Design of low-cost Phasor Measurement Unit for local power grid frequency estimation

Phasor Measurement Units are used at the transmission level to measure the health of the power grid. At the transmission level, data collected by PMUs are time-synchronized which helps the grid operators to get excellent wide area situational awareness. At the distribution-level, Frequency Disturbance Recorders (FDR) developed by University of Tennessee Knoxville are one of the few PMU devices that have been implemented. Studies have shown system-wide events are observable at the distribution level, and that these low-level voltage variations can be indicators of localized power issues. Most of these commercial PMUs cost upwards of $1000 making them harder to acquire by a hobbyist or as a classroom object. Likewise, the closed source philosophy prevalent in commercial PMU devices leaves little room for innovation in this field. This research has tried to inquire if we can analyze the local power grid with the same level of detail as the commercial PMUs, but under the budget of $200.