Remote testing architecture for synchrophasor-based remedial action schemes

A wide range of remedial action schemes (RAS) have been developed and deployed in field to take automated control actions to maintain system reliability and stability during adverse system conditions. According to the regulatory standards from North American Electricity Reliability Corporation (NERC), RAS applications deployed in field and their functionalities are required to be tested periodically. To do testing for the RAS, regular process that requires taking critical components offline is usually labor-intensive and time-consuming, especially for complex applications utilizing multiple measurement units and controllers from different substations. To overcome these challenges, this paper presents a remote testing architecture for remedial action schemes. Our proposed remote testing architecture is capable of accessing test signal generators, phasor measurement units (PMUs), RAS control units from multiple substations, managing tests for both centralized and distributed implementations of RAS. To address the effectiveness of the remote testing architecture, this paper presents the minimal wind curtailment applications with detailed alternative formulations of optimization models for RAS and highlights performance of the proposed remote testing of RAS. Simulation results for an IEEE standard test system and representative industry test cases demonstrate effective performance of the developed RAS testing mechanism.