Professional Documents
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Power Quality
Monitoring
System
Technical Seminar
Abstract – This paper discusses a new concept in power quality
monitoring through the use of digital multimeters specially
designed for use in circuits with nonlinear loads, together with
other intelligent electronic devices and database management
system. These devices allow utilities to monitor and analyze
relevant disturbances in the distribution system.
Interconnected equipment on a high-speed communications
network provides the basis for an electrical power quality
monitoring system. This system is a powerful tool for
evaluating and minimizing the costs of interruptions,
maintenance, and any other influencing factors that may
negatively impact the power system.
Rohit Gunnala
SNIST
28-Feb-11
POWER QUALITY MONITORING SYSTEM
Rohit Gunnala, 07311A0263, EEE – IV/IV
Abstract – This paper discusses a new concept in power PQ events. The second approach involves the installation
quality monitoring through the use of digital
of mitigation equipment that depends on the characteristics
multimeters specially designed for use in circuits with
of the protected device. The costumer usually buys the
nonlinear loads, together with other intelligent
electronic devices. These devices allow utilities to mitigation equipment. The most commonly used mitigation
monitor and analyze relevant disturbances in the equipment is the Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS).
distribution system. Interconnected equipment on a The PQ Monitoring System monitors the quality
high-speed communications network provides the basis of supply of all of its high voltage costumers, as
for an electrical power quality monitoring system. This
well as a sample (200 measuring points) of its medium
system is a powerful tool for evaluating and minimizing
voltage customers. The Power Quality Monitoring System
the costs of interruptions, maintenance, and any other
influencing factors that may negatively impact the monitors both the voltages and the currents.
power system.
2. Power Quality
Key words – Database, Digital Fault Recorders (DFRs),
PQ View Software, Power Quality and Voltage sag. Power quality is the set of limits of electrical
properties that allows electrical systems to function in their
1. Introduction intended manner without significant loss of performance or
life. Table – I shows common Power Quality Indices and
In recent years, Power Quality (PQ) assessment
their main applications.
and improvement has been attracting a growing amount of
attention, as the standard of living increases, and as a result TABLE – I
of the growing dependency on a reliable and continuous Common Power Quality Indices
supply of electricity. The cost of damages caused by PQ S.No. Index Main Application
events has become significantly higher than in the past, 1. Total General purpose,
because of the increased usage of electronic equipment in Harmonic standards
Distortion
the industrial and commercial sectors. Power factor Revenue metering;
2.
Semiconductor switching devices are being mitigating losses
utilized for a wide range of applications in the domestic, 3. Telephone Audio circuit
commercial and industrial sectors. These devices offer influence interference
factor
economical solutions for the optimized use of electrical
4. C message Communications
energy. However, they have nonlinear characteristics, and index interference
thus cause disturbances to the voltage and current 5. IT product Audio circuit
waveforms. At the same time, semiconductor devices are interference; shunt
capacitor stress
sensitive to PQ problems. VT product Voltage distortion index
6.
For the last few years, Power Quality has become
7. K factor Transformer de-rating
an increasingly important issue. Some electric companies
worldwide have initiated monitoring systems and have 8. Crest factor Dielectric stress
begun tackling Power Quality related problems. When Unbalance 3-phase circuit balance
9.
tackling PQ problems, there are two main approaches: The factor
first deals with the planning and manufacturing of
electrical equipment, which is designed and manufactured
according to standards that ensure that it is less sensitive to
10. Flicker factor Incandescent lamp of the PQ along with customer follow-ups to
operation; bus voltage
regulation; sufficiency assess the impacts.
of short-circuit capacity. • Identifying Problem Conditions: Monitoring can
identify problem conditions throughout the system
2.1. PQ Monitoring before they cause widespread customer
complaints, equipment malfunctions and even
PQ monitoring has traditionally been used for problem
equipment failures. Examples include: resonance
solving in industrial, commercial and residential system.
conditions that can cause localized harmonic
Monitoring is installed after a problem has been identified
distortion problems, breaker problems that cause
to characterize the problem and help identify possible
restrikes during capacitor switching, arcing
solutions. PQ monitoring will always be needed for these
conditions due to bad connections and cable
problem-solving applications, but permanent systems are
insulation problems, fault performance problems
starting to reduce the need for portable monitors in many
resulting in an excessive number of voltage sags
applications.
and momentary interruptions and grounding
The objectives for a monitoring program offer information to its customers to help them
determines the choice of measurement equipment and match their sensitive equipment's characteristics
triggering thresholds, the methods for collecting data, the with realistic power quality characteristics.
data storage and analysis requirements, and the overall • Monitoring to characterize specific problems:
level of effort required. Several objectives identified for PQ Many power quality service departments or plant
monitoring are: managers solve problems by performing short-
• Monitoring to characterize system performance: term monitoring at specific customers or at
This is the most general requirement. A power difficult loads. This is a reactive mode of power
producer may find this objective important if it quality monitoring, but it frequently identifies the
has the need to understand its system performance cause of equipment incompatibility which is the
and then be able to match that system performance first step to a solution.
with the needs of customers. By understanding the • Monitoring as part of an enhanced power quality
normal power quality performance of a system, a service: Many power producers are currently
provider can quickly identify problems and can considering additional services to offer customers.
One of these services would be to offer waveform. Characterization of voltage sags
differentiated levels of power quality to match the involves a plot of the rms voltage versus time.
needs of specific customers. A provider and Outages can be defined just by duration.
customer can together achieve this goal by Monitoring to characterize harmonic distortion
modifying the power system or by installing levels and normal voltage variations requires
equipment within the customer's premises. In steady-state sampling with trending of the results
either case, monitoring becomes essential to over time. It may be prohibitively expensive to
establish the benchmarks for the differentiated monitor all the different types of power quality
service and to verify that the utility achieves variations at each location.
contracted levels of power quality. • The priorities for monitoring should be
determined up front based on the objectives of the
3.1. What to Monitor?
effort. Projects to benchmark system performance
Power quality encompasses a wide variety of should involve a reasonably complete monitoring
conditions on the power system. Important disturbances effort. Projects designed to evaluate compliance
can vary in duration from very high frequency impulses with IEEE Std. 519-1992 for harmonic distortion
caused by a lightning stroke, to long-term over voltages levels may only require steady-state monitoring of
caused by a regulator tap switching problem. harmonic levels. Other projects focused on
specific industrial problems may only require
• The range of conditions that a power quality monitoring of rms variations, such as voltage sags
instrument must characterize creates problems or momentary interruptions.
both in terms of the monitoring equipment
complexity and in the data collection 3.2. Where to Monitor?
TABLE – II
Monitoring requirement for different types of power quality variations
S.No. Type of power quality variation Requirements for monitoring Analysis and Display
Requirements
1 Voltage regulation and unbalance Three phase voltages Trending
. rms magnitudes Statistical evaluation of voltage
Currents for response of equipment levels and unbalance
2 Harmonic Distortion 3-phase voltages and currents Individual waveforms and FFTs
. Waveform Characteristics Statistical characteristic of
harmonic levels
3 Voltage sags, swells and short 3-phase voltages and currents for each Waveform plots and rms vs time
. duration interruptions event that is captured plots with pre- and post-events
Rms resolution of one cycle or better information included
during the rms vs time events and for Evaluation of power conditioning
triggering equipment performance during
events
Primary objective is to characterize power quality 3.3. Selecting the monitoring equipment
on primary distribution feeders. Therefore, feeder circuit
There are many different types of monitoring
near the sub-station is the best place to locate monitoring
equipment that form part of a power quality monitoring
equipment.
project. We find four basic categories of equipment
However, it is not realistic to assume that three
particularly useful:
sites selected on any feeder can completely characterize
power quality. More commonly, a typical monitoring • Digital Fault Recorders: These may already be in
project has objectives that involve characterizing the power place at many substations. DFR manufacturers do
quality that is actually being experienced by customers on not design the devices specifically for power
the distribution system. In this case, we prefer monitoring quality monitoring. However, a DFR will typically
at actual customer service entrance locations on the feeder trigger on fault events and record the voltage and
because it includes the effect of step down transformers current waveforms that characterize the event.
supplying the customer. Data collected at the service This makes them valuable for characterizing rms
entrance can also characterize the customer load current disturbances, such as voltage sags, during power
variations and harmonic distortion levels. Monitoring at system faults. DFRs also offer periodic waveform
customer service entrance locations has the additional capture for calculating harmonic distortion levels.
advantage of reduced transducer costs. Frequently, the Figure 3 depicts the actual DFRs found in
monitoring instrument obtains voltages by direct substations.
connection, while the metering CTs provide current
measurements.
A good compromise approach is to monitor at the
substation and at selected customer service entrance
locations. The substation is important because it is the
point of common coupling for most rms voltage variations.
The voltage sag experienced at the substation during a
feeder fault is experienced by all the customers on other
feeders supplied from the same substation bus. Customer
equipment sensitivity and location on a feeder together
determine the service entrance locations for monitoring.
For instance, it is valuable to have a location immediately
downline from each protective device on the feeder.
instruments to have transient monitoring
capabilities.
• Special-Purpose Power Quality Monitors: This
instrument features monitoring of three-phases
and current plus neutral. A 14-bit A/D board
provides a sampling rate of 256 points per cycle
for voltage, and 128 points per cycle for current.
The high sampling rate allowed detection of
voltage harmonics as high as the 100th in order
and current harmonics as high as the 50th. Most
power quality instruments can record both
triggered and sampled data. Triggering should be
based upon rms thresholds for rms variations and
on wave shape for transient variations.
Simultaneous voltage and current monitoring with
triggering of all channels during a disturbance is
an important capability for these instruments.
Power quality monitors have proved suitable for
Figure 3
substation, feeder locations, and customer service
• Voltage Recorders: Power providers use a variety entrance locations.
of voltage recorders to monitor steady-state
3.4. Easing Data Collection and Analysis
voltage variations on distribution systems. We are
encountering more and more sophisticated models The data collected during the PQ monitoring was
fully capable of characterizing momentary voltage enormous, considering the technology available to us at the
sags and even harmonic distortion levels. project's onset. Its analysis would have been an all but
Typically, the voltage recorder provides a trend insurmountable task without a software system for
that gives the maximum, minimum, and average automatically characterizing measured events and storing
voltage within specified sampling window (for the results in a well-defined database. PQView® is the tool
example, 2 seconds). With this type of sampling, which is developed to pull together all of the facets
the recorder can characterize a voltage sag involved in that and other monitoring projects. Figure 3
magnitude adequately. However, it will not shows the screenshot of PQView® Software. Power
provide the duration with a resolution less than Quality Diagnostic System (PQDS) is a general purpose
two seconds. tool being developed by Electrotek Concepts and funded
• In-Plant Power Monitors: It is now common for by EPRI that helps a utility organize the data collection,
monitoring systems in industrial facilities to have processing, and analysis tasks associated with power
some power quality capabilities. These monitors, quality issues. It should orchestrate a much more efficient
particularly those located at the service entrance, power quality investigation, allowing a power provider
can be used as part of a utility monitoring better customer support with fewer work forces. A PQDS
program. Capabilities usually include wave shape user will be able to use various modules to help conduct a
capture for evaluation of harmonic distortion case study with the results being stored in an Investigation
levels, voltage profiles for steady-state rms Database.
variations, and triggered wave shape captures for
voltage sag conditions. It is not common for these
PQView®'s data manager module, the data analysis tasks
can be performed by a server computer that accepts remote
instructions from a World Wide Web browser such as
Netscape™ or Microsoft's Internet Explorer™ By using a
web browser, PQView® becomes a multi-platform
application, being able to cross boundaries based on
incompatible operating systems.
Conclusion