Lowering renewable energy prices and environmental consciousness are contributing to the increased generation of electrical power at the distribution system level. The long term effect of this additional distributed generation could result in the electrical power grid becoming sectionalized into countless microgrids capable of operating independently from the bulk electrical grid. As this develops, it has become apparent that better control schemes need to be formulated that monitor power locally within a microgrid as well as externally to the main grid. Using phasor measurement units (PMUs) makes it is possible to not only look at the voltage profile, but also use the voltage angles to judge grid stability and perform remedial action schemes such as load shedding and self-healing upon a disturbance. This project demonstrates a design using the Oregon Tech smart grid research laboratory where data obtained from PMUs is used to recognize unintentional islanding, shed load as appropriate, and automatically reconfigure to the optimal operating condition.
