Distinguished Lecture (VIRTUAL): "Measurements and Models Applied to Emerging Power Systems"

#WIE #PES #technical #powersystem #measurement #analytics #energy #algorithm #uncertainty #error

IEEE WIE AG Schenectady is going to organize WIE Distinguished Lecture (virtual webinar) on "Measurements and Models Applied to Emerging Power Systems" on 16 July 2026, Thursday, 12-1 pm EDT. The speaker is Dr. Mihaela Albu, Professor, National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest, Romania.

Modern control algorithms in the emerging power systems process information delivered mainly by distributed, synchronized measurement systems, and available in data streams with different reporting rates. Beyond existing measurement approaches currently embedded in SCADA framework, smart meters and high-resolution waveform-based monitoring devices like phasor measurement units (PMUs) which can include fault-recorder functionality, a new paradigm is on the way to be largely deployed, based on synchronized measurement information conveyed by point-on-wave and sampled-values delivered by new instrument transformers. However, it is expected that on short time horizon the two approaches will co-exist and this requires special attention to be paid to the different information compression rate offered by each measurement chain: for example, the lossless compression in case of sampled-data standard has to be correlated with the lossy information model used by the phasor measurement systems.
There are several applications where data received with high reporting rate must be used together with aggregated data from measurement equipment having a lower reporting rate (complying with power quality data aggregation standards) and the accompanying question is how adequate the energy transfer models in such variety of cases are. For example, the emerging active distribution grids operation is impacted by high variability of the energy transfer and consequently a new model approximation for its characteristic quantities (voltages, currents) is needed. Such a model is required not only in order to be able to correctly design future measurement systems but also for better assessing the quality of existing “classical” measurements, still in use for power quality improvement, voltage control, frequency control, network parameter’ estimation etc. The state-of-art in power quality measurements and associated signal processing is applied in emerging control algorithms dedicated to microgrids (including DC and hybrid) and energy communities, new systems with low inertia and therefore unprecedent operational constraints. Some of those constraints are linked to measurement processes with operational features and therefore they might fail to meet the needs of the user, unless a careful analysis of the model uncertainties is performed. One key challenge is how to avoid information loss associated with inadequate selection of reporting rate, measurement window, filter characteristics etc. which will disguise power supply issues/variability, especially in the case of renewables-based distributed generation 1.

The talk will address:
o Measurement paradigm in power systems
o Phasor Measurement Units and WAMSC
o Model uncertainty and measurement sources of errors
o Information compression, lossy algorithms used in existing measurement systems
o Applications and challenges.
Flexibility versus variability;
Edge computing;
Enhancing grid intelligence;
Data Analytics
This presentation provides an overview of these techniques, with examples from worldwide measurement solutions enabling modern control deployment.