Overview
Nothing is known about the state of the power system except as the result of a measurement. It follows that measurements – especially ones that can claim to be scientific – are important. According to measurement theory, a scientific measurement is one based on a mathematical model that represents the way we think the universe works. The PMU should be in that category, and would be the first truly scientific measurement made in the power system. The talk will explore enough measurement theory – including a refresher on the fundamentals of the sinusoid and the phasor – to show that the PMU is a simple – and even elegant – measurement. However, the simplicity of the PMU has been obscured by a series of documentary standards written since 2005. The talk will also invite students to identify some of the lack of clarity in the thinking behind the
documentary standards.
Speaker Biography
Dr. Harold Kirkham obtained his BSc and MSc from Aston University in the UK and his PhD from Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. He has worked mainly on measurements in the power system. At American Electric Power, he was responsible for the data system at the Ultra-High Voltage research station in Indiana. After that he worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, where he managed a DOE project researching measurements and communications for the power grid.
From 2009 until 2021, he was at the DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. He is active in IEEE PES and the Instrumentation and Measurement Society, and is chair of a working group revising Standard 1459—the standard
that defines the measurement of power and reactive power.
His book, written with co-authors in New Zealand, Germany, England, Ireland, and the US, is presently at Wiley being prepared for publication. Its title will probably be “Measuring the Grid: mysteries explained.”