942

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 27, NO. 2, MAY 2012

An Alternative Method for Power System Dynamic State Estimation Based on Unscented Transform
Shaobu Wang, Wenzhong Gao, Senior Member, IEEE, and A. P. Sakis Meliopoulos, Fellow, IEEE
AbstractAn efcient, timely, and accurate state estimation is a prerequisite for most energy management system (EMS) applications in power system control centers. The emerging wide-area measurement systems (WAMSs) offer new opportunities for developing more effective methods to monitor power system dynamics online. Recently, alternative methods for power system state estimation have caught much attention. Due to the nonlinearity of state transition and observation equation, linearization and Jacobian matrix calculation are indispensible in the existing methods of power system state estimation. This makes WAMS high performance compromised by burdensome calculation. In order to overcome the drawbacks, this study tries to develop an effective state estimation method without the linearization and Jacobian matrix calculation. Firstly, unscented transformation is introduced as an effective method to calculate the means and covariances of a random vector undergoing a nonlinear transformation. Secondly, by embedding the unscented transformation into the Kalman lter process, a method is developed for power system dynamic state estimation. Finally, some simulation results are presented showing accuracy and easier implementation of the new method. Index TermsNonlinear lter, power systems dynamics, state estimation, unscented transform, wide-area measurement systems.

I. INTRODUCTION

N electric power systems, an efcient, timely, and accurate state estimation is a prerequisite for most energy management system (EMS) applications in control centers. However, due to the slow updating rate of SCADA systems (on the order of several seconds), traditional state estimators based on steady state system model cannot capture the dynamics of power system very well. Since the 1990s, phase measurement units (PMUs)-based wide-area measurement systems (WAMSs) has emerged, featured with synchronous sampling and high data updating rates. The emerging WAMSs evoke many researchers interests on developing more effective state estimation methods based on WAMS to monitor power system dynamics [1][17]. This is also important for future smart grid to ensure efcient and reliable operations and controls of the grid. Recently, alternative methods for power system state estimation have

Manuscript received May 02, 2011; revised August 29, 2011 and October 04, 2011; accepted November 02, 2011. Date of publication December 26, 2011; date of current version April 18, 2012. Paper no. TPWRS-00404-2011. S. Wang is with the Center for Energy Systems Research, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, TN 38501 USA. W. Gao is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Denver, Denver, CO 80208 USA (e-mail: Wenzhong.Gao@du.edu). A. P. S. Meliopoulos is with the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332 USA (e-mail: sakis.m@gatech.edu). Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TPWRS.2011.2175255

been studied; for example, the feasibility of applying extended Kalman lter (EKF) to dynamic state estimation is discussed in [6]; supercalibrator approaches are proposed in [8][11] enabling the state estimation to be performed at the substation level and then simply synthesize the system state at the control center. However, because power system state equations are nonlinear and some measurement equations are nonlinear functions of state variables, linearization and Jacobian matrix calculation are indispensable in the above methods. Sometimes virtual- and pseudo-measurement technology must be introduced to access certain variables of a generator such as its rotor angle and . For example, when we use internal voltages the measured output voltage and injected current of a generator to solve some observation equations to get those variables, the observation equations are nonlinear with respect to the above variables. Although the model quadratization process is introduced to eliminate the third order and higher truncation errors in [8] and [12], the computation of Jacobian matrix of observation equations is still necessary and the second order truncation error still exists. It is well known that the linearization and Jacobian matrix calculation can lead to the following drawbacks: Linearization is only reliable if the higher order terms in the Taylor series expansion can be ignored. If this condition does not hold, the linearized approximation can be poor. As a result, linearized transformations may produce highly unstable ltering performance if time-step intervals are not sufciently small. Derivation of Jacobian matrices may be nontrivial. Linearization can be applied only if the Jacobian matrix exists. However, this is not always the case. Computation demanded for the generation of the Jacobian matrices and the predictions of state estimation and covariance is large. In order to overcome the above drawbacks introduced by linearization and Jacobian matrix calculation, we try to develop a more effective dynamic state estimation method without linearization or calculation of Jacobian matrices. In this paper, power systems are still modeled as systems with nonlinear state transition and observation models; and a deterministic sampling technique known as the unscented transform (UT) [19][22] is used to calculate the mean and covariance of the nonlinear functions of state transition and observation models. The performance benets are demonstrated in an example application showing the ease implementation and more accurate estimation feature of the new method. This paper is organized as follows. The theory of unscented transformations is introduced in Section II. A new lter algorithm based on the unscented transformation is described in

0885-8950/$26.00 2011 IEEE

WANG et al.: ALTERNATIVE METHOD FOR POWER SYSTEM DYNAMIC STATE ESTIMATION

943

Section III. A new effective state estimation method without linearization and Jacobian matrix calculation is developed in Section IV. Then a detailed study-case is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of our method in Section V. Specially, the method performance is tested under different disturbances and data update rates. Finally, some conclusions are drawn in Section VI. II. UNSCENTED TRANSFORMATION UT is an effective method for calculating the statistics of a random variable undergoing a nonlinear transformation. Supis an -dimensional random variable with mean pose that and covariance another random variable, is related to through a nonlinear function (1) where is a vector of nonlinear functions. With the unscented of are transformation method, the mean and covariance calculated through the following steps. points (or sigma points) 1) Use (2) to yield (2)

4) Calculate the covariance of

using (6)

As can be seen from the above steps, the mean and covariance are calculated using standard vector and matrix operations; it is not necessary to evaluate the Jacobians which are usually needed in existing state estimation of nonlinear systems. This means that the algorithm can be implemented rapidly and suitable for online application. Moreover, the algorithm can guarantee a higher order of accuracy than traditional linearization algorithm [20][22]. The more detailed derivation and properties of the unscented transformation algorithm can also be found in [20][22]. III. FILTERING ALGORITHM BASED UNSCENTED TRANSFORMATION

ON THE

In the previous section, we introduced a method for determining the mean and covariance of a random vector that undergoes a nonlinear transformation. The method is superior to linearization methods in many important respects [20][22]. In this section, we describe how UT is embedded into the recursive prediction and update structure of Kalman lter. A system with nonlinear functions of state transition and observation models is shown in (7): (7)

(3)

is the th row or column of the where is the weight which is matrix square root of associated with . Here is a scaling factor; is another parameter of the method, if is Gaussian [20], and can be chosen as [22]; the matrix square root of positive denite matrix means that a matrix exists such that . 2) Instantiate each point through the nonlinear function to yield the set of transformed sigma points as shown in (4) 3) Calculate the mean of (3): by (5), where is dened by

(5)

where is the state variable at the time step is the measurement at the time step and are vectors consisting of nonlinear functions; is the Gaussian is the process noise at the time step , and and are Gaussian measurement noise at the time step covariance of and at the time step . Using UT described in the previous section, the prediction and update steps of the new lter algorithm can be formulated in standard matrix operations [23] as follows: as the state 1) Prediction: according to (2)(6), use mean to yield sigma points and calculate the predicted state and the predicted covariance shown in (8) mean is at the bottom of the page, where dened in (3), is an matrix, is an -dimensional vector. as the state mean 2) Update: according to (2)(6), use to yield sigma points and calculate the predicted mean and covariance of the measurement, and the cross-coshown in (9), variance of the state and measurement

(8)

944

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 27, NO. 2, MAY 2012

where is dened in (10), is an mais similar to trix, the operation of in (8). Here is a parameter of the method, and if is Gaussian [19]. Then calculate the lter gain and and covariance as shown the updated state mean in (11):

Fig. 1. Single machine innite bus system.

of the measurement, and the cross-covariance of the state and measurement given as follows: (9) (15)

(10) (11)

and the updated state mean 4) Calculate the lter gain and covariance given as follows: (16) Remark: The update rate of traditional SCADA systems is in (13) is about 4 s. As about 4 to 5 s. This means that the a result, dynamic state estimation based on SCADA is prone to divergence. However, PMUs can send their data at a rate up to 240 frames per second, which lays the basis for the implementation of dynamic state estimation in power systems. V. CASE STUDIES A. Case 1 In this subsection, we compare our method with other linearization-based methods. In fact, the new methods advantages compared with other linearization methods have been studied in [20]. Here, we show the advantages through a power system case. For the sake of clarity, we use a single machine innite bus system to compare our method with the method in [6] which is based on the linearization. A multi-machine case will be studied in the next subsections. A single machine innite bus system is shown in Fig. 1 and the system dynamic equations are given in (17) where p.u., kWs/kVA, p.u., p.u., p.u., rad/s. The system measurement equations are given in (18) where and represent measurement noise. It can be seen from (17) and (18) that both the state transition and observation equations : contain nonlinear term

IV. ONLINE DYNAMIC STATE ESTIMATION METHOD FOR POWER SYSTEMS In this section, we describe how the new ltering method as introduced in the previous section is used for power system dynamic state estimation. Power systems can be modeled as a set of differential-algebraic equations given in (12): (12)

where is a set of nonlinear functions of state transition; is a set of nonlinear observation equations; is a set of algebraic equations, representing the passive network of the power system. In this paper, loads are modeled as constant impedances and is formulated as a nodal equation with a nodal admittance can be solved from function . matrix. Given Applying numerical integration scheme (e.g., the trapezoidal method), we discretize (12) and convert it into algebraic forms at each time step. The ltering process shown in Section III can be incorporated into power system state estimation as follows: as the state mean to yield 1) According to (8), use sigma points and calculate the predicted state mean shown in (13):

(13)

(17)

2) Calculate

by solving (14)

(18) Letting the right side of (17) be equal to zero, we get rad, as an equilibrium of the system. Given and s in (13), (15), and

3) According to (9), use as the state mean to yield sigma and covariance points and calculate the predicted mean

WANG et al.: ALTERNATIVE METHOD FOR POWER SYSTEM DYNAMIC STATE ESTIMATION

945

Fig. 2. Estimated results from the method in [6].

Fig. 5. Two measured variables with noises.

Fig. 3. Estimated results using the new method.

Fig. 6. Estimated result from the method in [6].

Fig. 4. Comparison of estimation errors of the two methods.

Fig. 7. Estimated result from the new method.

(16), we test the two methods performance by tracking system dynamics around the equilibrium, respectively. to the equilibBy introducing a small increment rium, we get as initial values around the equilibrium. The system oscillations derived from these initial values are shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The solid line in Fig. 2 represents actual values; and the dashed line is the estimated result from the method in [6]. In Fig. 3, the solid line represents actual values; and the dashed line is the estimated result from the method in this paper. Fig. 4 gives the comparison of estimation errors of the two methods. Both methods use the same measured values with noises that are shown in Fig. 5 in which

a Gaussian noise with a zero mean and variance of 0.00001 p.u. to the measured electric power, and another Gaussian noise with a zero mean and variance of 0.0001 rad/s to the measured rotor velocity . It can be seen from Figs. 24 that both methods can work well. to the equiNow we introduce a larger increment librium. As a result, we get as initial values around the equilibrium. The system oscillations derived from these initial values are shown in Figs. 6 and 7. The solid line in Fig. 6 represents actual values; and the dashed line is the estimated result from the method in [6]. In Fig. 7, the solid line represents actual values; and the dashed line is the estimated

946

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 27, NO. 2, MAY 2012

Fig. 8. Comparison of estimation errors of the two methods.

Fig. 10. WSCC three-machine nine-bus system.

Fig. 11. Pseudo-steady state phasor diagram for synchronous generators. Fig. 9. Two measured variables with noises.

result from the method in this paper. Fig. 8 gives the comparison of the estimation errors of two methods. Both methods use the same measured variables with noises are shown in Fig. 9 in which a Gaussian noise with a zero mean and variance of 0.001 p.u. added to the measured electric power, and another Gaussian noise with a zero mean and variance of 0.01 rad/s added to the measured rotor velocity. It can be seen from Fig. 6 that a phase shift (lag) emerges between the actual values and the estimated values from the method in [6], while Fig. 7 shows that the new method can still work well. This lag, when the estimated values are used as feedback signals, can deteriorate controller performance, or even threat stability of closed-loop systems [24][26]. B. Case 2 In this section, WSCC three-machine nine-bus system [27] shown in Fig. 10 is studied as a case to test the proposed method. In this example system, the dynamics of generators are represented with a 4th order model. The state variables are rotor angle , velocity , and internal voltages and . Each generator has its own excitation system which is modeled with state variables: . The entire system has 21 state variables, and the state transition equations are given in (19) where corresponding to the three generators, respectively. The related parameters can be found in [27]. Now we discuss measurements for this case study.

We noticed that all generators are non-salient pole generators. and generator internal voltage Therefore, we have can be calculated by where and are generator terminal voltage and injection current that can be measured by PMUs directly. Similarly, we can obtain rotor angle by , and then we can get angle between and , which is shown in Fig. 11. Actually, the latest PMU released in 2006 can measure excitation voltage, excitation current, valve position, output of PSS, etc. [28]. Therefore state variables of excitation system can be measured directly or indirectly. , Based on above analysis, we choose electrical power , angle rotor velocity , generator internal voltage (indirectly measured) as measurements for each generator, and the measurement equations are given in (20) where and are algebraic varietc.; ables depending on predicted state variable , represent measurement . Now we test our method by applying a noises; disturbance as follows. Now a three-phase metallic short circuit fault is congured on the line between bus #4 and #5 at the moment of s, near bus #4. The fault is cleared after 100 ms via opening of the circuit breakers at both ends of the line. Then the system operation mode is changed with loss of the line between bus #4 and #5. Following the disturbance, we get the measured values shown in Figs. 1214 by adding a Gaussian noise to the time domain simulation results. All the noises have a zero mean and

WANG et al.: ALTERNATIVE METHOD FOR POWER SYSTEM DYNAMIC STATE ESTIMATION

947

Fig. 12. Measured values for

G.

Fig. 14. Measured values for

G.
; 0.1 p.u. vari-

0.1 p.u. variance for ance for :

; 0.1 p.u. variance for

(19)

Given

Fig. 13. Measured values for

G.

0.01 p.u. variance for electric power; 0.00001 p.u. variance for ; 0.001 rad for ; rotor velocities; 0.0001 p.u. variance for

in (13), (15), and (16), we use the measured values with noise to estimate the actual values of state variables through the new method. The results are given in Figs. 1518 in which the solid lines represent the actual values and dashed lines represent the estimated values. The dynamics of the 2-norm of the Kalman gain matrix is given in Fig. 19 from which we can see the Kalman gain decreases as time increases, which indicates a convergent

948

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 27, NO. 2, MAY 2012

Fig. 15. Estimation results for rotor angle difference of the system.

Fig. 17. Estimation results for

G.

Fig. 16. Estimation results for

G.

lter. It can be seen from Figs. 1518 that the estimated values match well the actual values:

(20)

Fig. 18. Estimation results for

G.

C. Sensitivity to Different Data Update Rates In the previous subsections, the simulation results are obtained under the condition that the data update rate is 10 ms. Due to the following two reasons, the method performance under different data update rates need to be investigated: 1) Sometimes missing measurement may happen in power system, which means that the lter process cannot obtain timely update from measurement. Temporary faults in measurement are reected by intermittent data update in the lter process, which is represented by different data update rates. 2) In real power systems, PMUs send their data at a rate up to 240 frames per second with most typical rates being 10, 30, or 60 frames per second (for 60-Hz systems). This means that the update rate in control centers is from 4 ms up to 100 ms.

Fig. 19. Convergence of the 2-norm of Kalman gain matrix.

Therefore the methods sensitivity to different data update rates is worth further investigation. Now we continue to study Case 2. Given the noises as shown in Figs. 1214 and the same disturbance, the method performance under different data updating rates are given in

WANG et al.: ALTERNATIVE METHOD FOR POWER SYSTEM DYNAMIC STATE ESTIMATION

949

Fig. 20. Performance under the data update rate of 60 ms.

Fig. 23. Dynamics of  .

VI. CONCLUSION
Fig. 21. Performance under the data update rate of 80 ms.

Fig. 22. Performance under the data update rate of 100 ms.

Figs. 2022 in which the solid lines represent actual values and the dashed lines represent the estimated values. From these gures, we can see that the method is still able to maintain a good performance for update rate up to 80 ms for this case system; the method starts to show deteriorated performance for update rates beyond 100 ms. D. Bad Data Detection Detecting and handling the effects of gross measurement errors is another important task in power system state estimation. The unscented lter identies the gross errors through a normalized innovation vector. Each element of the vector corresponds to a unique measurement. The th measurement corresponds to the th element shown in (21) where subscript represents the th time step; subscript represents the th measurement; is the th diagonal element of . The other symbols are the same as dened in previous sections. The results from [29] show that the measurement should be is greater than 1.5: discarded if (21)

This papers main idea is to develop a method to handle the nonlinear equations in power system state estimation so that linearization and Jacobian matrix computation can be avoided, which is necessary in traditional power system state estimation methods. We propose the use of unscented transform to calculate the mean and covariance of nonlinear functions of random variables (which represent power system measurements as nonlinear functions of the power system state). In the new estimation method based on the unscented transform, the linearization and evaluation of Jacobian matrices are not necessary anymore, and only standard vector or matrix operations are involved. Therefore, the method can be implemented rapidly using WAMS higher data update rates. The method has been demonstrated with a number of examples. Compared with traditional state estimation methods, the results from the new method demonstrate better performance in computation efciency, accuracy, and convergence. The results and evaluation of the method indicate a promising outlook for online application. REFERENCES
[1] G. K. Gharban and B. J. Cory, Non-linear dynamic power system state estimation, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 276283, Aug. 1986. [2] H. M. Beides and G. T. Heydt, Dynamic state estimation of power system harmonics using Kalman lter methodology, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 16631670, Oct. 1991. [3] J. Mandal, A. Sinba, and L. Roy, Incorporating nonlinearities of measurement function in power system dynamic state estimation, Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng., Gen., Transm., Distrib., vol. 142, no. 3, pp. 289296, 1995. [4] K. Shih and S. Huang, Application of a robust algorithm for dynamic state estimation of a power system, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 141147, Feb. 2002. [5] K. Shih and S. Huang, Dynamic-state-estimation scheme including nonlinear measurement-function considerations, Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng., Gen., Transm., Distrib., vol. 149, no. 6, pp. 673678, 2002. [6] Z. Huang, K. Schneider, and J. Nieplocha, Feasibility studies of applying Kalman lter techniques to power system dynamic state estimation, in Proc. 8th Int. Power Engineering Conf., Singapore, 2007, pp. 376382. [7] W. Gao and S. Wang, On-line dynamic state estimation of power systems, in Proc. 42nd North American Power Symp. (NAPS), Arlington, TX, Sep. 2628, 2010. [8] E. Farantatos, G. K. Stefopoulos, G. J. Cokkinides, and A. P. Meliopoulos, PMU-based dynamic state estimation for electric power systems, in Proc. Power & Energy Soc. General Meeting, Calgary, AB, Canada, Jul. 2630, 2009.

By letting in (21), now we test if this index can work well by adding a gross measurement error 0.05 p.u. to the measured rotor velocity of generator No. 1 at s. We get for this measurement shown in Fig. 23 from which we can see the gross error can be detected.

950

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 27, NO. 2, MAY 2012

[9] A. P. Meliopoulos, G. J. Cokkinides, and G. K. Stefopoulos, Numerical experiments for three-phase state estimation performance and evaluation, presented at the 2005 IEEE PowerTech Conf., St. Petersburg, Russia, Jun. 2730, 2005. [10] S. Mohagheghi, R. H. Alaileh, G. J. Cokkinides, and A. P. S. Meliopoulos, Distributed state estimation based on the SuperCalibrator conceptLaboratory Implementation, in Proc. IREP 2007 Symp. Bulk Power System Dynamics and Control, Charleston, SC, Aug. 2007. [11] A. P. Meliopoulos, G. J. Cokkinides, F. Galvan, B. Fardanesh, and P. Myrda, Advances in the supercalibrator conceptPractical implementations, in Proc. 40th Annu. Hawaii Int. Conf. System Sciences (HICSS), Waikoloa, Big Island, HI, Jan. 36, 2007. [12] G. J. Cokkinides, A. P. Meliopoulos, R. Alaileh, and A. Mohan, Visualization and characterization of stability swings via GPS-synchronized data, in Proc. 40th Annu. Hawaii Int. Conf. System Sciences (HICSS), Waikoloa, Big Island, HI, Jan. 36, 2007. [13] L. Zhao and A. Abur, Multiarea state estimation using synchronized phasor measurement, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 611617, May 2005. [14] A. Ghassemian and B. Fardanesh, Phasor assisted state estimation for NYS transmission system-implementation & testing, in Proc. IEEE/PES Power Systems Conf. Expo., Seattle, WA, Mar. 1518, 2009. [15] A. G. Phadke, J. S. Thorp, R. F. Nuqui, and M. Zhou, Recent developments in state estimation with phasor measurements, in Proc. IEEE/PES Power Systems Conf. Expo., Seattle, WA, Mar. 1518, 2009. [16] J. Amit and N. R. Shivakumar, Impact of PMU in dynamic state estimation of power systems, in Proc. 40th North American Power Symp., Calgary, AB, Canada, Sept. 2830, 2008. [17] A. Z. Gamm, Y. A. Grishin, I. N. Kolosok, A. M. Glazunova, and E. S. Korkina, New EPS state estimation algorithms based on the technique of test equations and PMU measurements, in Proc. IEEE Power Tech, Lausanne, Switzerland, Jul. 15, 2007, pp. 16711675. [18] J. Zhu and A. Abur, Effect of phasor measurements on the choice of reference bus for state estimation, presented at the IEEE/PES General Meeting, Tampa, FL, Jun. 2428, 2007. [19] S. Julier and J. Uhlmann, Unscented ltering and nonlinear estimation, Proc. IEEE, vol. 92, no. 3, pp. 401422, Mar. 2004. [20] S. Julier, J. Uhlmann, and H. F. Durrant-Whyte, A new method for the nonlinear transformation of means and covariances in lters and estimators, IEEE Trans. Autom. Control, vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 477482, Mar. 2000. [21] S. Julier, The scaled unscented transformation, in Proc. American Control Conf., Anchorage, AK, May 810, 2002. [22] S. Julier, J. Uhlmann, and H. F. Durrant-Whyte, A new approach for lter nonlinear systems, in Proc. American Control Conf., Seattle, WA, Jun. 2123, 1995. [23] S. Srkk, Recursive Bayesian inference on stochastic differential equations, Ph.D. dissertation, Laboratory of Computational Engineering, Helsinki Univ. Technol., Helsinki, Finland, 2006. [24] H. Wu, K. Tsakalis, and G. Heydt, Evaluation of time delay effects to wide-area power system stabilizer Design, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 19351941, Nov. 2004. [25] B. Chaudhuri, R. Majumder, and B. Pal, Wide-area measurement based stabilizing control of power system considering signal transmission delay, in Proc. IEEE/PES General Meeting, San Francisco, CA, 2005, pp. 17. [26] B. Naduvathuparambil, M. Valenti, and A. Feliachi, Communication delays in wide area measurement systems, in Proc. 34th Southeastern Symp. System Theory, Huntsville, AL, 2002, pp. 118122. [27] P. Sauer and M. A. Pai, Power System Dynamics and Stability. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1998. [28] Q. Yang, T. Bi, and J. Wu, WAMS implementation in china and the challenges for bulk power system protection, in Proc. IEEE Power Eng. Soc. General Meeting, Tampa, FL, Jun. 2428, 2007. [29] G. Valverde and V. Terzija, Unscented Kalman lter for power system dynamic state estimation, IET Gen., Transm., Distrib., vol. 5, pp. 2937, 2011.

Shaobu Wang was born in Shandong Province, China. He received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, in 2009. From March 2009 to March 2010, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada. From April 2010 to April 2011, he worked as a postdoctoral research associate in the Center for Energy Systems Research, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, TN. From May 2011 to July 2011, he worked as a research scholar in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Denver, Denver, CO. He is currently with the Pacic Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA. His research interests include PMU-based stability analysis and control of power systems; renewable energy integration.

Wenzhong Gao (S00-M02-SM03) received the M.S. degree and Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering specializing in electric power engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, in 1999 and 2002, respectively. His current teaching and research interests include renewable energy and distributed generation, smart grid, power delivery, power electronics application, power system protection, power system restructuring, and hybrid electric propulsion systems. Dr. Gao is a Member of the Power and Energy Education Committee (PEEC) of the IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES). He is an Editor for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY.

A. P. Sakis Meliopoulos (M76SM83F93) was born in Katerini, Greece, in 1949. He received the M.E. and E.E. diploma from the National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece, in 1972, and the M.S.E.E. and Ph.D. degrees from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, in 1974 and 1976, respectively. In 1971, he worked for Western Electric in Atlanta. In 1976, he joined the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, where he is presently Georgia Power Distinguished Professor. He is active in teaching and research in the general areas of modeling, analysis, and control and protection of power systems. He has made signicant contributions to power system control and operation, grounding, harmonics, and reliability assessment of power systems. He developed the distributed state estimator. He applied statistical estimation methods for improved grounding system measurements and power quality measurement methods. The work in this area led to the Smart Ground Multimeter (U.S. patent) and a commercially available device for grounding system performance assessment. He developed (with Dr. Cokkinides) the rst GPS-synchronized harmonic measurement and estimation system, a wide area monitoring system of power quality problems for high voltage transmission systems. His present research activities focus on using this technology for advanced and precise monitoring, visualization, and control of power systems. He holds three patents and has published over 200 technical papers. He is the author of the books, Power Systems Grounding and Transients (New York: Marcel Dekker, 1988), Lightning and Overvoltage Protection, Section 27, Standard Handbook for Electrical Engineers (New York: McGraw Hill, 1993), and the short book (100 pages) Problems and Concise Theory of High Voltage Systems, in Greek. Dr. Meliopoulos is a member of the Hellenic Society of Professional Engineering and the Sigma Xi.