Bulk Power System Oscillations Terms and Real-World Events

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Vision

To promote a unified understanding and standardized terminology of power system oscillations — natural, forced, and sub/super synchronous oscillations — by bridging industry experience, academic research, and operational insight.

Mission

To define and standardize terminology for natural, forced, and sub/super-synchronous oscillations across the power systems community by

• Building upon and expanding WECC’s Oscillation Analysis Working Group (OAWG) document to reflect current and emerging grid phenomena.
• Integrating insights from utilities, researchers, and industry practitioners to ensure practical relevance and broad applicability.
• Supporting effective communication and consistent analytical practices for oscillation monitoring, detection, classification, and mitigation.
• Strengthening grid reliability by promoting awareness and understanding of oscillatory behaviors driven by inverter-based resources and control interactions.
• Contributing to evolving standards and best practices that guide real-time monitoring, modeling, and mitigation of power system oscillations.

Scope of Work

The task force will:

• Develop a comprehensive and coherent glossary of key oscillation terms (natural, forced, sub/super-synchronous) to enable consistent use across the power systems community.
• Review and refine existing material from WECC’s OAWG, incorporating new insights and evolving system dynamics and recent event examples.
• Categorize and characterize various types of power system oscillations, including their sources, behaviors, and detection challenges.
• Integrate inverter-based resource considerations, focusing on control-driven oscillations and sub/super-synchronous phenomena.
• Collaborate with subject matter experts across utilities, academia, vendors, and regulatory bodies to ensure broad input and relevance.
• Produce a comprehensive white paper summarizing definitions, classifications, examples, and recommended practices for understanding and addressing oscillations.

Schedule and Timeline

Target Completion: July 2026