Performance of a Noninvasive Magnetic Sensor-Based Current Measurement System in Power Systems

A large increase in distributed generation integrated within power system networks has resulted in power quality challenges and in the need to resolve complex system faults. The monitoring of the real-time state of the power parameters of the transmission and distribution grid helps to control the stability and reliability of the grid. In such a scenario, having current monitoring equipment that is flexible and easy to install can always be of great help to reduce the price of energy monitoring and to increase the dependability of a smart grid. Advances in magnetic sensor research offer measurement system accuracy that is less complex to install and that can be obtained at a lower less cost. Tunneling magnetoresistive (TMR) sensors can be used to measure the AC current by sensing the magnetic field that is generated by the current-carrying conductor in a contactless manner. This paper illustrates the results of a thorough investigation of factors that can influence the performance of the TMR sensors that are used for the current phasor measurements of a single-phase AC current application, such as the effects of distance, harmonics, and conductor insulation.

Physical and mathematical modeling of transients in a synchronous generator utilizing synchronized phasor measurements

There have been quite a few attempts to compute synchronous generator parameters based on voltage and current synchrophasors taken under power system transients. However, we have not seen any publications with thorough analysis as to how soon the phasor measurement unit reacts to disturbance conditions, which components of the transient are filtered out and which are passed through, as well as what the total vector error is. The goal of this research is to determine all of these characteristics of a phasor measurement unit when playing back transient oscillograms for a stator short circuit obtained through mathematical modeling. The transient oscillograms have been derived via both a full Park-Gorev system of flux linkage equations as well as the MATLAB/Simulink Synchronous Machine block. Physical modeling was then conducted via a real-time digital simulator (RTDS) along with a dedicated phasor measurement unit ENIP-2 (PMU), and the stator current phasors were recorded. Our analysis has shown that both RTDS and ENIP-2 (PMU) almost entirely filter out the exponentially decaying DC component of the fault current while closely following the periodical signal envelope. The total vector error has been estimated to become below 1–2 % after around 0,02–0,03 s into the fault when selecting the “P” class filters according to IEEE C37.118. We have come to a conclusion that synchrophasor measurements under power system disturbances could be utilized for estimating the synchronous, transient, and subtransient generator parameters. The selected synchronous machine model in the form of flux linkage equations is correct, as the obtained transient oscillograms are exactly the same as those produced by Simulink. “P” class phasor measurements can be recommended for representing transients in the stator circuit of a synchronous generator. The results of this investigation are meant to be employed for synchronous machine parameter estimation based on phasors sourced from RTDS and, hopefully, from phasor measurement units installed at power plants.