Professional Documents
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2006 IEEE PES Transmission and Distribution Conference and Exposition Latin America, Venezuela
I. INTRODUCTION
Distribution Commercial
distortion, flicker, transients, Sags, Swell; which form the Current Industrial
Disturbances of the
different disturbances with which the Power Quality (PQ) is Quality
Transmission Network Types of
measured. When these exceed, the compatibility levels can Users
cause the erratic functioning or failure of a load or equipment,
Fig. 1. Lack of the PQ carried out in a distribution network.
bringing up three fundamental problems: Non fulfillment of
the parameters of service quality agreed with the user, increase In Fig. 1, the process where the distribution network is
in operational cost by the failure on industrial productive involved, and the electrical installation of the users is shown.
processes, and a safety problem and integrity of persons The legal frame between the electrical distribution company
before the failure on equipment in important facilities such as and the users is the power meter (invoicing) which it is
hospitals, airports, among others. Due to the fact of searching defined as a point of common coupling (PCC). Basically the
for satisfaction of quality needs by the customer, the distribution company is the one responsible of the voltage
distribution company invests resources in disturbance analysis, quality placed in the PCC, as this is the one responsible of
evaluation of user’s installations, and distribution network, generating, transporting and distributing the electrical power.
with the purpose of determining under whose responsibility The voltage quality can be affected specially by issues such
relies the problem detected. Currently the Venezuelan´s laws as: maintenance, design, location of the capacitors, grounding
frame sets several duties and rights, where part of the PQ systems, protection systems, regulating problems and low
parameters is regulated, which protect both the users and the short circuit level, among others.
distribution companies. This paper develops the experience Also, the user is responsible for not introducing
through eight (8) years of the PQ process since the beginning disturbances to the distribution network, which can interfere in
of the research, going through the stage of the attention of other users connected to the same network. Generally, the
claims, until reaching the stage of being into a regulated customer when they see affected the normal functioning of
their loads and the problem is not an evident failure in some
A. Abreu and B. Castellano work in the electric utility “Energía Eléctrica mechanism of the equipment, or variations in the brightness of
de Venezuela (ENELVEN)”, Maracaibo, Zulia State, Venezuela, Operational the lighting system are observed, they put the responsibility
Center “Teolindo Acosta – COTA”, (e-mail: aabreu@enelven.com.ve, previous to a deficiency in the PQ given by the distribution
bcatellano@enelven.com.ve).
1-4244-0288-3/06/$20.00 ©2006 IEEE
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company. The user as the main affected due to the some cases to the residential ones. During the eight (8) years
deficiencies of power quality, can feel one or several of the of research, 202 PQ surveys were developed.
following symptoms: failures, erratic operation, decrease of During the second period of year 2003, the technical
the useful live, fluctuation of the brightness of the lamps, regulations [9] and [10] at National wide (Regulated Market),
overheating in conductors, cables and motors, among others. where the rules about the duties and rights related to the
Due to this reason, the users, specially the ones in the disturbances set forth for the PQ are stipulated. The concept
industrial and commercial sectors, which depend of the of the quality of the Technical Product (TP) where the levels
productive processes, sometimes in continuous periods during voltages, harmonic voltages and flicker is introduced. In this
the 24 hours of the day during all year round, require from the stage, it is stipulated that the users have the right to claim due
Electric Utility, a quality level in a way that their productive to TP problems, and the distribution company shall make an
processes are not affected. aleatory assessment of the different users supported in the
measuring of the electrical parameters.
III. POWER QUALITY REQUIREMENTS
A. Customer Requirements
From the beginning of the electrical systems, the Electric During more than 100 years that ENELVEN has been
Utility have seen the quality focused in time and frequency of distributing electrical power, claims where the user gives
interruptions of the circuit feeders to a medium voltage, the complaints due to fluctuations of the electric service and
regulation of voltage and the fundamental frequency, which damages of the appliances have been attended, which have
for the Venezuelan case is of 60 Hz. No type of disturbance been managed through teams of electric technicians that
was monitored, neither systematically studied, nor did control standardally were limited to check the condition of the
limits legally required exist. The PQ surveys begin in the connections from the distribution transformer to the power
electrical systems of ENELVEN in the year 1997, because of a meter, and sometimes, voltage recorders with paper and ink
need of the petroleum sector due to the injection of current where installed until the time when the voltage registers
harmonic current distortion caused by the power converters. appeared at the beginning of the 90’s. It is as of the year
For research purposes, and meeting other kind of requirements 1997, added to the increase in the use of non linear and
from industries and from the commercial sector, a sensitive loads, when at ENELVEN began to study that some
methodology for the attention of claims was developed by PQ. other causes might have been giving origin to said problems,
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and to look for solutions in a timely and successful way. This
I II III
70 is why the engineering personnel are dedicated to see about
60 the cases that the crew of workers cannot solve.
50 B. Government Regulation Requirements
40 The Government to prove that the power utilities are
30 investing in works and maintenance of the networks
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establishes mechanisms to supervise the technical product
quality. This is made through a government utility regulation
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office which is responsible to look after the compliance of the
0 technical regulations by supervisions. For the Venezuelan
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
case the supervision is only directed or based in the voltage
Fig.2 Amount of PQ site surveys carried out during the period from 1998 to level, voltage harmonic and flicker. In the present time this
2005. requirement of the government utility regulation office is in
the introductory stage at National wide. In Venezuela,
In Fig 2, the evolution of the amount of PQ Surveys carried Technical Product Quality supervising experience only exists
out to the installations of the customer and the distribution in a distribution company located in the Eastern area of
networks is shown. In the same, three (3) stages are shown. Venezuela [13] specifically in the tourist area, there aren’t any
One first stage between the years 1998 – 2001, during this flicker or harmonic voltage problems. They also have the
period the approach of surveys was focused to the research experience in the capital area of Venezuela [14], where flicker
area and to identify large industrial users, who are possible of harmonic voltage problems exist, but in a small amount.
generators of PQ problems. During year 1998, the distribution This shows that the PQ problems depend in a combination of
circuits of a sub - station with petroleum load and other one factors such as the short circuit level, type load among other. It
with industrial load where evaluated. In the year 2000 an should be pointed out that the supervising mechanism, even
aleatory assessment of the installations of the residential and though it is a requirement of the government regulation, shall
commercial users was made. A second stage, during the years be seen by the distribution company as a preventive
2002 – 2004, where what was learned in this previous stage mechanism to detect problems in the network which have not
was implemented, including the assistance to big industries. been detected through the claims of the users. Therefore, this
Finally, the third stage begins in the year 2005, where an supervision shall be seen as a mechanism proper of the
increase of the amount of surveys resulting from optimizing operation of the network.
works in the methodology defined for the execution of the
same, was observed. In this stage it is started to get to the
sectors of the smaller commercial and industrial users, and in
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C. Electric Utility Requirements of several customers, in order to asses the quality of the
The new trend is to keep the customer satisfied with the technical product delivered.
service given, not only selling power but also offering The difference between a claim and supervision is that in
additional services especially to the big customer with high the claim the customer already declares to have a problem and
invoicing levels, which represent a strategy of improvement of in the supervision a search to see if a problem exists will be
customer’s satisfaction. This also helps to know the carried out. The certification and supervision processes are
characteristic of the load and in a preventive way, problems very similar, as in the first one the distribution company
can be detected and the technical product quality that it is sold chooses the customers, and in the second one is the
to them can be certified. With this strategy of the distribution government utility regulation office the one that chooses them.
companies toward the big customers, valuable alliances can be The measuring campaigns are a tool, where through the
established and strategic partners are obtained. monitoring; they can plan the maintenance in the distribution
Therefore, the PQ Process can be differentiated from three network such as it was demonstrated in [13].
(3) different points of view: Claims, Supervisions and
Certification. Next, the three types of processes identified V. POWER QUALITY INDICATORS
from different points of view are described, describing the During the eight (8) years of PQ development in
requirements of the customer, and government regulation ENELVEN, technical standards such as IEEE 1159 [1], IEEE
towards the distribution company, and from this one to the 1100 [2] and IEEE 519 [3] and the series of the IEC 61000 [5]
customer. and [6] were used for the analysis. In Venezuela they only had
the COVENIN 159 [8], were limits are stipulated for the levels
IV. POWER QUALITY PROCESS of low, medium and high voltage. The need to have a National
As a result of combination of the customer’s requirement, standard with the purpose that the other Electric Utility of the
the government and the same distribution companies to cover country can make evaluations in their distribution networks
the needs of its customers, conclude that the PQ in a under the same reference.
distribution company has three (3) processes: answer claims, One of the PQ parameter that has suffered changes has been
quality certify and supervise technical product quality. Next, the flicker with the Pst indicator. Before the curves described
each one of them is described. in [3] were used, then the “Flickermeter” measurement
method set forth in the regulation IEC 61000-4-15 [6] appears.
A. Certification This same regulation undergoes changes in the measurement
This kind of survey can be requested by the customers methodology, which makes that the registries give different
when they require installing a reactive compensation in their Pst values when being injected by the same signal, such as it
system, to make extensions or to confirm the technical product was demonstrated in [12]. This is solved in the year 2003
quality delivered to their facility by the distribution company with the publication of a new version of this standard, being
is within the national and international regulations. Also, this in-force up to date.
type of survey is made by the initiative of a distribution In relation to the harmonic ones the procedure set forth in
company, especially towards the big industrial customers as a the standard IEC 61000-4-7 [6] is used, through the THDv
mechanism to approach and get to know the kind of load. (Total Harmonics Distortion of Voltage), THDi (Total
Harmonics Distortion of Current) and the TDD (Total
B. Claim
Distortion Demand) indicators. Additionally the voltage
This is requested by the customer when he declares to have unbalance indicators are evaluated with the calculation
problems in the electric supply. This process does not only methodology set forth in the standard IEEE 1159 [1].
consist in measuring the electrical parameters and to capture The indicator of the power factor is handled, that, even
the disturbances, but also in determining the cause that arises though it is not a disturbance, it is an important factor in the
such disturbance, to investigate if the same comes from the regulation of the voltage and in the amplification of the
distribution network or from the customers installation, as it is harmonic current. For this reason it is assessed through the
shown in the methodological process shown in Figure 3. The limit (0.9 inductive) stipulated in the technical regulation [9].
importance of this process is that it shows directly the Additional to the limits of the parameters to evaluate its
existence of some problems or a disturbance out of limit, impact the duration in time of the non compliance of the same
shown in a “non normal” behavior of the loads. shall be calculated. Currently, at the level of the technical
C. Supervising regulations and standards only the THDv, THDi, TDD [7] and
Pst [10] indicators are required that the limits should not be
This is a PQ application area, where an aleatory sampling
exceeded in a 95% of the measurement period. For the case of
of different points of the distribution system is made, with the
the voltage regulation in Venezuela a 97% is required through
purpose of detecting disturbance values, out of what it is set
what it is set forth in the technical regulation [10].
forth in the government regulations. Not all the disturbances
For the case of the Power Factor Indicators, Voltage
are regulated, there are only brought up the voltage level, the
Unbalance and Current, there does not exist any reference,
harmonic of voltage and flicker. This kind of measurement
National or International, where the compliance time is
campaign requested by the government utility regulation
stipulated. In the present time, in order to evaluate its impact,
office has as a goal to take a sample of the power sales points
the 95% of the compliance is used as a reference. With respect
to the Transient, Sags and Swell no indicator is handled. At
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world’s level it does not exist uniformity on an indicator for A. Initial Data Collection
this parameter and the ones that exist are based in the The basic information that shall be collected by the PQ
measurement period of one year. The practice, especially in Engineer begins by knowing the problem and type of loads
the case of the surveys for claims, is to evaluate if the that the electrical installation has. Therefore, the subscriber is
registered Transient, Sags or Swell is the responsible of causes given a form to be filled out with the help of their electrical
the failure or erratic operation, studying its origin. maintenance personnel. Also an interview is made where
unknown issues are explained and which the PQ Engineer
VI. DEVELOPED METHODOLOGY shall make:
The methodology proposed mainly includes five stages, x What kind of equipment has problems?.
initial data collecting, and inspection to the electric installation x Is it a sensitive load?.
of the customer, inspection to the distribution circuit, x What sensitivity do those equipment present?.
measurement of the PQ parameters and analysis of the case; x Does the equipment present problems from the time it
this latter allows to propose several recommendations, and to was installed?.
stipulate the causes that can minimize the presence of the x When do these disturbances occur (time/date)?.
disturbance. x Are they recurrent or not?.
As it is observed in Fig. 3, the supervision and certification x Recently they have made changes in the grounding
processes are the simpler ones, as in these ones, only a system of the installation?.
measurement in the point of power sale is made (PCC) and the x Do the installations have motors of great power?.
results are compared with the technical regulations and x Does it observe falls in the brightness of the
standards. If the deviated values result to the stipulated values, incandescent light bulbs?.
the methodology of the claim is applied with the purpose of
determining the cause. B. Inspection of the customer’s electrical installation
Power Quality Site Survey
The three more common main issues that shall be checked
in an electrical installation are:
1) Distribution Transformer Inspection
Certification Claim Supervising
x Visual inspection of the connections.
x “TAP” position.
x Type of connection (Delta or Star).
Initial Data Collection
x Capacity of the transformer.
x Type of transformer.
Inspection of the Customer
Electrical Installation x Impedance.
x Temperature measurement.
Inspection of the x Existence of vibrations.
Distribution Network x Hum detection (possible arching, bad connection).
2) Low Voltage Electrical Panel Inspection
Measurement of the x Visual inspection of connections.
Electrical Parameters in the
Point of Power Sale x Measurement of the impedance of the neutral and
grounding conductor.
x Verification of the phases rotation.
x Is the size of the conductor adequate?.
Comply with
Cumple con lasthe N To Stipulate Recommendations x Hum detection (possible arching, bad connection).
and the carry out the Solution of
Regulation?
Normas ? the Problems x To determine the presence of burning smell (possibly a
bad connection or an overload of the conductor).
Yes
3) Wiring and Grounding System Inspection
x To validate if the grounding design is suitable for that
It is Certified that the Feeding of the installation as is set forth in the National Electric
Installation or Network does not have
Power Quality Problems
Code.
x Visual inspection of the electrodes and connections,
Fig 3. PQ process in a Distribution Company. looking for corrosion signs, or possible disconnection.
x See visual inspection of the connection adjustments.
When a claim is received, the first thing that it is done is to x Current measurement in the electrode grounding
exhaust the site survey stage, with operative units that make a conductor.
checking or revision to the installations of the Electric Utility x Measurement of the grounding impedance.
(e.g., a loose connection, and oil leak in the TX, etc), once that 4) Equipment
the emergency unit determines that it has not found any sign x True RMS hand held with oscilloscope and calculate
that relates the customer’s complaint, then the execution of the THDv, THDi, power factor.
PQ survey is activated. x Heat Tracer.
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