Reference system for the identification and acquisition of power system frequency transients

Power system dynamics are continuously monitored by network operators in order to evaluate the fulfilment of the stability margins and the power quality indicators. One of the most crucial quantities is represented by the power system frequency, which dynamic reveals several information concerning the power system status. The paper describes the implementation of a tunable algorithm for the estimation of the frequency and of its derivative, which measurement performance can be arbitrarily selected on the basis of few input parameters. The realized instrument, in addition to monitor these quantities, also records the raw voltage waveforms when significant power system transients (on the voltage magnitude/phase-angle) are detected. These data, representing challenging situations for many frequency estimation algorithms, can be further studied and generalized for the definition of a measurement test bench.