A timing impairment module for electrical synchrometrology

Accurate time is frequently cited as an enabling requirement for precisely coordinated control systems used in the electrical power system. Methods and technologies to evaluate the impact of impaired time accuracy on these control systems are frequently expensive to build and confined to a laboratory setting. Our focus in this paper is to develop a system to apply timing impairments to electrical sensors in the field. We expect that the value of such a system would be in elucidating potentially negative interactions between interconnected and interdependent measurement and control components as deployed. As such, this paper outlines the design of a new hardware-in-the-loop tool for applying timing impairments to sensors that require accurate time. In addition to the design of the tool, we discuss the challenges and one approach for implementing realistic impairment scenarios that may be comprised of stochastic variations, systematic offsets and accumulating errors.