Synchrophasor standards and guides for the smart grid

Synchrophasor measurement has evolved from a concept in the 1980's to a significant enabler of transmission and grid integration. It is a key ingredient to wide area monitoring, enabling operators to observe the increasing complexity brought about by increased integration of systems and high penetration of renewables. The IEEE has kept pace by sponsoring development of standards and guides for synchrophasor technology to assure smooth integration of equipment. This paper outlines four recently developed or updated standards and guides sponsored by the Power System Relaying Committee. The first standard was the IEEE Standard 1344, published in 1995. This has evolved into the current standards: C37.118.1-2011 for performance of synchrophasor measurements and C37.118.2-2011 for transfer of synchrophasor data. In addition we now have C37.242-2012 a guide for timing, and testing synchrophasor systems and C37.242-2012 a guide for phasor data concentrators (PDC).