EPRI/SPP/Baylor Web Tutorial on Synchrophasor Data Analysis and Event
Detection
Mack Grady, Andrew Mattei, David Jonsson
Baylor University
Friday, January 15, 2016
The purpose of this tutorial is to show SPP engineers how to use the programs developed for this
project and interpret the results.
First, copy the following directories along with their contents onto your C drive (not within a
subdirectory of C). The copied directories are named, and addressed by the programs, as
1. C:\Archives\
2. C:\Archives_EASTERN\
3. C:\PMU_STEP_EXECUTOR\
Note – as an alternate to C, you can also use drive
D, E, or F. Just be sure to select D, E, or F as the
alternate on each program interface screen, each
time you run it.
4. C:\PMU_RAW_DATA_SPLITTER_EASTERN\
5. C:\PMU_STEP1_CONVERTED_FILES_EASTERN\
6. C:\PMU_STEP2_DATA_CHECKED_FILES_EASTERN\
7. C:\PMU_STEP3_WAVEFORM_ANALYZER_FILES_EASTERN\
8. C:\PMU_STEP4_MINUTE_CONSOLIDATED_FILES_EASTERN\
9. C:\PMU_STEP5_CAT_TIME_PLOTTER_FILES_EASTERN\
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A Quirk of Visual Basic. Most of the programs contained here require minutes, or
sometimes hours, to run. A quirk of Visual Basic is that when running a clicked command,
VB will not respond to keystrokes until the previous click command has finished. Until
finished, VB will respond with a “Not Responding” message.
For that reason, the best method to observe progress is to observe the list of hourly output
files produced by the program.
Three Test Hours. For purposes of this tutorial, we will deal with only three hours. These
hours had interesting events in the latest weekly report. They are
• January 04, 2016, Hour 21:00 UTC
• January 05, 2016, Hour 12:00 UTC
• January 07, 2016, Hour 17:00 UTC
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Begin by splitting three hourly “raw data” files that contain all Baylor’s PMU data, 30 lines per
second, and includes PMUs in all three US grids. The splitting process extracts hourly raw data for
one grid, in this case EASTERN.
Within directory C:\PMU_STEP_EXECUTOR\, double-click on “PMU_RAW_DATA_SPLITTER_EASTERN.exe”. The
following form will appear.
Make sure that “Grid Output Eastern Only”
is selected
Make sure that “Input Drive C” is selected
Click “1. CHECK PATH”
With “2. Start File” already selected, click the
desired Starting File from “Files in Directory”
Select “3. Stop File” and then click the desired
Stop File from “Files in Directory”
Click “4. BEGIN”. Execution time is approx.
5 seconds per hourly file.
Note – ordinarily you will not perform this step because the files you download from Baylor have already been split and
tagged with “_EASTERN”. The purpose of this slide is to show you how we do it.
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Step 1. Check for errors and discrepancies in the hourly raw data files, and convert them to the format
used by Baylor’s analysis and event detection programs
Within directory C:\PMU_STEP_EXECUTOR\, double-click on “PMU_STEP1_RAW_DATA_CONVERTER_EASTERN.exe”.
Key portions of the form that appears on the PC screen are shown below.
• Make sure that “Grid Output Eastern Only” is selected, and that “Input Drive C” is selected.
• Click “1. Check File Paths”
• Click “2. Read and Check Headers”
• Click “3. Sort”
• Click “4. Convert Files”. Execution time is approximately 8 seconds per hourly file.
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Step 2. Prepares minute-by-minute summaries including average, max, and min readings, and number of
dropouts for each PMU. Minute summaries are most useful for determining overall data acquisition
performance, identifying PMU and internet problems, and for producing weekly summary plots.
Within directory C:\PMU_STEP_EXECUTOR\, double-click on “PMU_STEP2_DATA_CHECKER_EASTERN.exe”.
Key portions of the form that appears on the PC screen are shown below.
• Make sure that “Grid Selection EASTERN” is selected, and that “Input Drive C” is selected.
• Click “1. Check Paths and Files”
• In the “2. Select Day(s)” listbox, click on any hour of the days you wish to check.
• Click “3. Run Multiple Days”. Execution time is approximately 1 minute per hourly file.
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Step 3. At this point, we are ready to harvest the crop yielded by the previous steps by scanning through
hourly files, viewing minute graphs, and detecting events.
Within directory C:\PMU_STEP_EXECUTOR\, double-click on “PMU_STEP3_WAVEFORM_ANALYZER_EASTERN.exe”.
Key portions of the form that appears on the PC screen are shown below.
• Make sure that “Grid EASTERN” is selected, and that “Input Drive C” is selected.
• Click “Check File Paths”.
• Click any hour in the listbox below instruction “Click an Hour and Wait Approx. 1 Minute …”.
• After a minute of that hour is displayed, you can then request a full-screen view by checking “Show Detail Graphs”.
• Click on any minute of the same hour to view that minute. The minute listbox is immediately below the hourly listbox.
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7
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Step 3, cont.
• When ready for event screening,
uncheck DC (very far away), SPP2
(offline), and SPP6 (near SPP5). This
will speed up the screening process.
• Then, check “Hold off on auto PMU
include changes”. This will prevent DC,
SPP2, SPP6 from coming back on each
time a new hour is screened.
• To screen the entire hour, click “Screen the
Hour for Events”. Execution time is
approximately 2 minutes per hourly file.
• To scan entire days, click “Screen Multiple
Days”. Consistent with the previous statement,
execution time is approximately 50 minutes per
day, and 6 hours per week.
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Step 3, cont.
Events flagged during the present run, or during past runs, can be viewed minute-by-minute by clicking the desired event in
the bottom-right listbox. “Keepers” are usually designated by “CAT1_02” or higher number such as _03, _04, etc. The
number indicates how many PMUs flagged the minute. The same applies to CAT2 and CAT3 events. CAT2 focuses on
higher-frequency events than CAT1. CAT3 is like CAT1 except that it uses more sensitive event triggers.
Once an event is selected from the event listbox, the program stays event viewing mode until closed and restarted.
To view the event trigger settings, click “Open Event Setting Screen”.
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Step 3, cont.
Event triggers are shown below and will be described during the tutorial. The same triggers are used for both EASTERN and
ERCOT, except that the low-frequency trigger for ERCOT is 59.93 Hz instead of 59.95 Hz.
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Step 4 takes the 1-minute averages produced by Step 2 and prepares them for pasting into an Excel spreadsheet that
produces the 1-week graphs included in the weekly emails. Step 4 is not the “brain” behind event detection but is definitely
helpful.
Within directory C:\PMU_STEP_EXECUTOR\, double-click on
“PMU_STEP4_MINUTE_AVERAGE_CONSOLIDATOR_EASTERN.exe”.
Key portions of the form that appears on the PC screen are shown below.
• Make sure that “Grid EASTERN” is selected, and that “Input Drive C” is selected.
• Checkbox “3. Screen for Names Only?” remains checked for now.
• Click “1. ENABLE FILE LIST”.
• Click “2. DO ALL”. Wait 10-20 seconds until finished.
• Uncheck “3. Screen for Names Only?”.
• Click “4. DO ALL”. Wait approximately 1 minute until finished.
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Step 4, cont.
The output of Step 4 is pasted into a spreadsheet which produces weekly graphs, one of which is shown below.
West OK, OKC, West NE, G City, DC Area Voltage Phase Angles w.r.t. OKC
1-Minute Intervals, One Week Beginning Sunday, January 3, 2016, 00:00 UTC
50
40
30
20
10
0
-10
-20
-30
-40
-50
-60
-70
-80
-90
-100
-110
-120
0
24
48
72
96
120
144
168
Hour of the One Week Period, UTC
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Step 5 is a time plotter that is intended for continuous operation to show 24 hours of event timeline so that “hot periods”
become visually obvious. Adjacent minute events are also easily spotted.
Within directory C:\PMU_STEP_EXECUTOR\, double-click on “PMU_STEP5_CAT_TIME_PLOTTER_EASTERN.exe”.
Key portions of the form that appears on the PC screen are shown below.
• Make sure that “Grid Output EASTERN” is selected, and that “Input Drive C” is selected.
• Click “1. PATH CHECK”
• Click “2. READ AND PLOT”
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Step 5, cont.
Event Category Timeline, 24 Hours, January 09, 2016, UTC
When running automatically, the 24 hour
display ends with the most recent hour
Click to view any
day in the directory
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