Microsemi Corp. has announced its first complete power profile-compliant embedded software to address increased industry demand for synchronization of smart grids and synchrophasors in the power industry. The new software addresses IEEE C37.238-2011 power profile requirements with grandmaster, boundary clock and slave only ordinary clock functionality, while providing industry-leading synchronization performance.
"Our new power profile leverages Microsemi's leadership position in IEEE 1588 and responds to our customers' demand for solutions that bridge traditional communication networks and substations requiring the power profile," said Maamoun Seido, vice president and business unit manager of Microsemi's timing products. "This enhanced software from Microsemi allows both communications and power customers to address the most stringent timing requirements in power system applications."
The evolved solution from Microsemi leverages the company's ZLS30390 IEEE 1588-2008 protocol engine. The software interfaces to Microsemi's time synchronization algorithm and software programmable system synchronizer, such as the ZL3034x and ZL3036x product families.
Microsemi's solution uniquely combines key elements required for smart grid power substations: timing solutions to achieve better than 1 microsecond performance with holdover, phase lock loop (PLL) system synchronizers and precise clock synthesizers. The IEEE 1588 profiles and synchronization algorithms run on a variety of host processor architectures, including Microsemi's SmartFusion™2 system-on-chip (SoC) field programmable gate array (FPGA) which can also be used to perform metering and critical security functions in a synchrophasor. Microsemi's Ethernet PHYs and switches complete the solution by offering highly accurate timestamping, which is essential for high performance synchronization.
With this comprehensive portfolio, customers can implement Microsemi's power profile-compliant solution for smart grid applications and in addition, use the default profile or telecom profile for frequency. This allows customers to support both telecom and power deployments concurrently.
An August 2015 report from Industrial Manufacturing Market Research Reports explores the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global synchrophasors market, with estimated growth at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.4 percent over the period 2014-2019. Microsemi's new solution addresses this expanding market opportunity as well as other applications such as carrier/edge routers and wireless backhaul.
