Variants for Constructing Time Scale Synchronization Systems in the Electric Power Engineering

A modern electric grid company, as part of a power facility, operates a significant number of information and technological subsystems, such as: relay protection and automation, automated and distributed process control systems, dispatch control of electrical modes of high-voltage and distribution networks, etc., built on the basis of microprocessor equipment. Most of the existing power facility systems use the UTC time scale for their operation, ensuring a certain accuracy of binding the system time scale to the UTC scale. Over the past decade, new challenges have emerged in terms of traditional methods of organizing the system time scale, such as increasing requirements for the accuracy of synchronization of time scales, as well as insufficient reliability of existing solutions. Thus, it seems reasonable to switch from a set of autonomous time servers at each power facility to a unified and accurate time system for the power grid, establishing the unity of the time scale in all operating subsystems of the electric grid company. This article discusses various options for building a unified and accurate time system for an electric grid company based on existing communication networks.