Power System Monitoring Through Low-Voltage Distribution Network Using freePMU

Abstract

This article presents the latest developments of a Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU), hereby named freePMU, aimed at a large-scale deployment in low-voltage distribution networks. The defining characteristics of this device are its low cost, its general-purpose hardware architecture, and its software now made open source. This PMU has already been shown to reliably measure voltage, angle, and frequency events in a real distribution network while complying with the IEEE class P PMU standards. In this work, several new results are shown, such as harmonic estimation, detection of different consumer load patterns, and load variations on a distribution feeder. Moreover, its hardware and software architectures are now made public, contributing to the project goal of a cheap and mass-deployable PMU. All of those results attest to the original contributions of this work, compared to other PMUs focused on distribution systems.