New terms are always emerging in the energy business. Like the nacelle discussed on Breaking Energy earlier this week, many in the business are not yet aware of the power of a synchrophasor, which allows smart grid elements to speak to each other through standardized data flows.

Here’s the technical definition:

Synchrophasor aka Synchronized Phasor Measurements

Synchronized phasor measurements (synchrophasors) provide a real-time measurement of electrical quantities from across a power system.

These measurements can be used for control, measurement, and analysis of the power system.

Synchrophasors put measurements from across any portion of the power system on the same, absolute time base.

Measurements include a time stamp that provides an easy method of correlating values from different locations that take different amounts of time to arrive at a common collection point. The power system can be viewed as a whole or compared for different points in real time.

Find out more at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, which offers an overview and some nice system architecture graphics.