Power system state estimation using PMUs with imperfect synchronization

Phasor measurement units (PMUs) are time synchronized sensors primarily used for power system state estimation. Despite their increasing incorporation and the ongoing research on state estimation using measurements from these sensors, estimation with imperfect phase synchronization has not been sufficiently investigated. Inaccurate synchronization is an inevitable problem that large scale deployment of PMUs has to face. In this paper, we introduce a model for power system state estimation using PMUs with phase mismatch. We propose alternating minimization and parallel Kalman filtering for state estimation using static and dynamic models, respectively, under different assumptions. Numerical examples demonstrate the improved accuracy of our algorithms compared with traditional algorithms when imperfect synchronization is present. We conclude that when a sufficient number of PMUs with small delays are employed, the imperfect synchronization can be largely compensated in the estimation stage.