Locating the source of forced oscillations in complex oscillator networks and power grids*

Large-scale power grids are often subjected to forced oscillations originating from various faults or malfunctioning devices acting on the grid. On the long run, such oscillations might damage essential components which can eventually lead to major system failures and blackouts. It is therefore important to be able to locate the source of such forced oscillations in order to identify faulty network elements and mitigate their effect on the grid. With this task in mind, we developed an algorithm based on time-series measurements, that is able to identify both the source of the forced oscillation and its frequency. Importantly, it performs better than currently used methods. The method will be illustrated on synthetic and realistic data set.