Converting Field Recorded Data to Information : New requirements and concepts for the 21 st century automated monitoring solutions

Automated monitoring of power systems has become an imperative due to two major developments that characterize the 21 st century electricity grid: a) large scale deployment of intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) has created huge amount of data recorder either continuously or at the time when IED recording is triggered by an event such as disturbance or fault, and b) the power system loading has increased to the point where it operates close to the limits, which requires much better monitoring capability than what is available today to make sure such operation does not create undesirable consequences such as cascading failures. Fully aware of the challenges the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) has developed standards for event monitoring and reporting, which will assure the bulk electricity system is reliable, adequate and secure. To fulfil NERC and/or internal requirements for improved monitoring utilities have started deploying advance solutions that enable automated collection of field data, extraction of information and distribution of monitoring reports so that the utility staff can respond to the events expeditiously.