," in Proc.
IEEE/PES Transmission and Distribution Conf. 2002, vol. 1, pp.480484.
Y. Min, "Phasor Measurement Applications in China," in Proc.
IEEE/PES Transmission and Distribution Conf. 2002, vol. 1, pp.485489.
C.W. Liu, "Phasor Measurement Applications in Taiwan," in Proc.
IEEE/PES Transmission and Distribution Conf. 2002, vol. 1, pp.490493.
Y. Ota, H. Ukai, K. Nakamura and H. Fujita, "PMU based Midterm
Stability Evaluation of Wide-area Power System," in Proc. IEEE/PES
Transmission and Distribution Conf. 2002, vol. 3, pp.1676-1680.
Y. Mitani, O. Saeki, M. Hojo, H. Ukai and T. Oyama, "Online
Monitoring System for Japan Western 60 Hz Power System Based on
Multiple Synchronized Phasor Measurements," presented at the 39th
CIGRE Session, G38, Paris, France, 2002.
R. Tsukui, P. Beaumont, T. Tanaka and K. Sekiguchi, "Intranet-Based
Protection and Control," IEEE Computer Applications in Power, vol. 14,
pp.14-17, Apr. 2001.

VII. BIOGRAPHIES
Masahide Hojo (Member) was born in Tokushima, Japan, in 1970. He
received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Kobe
University in 1994 and 1996, respectively, and Dr.Eng. degree in electrical
engineering from Osaka University in 1999. He is currently an assistant in the
University of Tokushima. His research interests are in the areas of power
electronics application to power systems.
Tokuo Ohnishi (Member) was born in Tokushima, Japan, in 1947. He
received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the
University of Tokushima, Japan, in 1970 and 1972, respectively, and Ph.D.
degree in electrical engineering from the University of Tokyo, Japan, in 1987.
Since 1972 he has been with the Department of Electrical Engineering, the
University of Tokushima, and he is currently a professor. His main research
interests are in power electronics.

Yasunori Mitani (Member) received his B.S., M.S. and D.Eng. degrees in
electrical engineering from Osaka University, Japan, in 1981, 1983 and 1986,
respectively. He joined the Low Temperature Center, Osaka University and
the Department of Electrical Engineering, Osaka University, in 1988 and 1990,
respectively. He is currently a professor in the Department of Electrical and
Electronic, Computer Engineering, Kyusyu Institute of Technology. His
research interests are in the areas of analysis and control of power systems.
Osamu Saeki was born in Nagoya, Japan, in 1965. He received his B.Eng.
and M.Eng. degrees in electrical engineering from Osaka University in 1987
and 1989, respectively. He is currently a research associate in Osaka
University. His fields of interest include power system optimization.
Hiroyuki Ukai (M'99) received the B.A.Sc., the S.M., the Ph.D. degrees in
engineering from Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya, Japan, in 1977,
1979, and 1994, respectively. He is currently an Associate Professor in the
Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya, Japan. His current research interests
include control theory of distributed parameter systems and control
application to power systems, robotics, and mechanical systems.

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