  The statistical characterization of the measurement errors of a phasor
measurement unit (PMU) is currently receiving considerable interest in the
power systems community. This paper focuses on the characteristics of the
errors in magnitude and angle measurements introduced only by the PMU device
(called random errors in this paper), during ambient conditions, using a
high-precision calibrator. The experimental results indicate that the random
errors follow a non-Gaussian distribution. They also show that the M-class and
P-class PMUs have distinct error characteristics. The results of this analysis
will help researchers design algorithms that account for the non-Gaussian
nature of the errors in synchrophasor measurements, thereby improving the
practical utility of the said-algorithms in addition to building on precedence
for using high-precision calibrators to perform accurate error tests.
