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Interpretation and Visualization of Wide-Area PMU Measurements Using

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 21, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 2006
Interpretation and Visualization of Wide-Area
PMU Measurements Using Hilbert Analysis
A. R. Messina, Senior Member, IEEE, Vijay Vittal, Fellow, IEEE, Daniel Ruiz-Vega, Senior Member, IEEE, and
G. Enríquez-Harper, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—Characterization of the dynamic phenomena that
arise when the system is subjected to a perturbation is important
in real-time power system monitoring and analysis. This paper
discusses the use of Hilbert spectral analysis to visualize and
characterize nonlinear oscillations from synchronized wide-area
measurements. The method has the potential to be applied for
real-time, wide-area monitoring and analysis.
As an illustrative example, synchronized phasor measurements
of a real event in northern Mexico are used to examine the poten-
tial usefulness of nonlinear time series analysis techniques to charac-
terize the time evolution of nonlinear, nonstationary oscillations and
to determine the nature and propagation of the system disturbance.
The proposed approach is also compared with Prony analysis.
Index Terms—Interarea oscillations, spectral analysis, wide-area
measurements.
I. INTRODUCTION
C HARACTERIZING nonlinear, nonstationary power
system oscillation is a major research challenge in power
system dynamics. The use of dynamic measurements for online
monitoring and control has attracted considerable research
interest recently [1]–[3]. Synchronized phasor measurements
are particularly valuable because they provide more extensive
temporal and spatial coverage of system oscillations.
The availability of simultaneous phasor measurement units
(PMUs) data provides the opportunity to monitor the nature of
these oscillations as well as to accurately investigate other phe-
nomena such as mode propagation and the degree and distribu-
tion of the various dynamic processes taking place in the system.
Global measurements over widely dispersed locations may con-
tain numerous nonlinear processes on time scales from several
milliseconds to several seconds that makes the study of system
dynamics very difficult [1], [4].
Additionally, the large amount of data captured by wide-area
measurements over widely separated locations in the power
system requires techniques capable of extracting and character-
izing the underlying physical phenomena of interest.
Manuscript received January 19, 2006; revised March 21, 2006. Paper no.
TPWRS-00027-2006.
A. R. Messina was with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Arizona
State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-5706 USA, on leave from Cinvestav,
Mexico (e-mail: aroman@gdl.cinvestav.mx).
V. Vittal is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Arizona State Uni-
versity, Tempe, AZ 85287-5706 USA (e-mail: vijay.vittal@asu.edu).
D. Ruiz-Vega is with the Graduate Program in Electrical Engineering, SEPI-
ESIME, Mexico City 07300, Mexico (e-mail: drv_liege@yahoo.com).
G. Enríquez-Harper is with the Unidad de Ingeniería Especializada,
Comisión Federal de Electricidad, Mexico City 06500, Mexico (e-mail:
gilberto.enriquez@cfe.gob.mx).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRS.2006.881153
0885-8950/$20.00 © 2006 IEEE
1763
A critical fact is that the recorded measurements are nonsta-
tionary and may be highly nonlinear. Nonstationary behavior in
system dynamics may result from the effects of system pertur-
bations or disturbances, outages of transmission and generation
resources, and changes in topology and control settings. Proper
accounting of this phenomenon may result in improved detec-
tion and characterization of system behavior.
Past studies have focused on identifying the causal mech-
anisms for instability and analyzing the temporal and spatial
variability of measured data considering selected synchronized
phasor measurements. Among the different techniques recently
developed, nonlinear time series analysis techniques have been
applied to the analysis and characterization of nonlinear oscilla-
tions. These include the global wavelet spectrum [2] and Hilbert
analysis [4].
In this paper, nonlinear analysis tools based on Hilbert anal-
ysis are used to identify nonlinear aspects of the dynamic be-
havior of the system that are needed in the detection and charac-
terization of oscillations arising from system disturbances. This
approach facilitates the analysis of dynamic phenomena over a
desired time interval and enables characterization of local prop-
erties such as instantaneous frequency and damping.
Synchronized multiple phasor measurements of a real event
in northern Mexico are used to examine the potential useful-
ness of nonlinear time series analysis techniques to characterize
the temporal characteristics of complex nonlinear, nonstationary
oscillations.
Algorithms based on the Hilbert transform are proposed to
characterize temporal spectral variations. Techniques to deter-
mine mode propagation and coherent dynamic modal interac-
tion are also outlined, and methods to investigate the instanta-
neous characteristics of nonstationary data are presented. The
proposed approach is also compared with Prony analysis, and
the efficacy of the proposed approach is demonstrated.
This paper is organized as follows. A brief description of
the event is presented in Section II. In Section III, the theo-
retical foundations of the proposed techniques are reviewed. In
Section IV, Hilbert spectral analysis is applied to characterize
the measured records and investigate the significance of modal
components. The results are compared with Prony analysis in
Section V. Finally, in Section VI, we summarize the main con-
clusion of the analysis.
II. NUMERICAL RESULTS: THE JANUARY 1, 2004 EVENT
A. Data Description
At the local time of 06:27:35 on January 1, 2004, undamped
interarea oscillations were observed throughout the northern por-
tions of the Mexican interconnected system (MIS). These oscil-
1764 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 21, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 2006

Fig. 2. Time traces of recorded frequencies.

Fig. 1. Schematic of the MIS showing the location of observed oscillations and
selected PMUs. Measurement sites are shown as black squares.

lations involved severe frequency, voltage, and power changes

throughout the northern systems and resulted in load shedding
and the disconnection of major equipment. Power oscillations
were in the order of 300 MW on some major interconnections
and continued for several minutes before damping out.
The events that initiated the oscillations included a failed tem-
porary interconnection of the Northwest regional system to the Fig. 3. Time traces of recorded local voltages.
MIS through a 230-kV line (see Fig. 1). Prior to this temporary
interconnection, the Northwestern system operated as an elec-
trical island.
After the tie line was connected, undamped interarea oscilla-
tions were observed throughout the system. These were in the
order of 250 MW in the main interconnection and continued
for some minutes before damping out. As a consequence, pro-
tective relays operated, tripping about 140 MW of load and three
generating units in order to compensate for the imbalance caused
by system oscillations. The line was finally disconnected. Ref-
erence [4] provides a detailed description of this event.
Fig. 1 gives a pictorial representation of the Mexican inter-
Fig. 4. Time traces of recorded intertie powers.
connected system showing the location of the observed oscilla-
tions and measurement sites. Selected signals from the system
obtained from the PMUs are used to analyze the temporal char- corridor interconnects the northeastern and south parts of the
acteristics of the observed oscillations. system and constitutes a critical element in the north-south
interface.
B. Actual Recorded Response
The data used in this study were recorded on PMUs at several C. Time Traces of Selected Signals
key locations in the system. Measurements were obtained over Recordings from selected PMU signals are shown in
a 4-s period at a sampling rate of 2 ms and included primary Figs. 2–5. On detailed examination, the records indicate the
recordings of local frequency, tie-line power, real and reactive presence of nonlinear, nonstationary behavior that makes the
power, and phase angle and voltage magnitude at various system analysis and interpretation of the observed oscillations using
locations. conventional techniques difficult.
Four locations in the northern systems are chosen for char- Analysis of the time traces of frequency reveals a chronology
acterization of system dynamic behavior. PMU measurements of the main events. The following is a summary of relevant in-
for this event at Hermosillo, Mazatlan Dos, and Huinala sub- stants of system behavior in the context of this study.
stations (Macrodyne PMUs type 1690) provide a complete as- At 06:27:42, large amplitude oscillations are observed at
sessment of the system oscillations in the northern systems (see various locations in the system.
Fig. 1). These represent critical locations in the backbone of the At 6:28:06, a local generator in the northwestern system
wide-area monitoring system of the MIS [5]. trips out, resulting in the operation of load shedding
In addition, measurements at the 400-kV Tres Estrellas schemes and under-frequency relays
substation at the end of the north-south interface were used to At 06:28:54, the system stabilizes at a frequency of about
investigate the nature of mode propagation. This transmission 60.05 Hz to then decrease slowly to about 59.959 Hz.
MESSINA et al.: INTERPRETATION AND VISUALIZATION OF WIDE-AREA PMU MEASUREMENTS
Fig. 5. Time traces of recorded generator outputs.
Fig. 6. Details of the observed oscillations. (a) Frequency. (b) Intertie power.
(Color version available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.)
At 06:29:39, the Northwestern system disconnects from
the MIS. The frequency at Hermosillo and Mazatlan Dos in
the Northwestern system drops to about 58.5 Hz and then
slowly recovers to the nominal value.
During the time interval 06:27:42–06:28:54, the system ex-
periences severe fluctuations in frequency, power, and voltage,
resulting in the operation of protection equipment with the sub-
sequent disconnection of load and major transmission resources.
In the following subsections, we discuss in detail the theoret-
ical studies conducted to analyze these oscillations and compare
them with those obtained from measurements. Studies are also
presented to characterize the observed oscillations using linear
analysis.
D. Frequency Deviations
Frequency and power deviations are particularly useful in that
they can reveal the nature of energy exchange taking place in the
system. In Fig. 6, we plot two expanded views of selected signals
for time segments of interest. Visual inspection of the time traces
shows three adjacent time intervals of particular interest.
The first one is the time segment subsequent to the initiating
disturbance (time window 1). During this interval, the frequency
1765
at Hermosillo and Mazatlan Dos are seen to oscillate against that
of Tres Estrellas, suggesting the onset of an interarea oscilla-
tion in which machines in the north system oscillate coherently
against machines in north and northeastern system.
Following the trip of a major generator at 6:28:06, the anal-
ysis of time traces in window 2 shows an oscillation in which the
machines in Mazatlan Dos swing in opposition to machines in
Hermosillo. The frequency recordings indicate strongly nonsta-
tionary frequency content. Careful inspection of the time traces
reveals that the frequency of the ensuing oscillation increases,
suggesting the presence of a local higher frequency mode. The
distorted nature of the observed oscillations also suggests the
onset of nonlinear behavior.
The analysis of the intertie power flow measurements in
Fig. 6(b), on the other hand, shows different periods of activity,
suggesting that other modes might be excited.
III. THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS
A. Hilbert–Huang Technique
The approach in [6]–[8] was used to investigate the temporal
characteristics of measured data. We briefly summarize the
method. For a background on the numerical aspects of the
method, see [6] and [8].
As a first step toward characterizing temporal behavior, the
empirical mode decomposition (EMD) technique is applied to
an oscillatory signal . This method separates the time series
into intrinsic mode function (IMF) components using the local
temporal and structural characteristics of the data.
This decomposition can be represented mathematically as
(1)
where is the number of IMF components, and is the
residue of the signal, which can be the trend of the signal or
constant. Once the original signal is decomposed into a set of
IMFs, the Hilbert transform is applied to each component to
define the instantaneous characteristics of each component.
1) Empirical Mode Decomposition: The EMD technique
provides an analytical basis for the decomposition of a signal,
, into set of basis functions or IMFs. An IMF is defined as
a wave in which 1) over the entire time series, the number of
extrema and the number of zero-crossings differ by, at most,
one, i.e., essentially oscillatory processes, and 2) at any point,
the mean of the envelope defined by the local maxima and the
envelope defined by the local minima is zero.
The basic EMD method adopted to extract the IMFs essen-
tially consists of three steps.
Step 1) Starting with the original signal , set
, and .
Step 2) Extract the th IMF using the following sifting pro-
cedure.
a) Set and .
b) Identify the successive local minima and the
local maxima for . The time spacing be-
tween successive maxima is defined to be the
time scale of these successive maxima.
c) Interpolate the local minima and the local
maxima with a cubic spline to form an upper
1766 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 21, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 2006

and lower envelope for

the whole data span.
d) Compute the instantaneous mean of the
envelopes,
, and subtract it from ;
determine a new estimate
, such that
for all . Set .
e) The four step procedure described above
[2(b)–2(d)] is then repeated until satisfies
a predetermined stopping criterion (described
below). Then, set .
Step 3) Obtain an improved residue .
Repeat steps 2(a)–2(d) with until the
number of extrema in is less than 2.
This approach allows elimination of low-amplitude riding
waves in the time series and eliminates asymmetries with
respect to the local mean, i.e., it makes the wave profile more
symmetric.
The key aspect is that in each step of the procedure, the
number of extrema is reduced with the first IMF containing the
fastest time scale, and each subsequently extracted IMF has
a higher time scale than the previous one. At the end of the
procedure, the residue becomes either a monotonic function or
a constant, and the signal is represented by (1). Fig. 7. Schematic representation illustrating the computation of analytic sig-
In the implementation of the method, the iterative procedure nals. (a) Computation of analytic signal. (b) Notion of a rotating vector.
is stopped when the last or become smaller than
a predetermined value or when the residue becomes
a monotonic function from which no further IMFs can be and global instantaneous characteristics can be defined, as will
extracted. be made clear below.
The most striking features of the EMD are numerical orthog- The procedure is illustrated in Fig. 7. Note that the first IMF
onality; , for all , and lo- captures the highest frequency content; the frequency content
cality, i.e., the local mean is close to zero. The IMFs form a then decreases with the increase in IMF [6], [8].
set of orthogonal, nearly optimal, complete basis for modal de- By summing up all contributions, one obtains
composition of the oscillatory processes, which is derived from
the data themselves. Since each component captures a particular (2)
time scale, the EMD technique effectively decomposes the orig-
inal signal into a set of waves with various time scales, which
can be linear or nonlinear and even time-varying. and
2) Computation of Analytic Signals: The above procedure
allows the definition of uniquely defined time-varying quantities
using the notion of an analytic signal [6]. Applying the Hilbert
transform to the th IMF yields the complex trace representation, (3)
or analytic signal , where
For computational purposes, the instantaneous frequency is
obtained as the imaginary part of the ratio of the th mode ana-
lytic signal to its derivative, namely

is the Hilbert transform of , and indicates the Cauchy (4)

principal value.1 The analytic signal represents a time-depen-
dent phasor in the complex plane with amplitude Finally, using (2), the original signal can be recon-
, and phase . structed from the complex expansion
Because an analytic signal is computed for each IMF, both local
1Because of the singularity at t =  , the Hilbert transform is considered as
a Cauchy principal value (CPV). The CPV of an integral of a function f (x)
about a discontinuity at point a (a  c b) is defined by CPV(f (x)) =
lim [ f (x)dx + f (x)dx] [9]. (5)
MESSINA et al.: INTERPRETATION AND VISUALIZATION OF WIDE-AREA PMU MEASUREMENTS 1767

Fig. 8. IMFs for the frequency deviation signal Hermosillo-Tres Estrellas.

The result of this procedure is a time-dependent oscillatory

function expressed in terms of the amplitude and instantaneous
frequency associated with each component. The frequency-time
distribution of the amplitude, or Hilbert amplitude spectrum,
can be derived as
. By following the above approach, the relative role
of each modal component in the observed system behavior can
be determined.
From this representation, we derive several analytical and nu-
merical estimates of instantaneous parameters.

IV. HILBERT SPECTRAL ANALYSIS RESULTS

A. IMFs: Validation of the Procedures

In order to validate the accuracy of the decomposition algo-
rithms, the relative frequency deviation between Hermosillo and
Tres Estrellas substations at the extreme ends of the north-south
corridor was selected for analysis. In this analysis, each fre-
quency trace, , is expressed in the form
, where represents the trend of the signal as dis-
cussed below.
Application of the EMD technique results in nine IMFs and a
residue capturing the trend of the signal. Fig. 8 shows the IMFs
for this signal. For comparison and clarity of illustration, the
original signal is also plotted (upper plot); and the time response
in (1) is separated into three contributions: the time evolution
of IMFs 1 and 2 and the contribution from IMFs 3 to 10, i.e.,
IMF .
As observed in Fig. 8, IMF 1 captures the system dynamics
for time windows 1 and 2 [refer to Fig. 6(a)], while IMF2 is seen
to reproduce the behavior of the system for the time interval
Fig. 9. Instantaneous amplitude of IMFs for selected signals. (a) Frequency
associated with window 3. Note the trend in the frequency trace at Hermosillo 230-kV substation. (b) Voltage magnitude at Hermosillo 230-kV
associated with the frequency decrease in window 2, which is substation. c) Frequency at Mazatlan Dos 230-kV substation. d) Frequency at
captured by higher IMF components. Tres Estrellas 400-kV substation.
Comparison of the time evolution of the original signal in the
upper plot with the time evolution of the reconstructed signal
B. Assessment of Modal Energy
(lower plot) shows that the EMD decomposition accurately re-
produces the measured signal for the entire observation period The IMFs in Fig. 8 provide evidence of nonlinear behavior.
and enables the accurate tracking of transient characteristics. In order to examine the detailed nature of the embedded os-
As shown, all the essential aspects of the amplitude and fre- cillations and determine the onset of oscillatory behavior, the
quency are captured during both the period subsequent to the Hilbert amplitude spectrum was computed for various signals
interconnection of the northwestern system to the MIS (time in- of interest.
terval 06:27:42–06:28:54) and the period subsequent to its dis- The energy density of the IMFs, calculated using the squared
connection from the northern system at 0.6:29:39. Similar re- amplitude of the Hilbert amplitude spectrum, during the time
sults (not shown) were obtained for other signals, showing the interval 06:25:36–06:32:16 for various signals of interest is dis-
accuracy of the results. played in Fig. 9.
1768 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 21, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 2006

In all cases, the energy of the IMFs accurately identifies the

periods of interest in the study, suggesting that the amplitude
of each component (modal energy) could be used to identify the
onset and intensity of the oscillations. It should also be observed
that different periods of activity are shown with varying inten-
sity in the analyzed signals.
A particularly interesting feature of the observations is the
presence of time intervals, showing high participation of the
modal components. The regional components of energy de-
picted in Fig. 9 demonstrate significant variability in which two
or more modal components are significant. This is particularly
evident for the voltage and frequency at Hermosillo and Tres
Estrellas in Figs. 9(b) and (d) that show a large contribution of
IMFs 2 and 3 to the total energy.
The first time interval of interest is associated with the
synchronization of the systems (06:27:42–06:28:54). The
second interval is clearly associated with the disconnection
of the northwestern system from the Mexican interconnected
system (starting at 06:29:39), showing the effectiveness of the
technique to detect abrupt, fast changes in system dynamics.
In addition, the energy of the ensuing oscillations can be used
to determine the propagation of nonlinear oscillations across the
system.

C. Instantaneous Frequency Fig. 10. Instantaneous parameters. Relative signal Hermosillo-Mazatlan Dos.
The nature of the observed oscillations can be understood (a) Instantaneous amplitude. (b) Instantaneous frequency.
from Hilbert analysis of the time traces. Utilizing the proce-
dures in Section III, two approximations to the instantaneous and
frequency and amplitude of the original signals were obtained.
• A second-order approximation formed by the interaction of
two quasi-harmonic modes in (2). It can be shown
from (4) that the instantaneous frequency of the two-com-
ponent signal can be approximated by

(9)
(6) Similar expressions can be shown to hold for higher order
multicomponent signals.
The corresponding equation for instantaneous amplitude is These approximations have a strong physical appeal and can
be used to determine the effect of amplitude modulation on the
average system frequency. Once the instantaneous frequencies
(7) and amplitudes of each IMF, ,
are computed using the theory in Section III, the instantaneous
• A third-order approximation derived from the analysis amplitude and frequency of the signal can be approximated in
of three interacting modes . This results in the physical space using the above formulation. Our experience
estimates suggests that this approach allows “filtering” undesirable char-
acteristics in the EMD decomposition associated with “mode
(8) mixing” caused by intermittency occurring in parts of the
signal [7].
Figs. 10–13 show the instantaneous amplitude (envelope) and
where frequency of the first IMF for the frequency differences between
selected signals across the north systems. For comparison, the
analytical estimates obtained using (6)–(9) are also included.
Some interesting features of system dynamic behavior can
be observed by examining the numerical responses for various
system signals. For the relative frequency Hermosillo-Tres
Mazatlan Dos, the analysis of window 1 in Fig. 10(b) using the
analytical approximations (6) and (8) shows a dominant mode
centered at about 0.27 Hz.
MESSINA et al.: INTERPRETATION AND VISUALIZATION OF WIDE-AREA PMU MEASUREMENTS 1769

Fig. 12. Instantaneous frequency. Relative frequency Huinala-Tres Estrellas.

Fig. 11. Instantaneous parameters. Relative signal Mazatlan Dos-Tres Es- (a) Instantaneous amplitude. b) Instantaneous frequency. (Color version avail-
trellas. (a) Instantaneous amplitude. (b) Instantaneous frequency. able online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.)

This is consistent with the north-south interarea mode ob-

served in detailed small signal and transient stability simula-
tions [10].
Note that the approximate solutions contain positive and neg-
ative spikes that occur at relative minima in the envelope
in (6) and (8). While several techniques can be used to reduce
this effect, this is not relevant to our discussion.
Furthermore, the analysis of IMF1 for window 1 shows a
highly variable mode with a mean around 0.80 Hz. Compar-
ison of the instantaneous envelope of IMF1 and the analytical
approximations with the original signal in Fig. 10(a), however,
reveals that the second approximations captures the dynamic be-
havior of the system for window 1.
The analysis of time window 2 in Fig. 10(b), on the other
hand, shows that the frequency of the dominant component
increases from about 0.25 Hz to about 0.61 Hz. In this case,
the second-order approximation to the instantaneous frequency
(and the third-order approximation) coincides almost exactly
with the frequency of IMF1. This indicates that for this time
interval, the system behavior can be accurately approximated
by the interaction of two modal components with time-varying
amplitudes and frequencies and that these components are
embedded in IMF1.
In fact, our simulations clearly show that a three interacting
mode approximation suffices to approximate most of the ob- Fig. 13. Instantaneous parameters. Relative signal Hermosillo-Tres Estrellas.
served oscillations. In the more general case, the number of rel- (a) Instantaneous amplitude. b) Instantaneous frequency.
evant modes can be easily determined by comparing the time
evolution of the second-order and the higher order approxima-
tions as proposed in this paper. Mazatlan Dos-Tres Estrellas and Hermosillo-Tres Estrellas sig-
The analysis of the relative frequency deviation between the nals, the 0.27 Hz and 0.61 Hz components are clearly visible
various signals in Figs. 11–13 confirms these findings. For the giving a clear picture of both, the extent and nature of mode
1770
TABLE I
PRONY ANALYSIS FIT. INPUT SIGNAL: RELATIVE FREQUENCY DEVIATION
HERMOSILLO-MAZATLAN DOS
TABLE II
PRONY ANALYSIS FIT. INPUT SIGNAL: RELATIVE FREQUENCY
DEVIATION MAZATLAN DOS-TRES ESTRELLAS
propagation. In sharp contrast with this, the analysis of the rela-
tive frequency deviation between the Huinala and Tres Estrellas
substations in Fig. 12(b) identifies essentially a dominant, nearly
stationary modal component at about 0.47 Hz for the entire pe-
riod of observation indicating a more localized oscillation. The
analysis serves also to demonstrate nonlinearity in the signals.
Measured signals may exhibit a strong nonlinear trend asso-
ciated with the frequency recovery characteristics of the system.
Proper comparison of the original time traces of the signals
and the envelopes determined from the proposed procedures re-
quires that the trend be removed from the original signal. This
is illustrated in Figs. 11(a) and 13(a) in which the residue
and the non-oscillatory components are
subtracted from the original signal, that is, the detrended signal
is expressed in the form
where is the order of approximation.
These preliminary analytical results support the idea that
Hilbert analysis might be used for real-time monitoring of
critical system modes and the analysis of mode propagation
over major interconnections.
V. COMPARISON WITH OTHER TECHNIQUES
Detailed studies have been finally conducted to compare the
proposed approach with that of Prony analysis and conventional
spectral analysis.
Tables I–IV show Prony analysis results (PRS) for the rela-
tive frequency deviations of selected signals in Section IV-C. As
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 21, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 2006
TABLE III
PRONY ANALYSIS FIT. INPUT SIGNAL: RELATIVE FREQUENCY DEVIATION
HUINALA-TRES ESTRELLAS: TIME INTERVAL: 147–157 s
TABLE IV
PRONY ANALYSIS FIT. INPUT SIGNAL: RELATIVE FREQUENCY
DEVIATION HERMOSILLO-TRES ESTRELLAS
shown in the analysis presented, these time intervals are charac-
terized by a relatively stationary behavior.
For window 1, Prony analysis of the Hermosillo-Mazatlan
Dos, Mazatlan Dos-Tres Estrellas, and Hermosillo-Tres Es-
trellas signals in Tables I, II, and IV, respectively, essentially
identifies an unstable dominant mode at about 0.23 Hz.
A second mode at about 0.81 Hz and 0.83 Hz is perceptible in
the Hermosillo-Mazatlan Dos and Mazatlan Dos-Tres Estrellas
signals in Tables I and II, respectively, suggesting the presence
of a local mode to the northwestern system. Note that this mode
is not present in the Hermosillo-Tres Estrellas signal in Table IV
as suggested by Hilbert results in Fig. 13(b). The above results
correlate well with the Hilbert analysis in previous sections.
For time window 2, Prony analysis produces a very poor fit to
the signals, characterized by a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).
Because of the small number of samples and the nonlinear signal
trend, however, no direct improvement on this estimate was
possible.
From these results, a poorly damped mode at about 0.596 Hz
(0.635 Hz, 0.614 Hz) is identified for the Hermosillo-Mazatlan
Dos, Mazatlan Dos-Tres Estrellas, and Hermosillo-Tres Es-
trellas signals in Tables I, II, and IV. In all cases, a second
dominant mode very close to this frequency is identified,
perhaps arising from the coarse approximation.
Finally, the analysis of the Huinala-Tres Estrellas signal in
Table III shows a mode at about 0.47 Hz in close agreement
with Hilbert results in Fig. 12(b).
This first application of the method shows the applicability of
the proposed technique to track temporal changes without any
previous knowledge of the signals’ characteristics.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, nonlinear time series analysis techniques based
on the combined application of the empirical mode decomposi-
tion and Hilbert analysis are applied to characterize the dynamic
MESSINA et al.: INTERPRETATION AND VISUALIZATION OF WIDE-AREA PMU MEASUREMENTS
behavior of measured data. The results provide a number of in-
sights into the nature of temporal spectral variations, suggesting
the technique is effective in detecting both oscillatory and abrupt
power system transients.
Potential applications of this method include online analysis
of mode propagation, dynamic coherency, and the post-mortem
evaluation of disturbances. Further extensions and refinements
in the algorithms are, however, needed to reduce the effects of
numerical errors in the technique. Algorithms are also needed
that provide a local implementation of the Hilbert transforma-
tion for online applications.
The method is expected to have various applications in
dynamic analysis, including the determination of instability
and the online assessment of damping. In addition, the analysis
of the instantaneous relative phase between IMFs can be used
to determine time-dependent mode shapes associated with
the IMFs and result in improved characterization of coherent
dynamic modal interaction.
Further studies are needed to improve the ability of the
method to more clearly specify the nature of modal compo-
nents involved in the oscillations.
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A. R. Messina (M’85–SM’05) received the M.Sc. degree (Honors) in electrical
engineering from the National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico, Mexico City, in
1987, and the Ph.D. degree from Imperial College, London, U.K., in 1991.
Since 1997, he has been a Professor at the Center for Research and Advanced
Studies (Cinvestav), Mexico. From 2005 to 2006, he was a Research Associate
at Arizona State University, Tempe.
Vijay Vittal (M’82–SM’87–F’97) received the B.E. degree in electrical engi-
neering from B.M.S. College of Engineering, Bangalore, India, in 1977, the
M.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, in 1979,
and the Ph.D. degree from Iowa State University, Ames, in 1982.
He served on the faculty of the Department of Electrical and Computer En-
gineering at Iowa State University from 1982 to 2004. He is currently the Ira A.
Fulton Chair of the Electrical Engineering Department, Arizona State Univer-
sity, Tempe.
Dr. Vittal received the 1985 Presidential Young Investigator Award and the
2000 IEEE Power Engineering Society Outstanding Power Engineering Edu-
cator Award. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.
Daniel Ruiz-Vega (M’03–SM’04) received the B. E. degree from the Univer-
sidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico City, Mexico, in 1991, the M.Sc. de-
gree from the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN), Mexico City, in 1996, and
the Ph.D. degree from the University of Liège, Liège, Belgium, in 2002, all in
electrical engineering (power systems).
He is currently a Professor with the Graduate Program in Electrical Engi-
neering, SEPI-ESIME-Zacatenco, IPN.
G. Enriquez-Harper (M’73–SM’03) received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees,
both in electrical engineering, from Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico City,
Mexico, in 1968 and 1970, respectively.
He is currently a Professor with the Graduate Program in Electrical Engi-
neering, SEPI-ESIME-Zacatenco, IPN, Mexico City, and head of specialized
engineering of Comisión Federal de Electricidad (Mexican utility).