Project Information

About this project:

This is the OpenPMU project, an Open Source Phasor Measurement Unit. 

Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) are central components of modern electrical energy system monitoring and control schemes.  A PMU measures electrical voltage and current waveforms and represents them as phasors, a complex number representing the magnitude, frequency and phase angle of the measured waveform.  Phasor measurements that represent waveforms that occur at the same instant in time are known as "Synchrophasors".  Time synchronisation is usually achieved using electronic time signals such as GPS.

There are many commercial PMU devices, typically following the IEEE Standard C37.118 to achieve compatibility with regards to the measurement quality and the electronic representation of the Synchrophasor data.  Commercial devices are typically of very high quality, but use closed proprietary hardware and software.  They are also typically very expensive, making the large scale deployment necessary for research difficult.

OpenPMU addresses the issues of openness and expense by providing an open source PMU platform on standardised software.  This allows researchers to develop Synchrophasor estimation algorithms on a common platform, allowing multiple institutions to compare and publish their results.