The power-grid frequency reflects the balance between electricity supply and
demand. Measuring the frequency and its variations allows monitoring of the
power balance in the system and, thus, the grid stability. In addition, gaining
insight into the characteristics of frequency variations and defining precise
evaluation metrics for these variations enables accurate assessment of the
performance of forecasts and synthetic models of the power-grid frequency.
Previous work was limited to a few geographical regions and did not quantify
the observed effects. In this contribution, we analyze and quantify the
statistical and stochastic properties of self-recorded power-grid frequency
data from various synchronous areas in Asia, Australia, and Europe at a
resolution of one second. Revealing non-standard statistics of both empirical
and synthetic frequency data, we effectively constrain the space of possible
(stochastic) power-grid frequency models and share a range of analysis tools to
benchmark any model or characterize empirical data. Furthermore, we emphasize
the need to analyze data from a large range of synchronous areas to obtain
generally applicable models.Comment: 7 pages; 7 figure