IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2015 - 93

in my view (continued from p. 96)
accomplished by numerically differentiating the angle measurements. naturally, the differentiating process introduces errors in the frequency and rate
of change of frequency due to the extraneous noise components in the voltage
signals. Later, a process was developed
for using a polynomial in time to fit angle data over a certain window and then
taking the derivatives of the polynomial
function. This has produced excellent
results that are noise free.
These results were published in a
1983 landmark paper, "A new Measurement Technique for Tracking Voltage Phasors, Local System Frequency,
and rate of Change of Frequency" by
Phadke, Thorp, and Adamiak. This
was the first disclosure of phasor measurement technique that was separated
from the SCDr work.
Tony gabrielle, head of the Computer Applications Department, left
AEP in the early 1980s, and the succeeding managers were not supportive
of research in computer relaying or
phasor measurements. About the same
time, AEP decided to move its offices to
Columbus, ohio, from new york City.
with this upcoming substantial change,
I joined Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.
one recollection about my last days at
AEP: I sent an e-mail to my new managers that the PMU idea should be patented. I received a reply the next day, in
effect saying that AEP did not see any
future for the technology and would not
recommend applying for a patent. So
much for the foresight and business acumen of the managers!

Virginia Tech
The move to Virginia Tech turned out
to be very rewarding for me personally and certainly for the development
of PMUs as a workable idea. It had
become clear that even if SCDr as a
relaying algorithm may not be needed
as microcomputers became more powerful, the measurement principle developed for symmetrical components had
september/october 2015

great potential in its own right. In par- that time, it was clearly the system of the
ticular, the idea of synchronizing the future. It remains the main source of all
data sampling at different substations PMU synchronizing signals throughout
evolved about this time, and the power the world.
of the synchronized phasor measurement technique was fully recognized PMU Prototype
in our group. I spent several sum- Development and
mers at Cornell University around this Commercialization
time, and Jim Thorp and I developed Through the financial support for our reearly ideas of state measurement using search and with strong support from VirPMUs instead of state estimation us- ginia Tech Electrical and Computer Engiing traditional SCADA. The first paper neering Department, we soon developed a
(1985) on this topic, "real-Time Volt- Power Systems research Laboratory, and
age Phasor Measurements for Static one of the most important projects underState Estimation" by Thorp, Phadke, taken in this laboratory was the developand Karimi, resulted from the work of ment of a prototype PMU. This PMU,
Jim's graduate student.
shown in Figure 1, was assembled from
The work on synchronized phasor mea- off-the-shelf components purchased from
surements embodied in PMUs continued in traditional computer and peripheral equipour group in Virginia Tech, and financial ment manufacturers. An interesting side
support was provided by
the U.S. Department of Energy, AEP, the new york
Power Authority, the Tennessee Valley Authority,
and the Bonneville Power
Administration. I was able
to assemble a team of very
Congressional Fellowships
capable graduate students,
Seeking U.S. IEEE members interested in
which included Virgilio
spending a year working for a Member of
Centeno (now a colleague
Congress or congressional committee.
in Virginia Tech) and
Miroslav Begovic (PES
Engineering & Diplomacy Fellowship
president and currently the
Seeking U.S. IEEE members interested in
department head of elecspending a year serving as a technical adviser
trical engineering at Texas
at the U.S. State Department.
A&M University). Several
other graduate students
USAID Fellowship
also participated in this
Seeking U.S. IEEE members who are interested
in serving as advisors to the U.S. government
development, and their
as a USAID Engineering & International
research results form the
Development Fellow.
base of PMU developmental work.
The application deadline for 2016-2017
Fellowships is 15 January 2016.
The synchronizing signal for these measurements
For eligibility requirements and application information, go to
www.ieeeusa.org/policy/govfel
was soon standardized to the
or contact Erica Wissolik by emailing
evolving global Positione.wissolik@ieee.org or by calling +1 202 530 8347.
ing System (gPS) satellite
transmissions. Although the
deployed system of these
satellites was incomplete at

2016-2017

IEEE-USA Government
Fellowships

IEEE power & energy magazine

http://www.ieeeusa.org/policy/govfel

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2015