Power Quality Monitoring Aspects, Need & Benefits

Dr. R Venkatesh, President Power Quality Solutions

EPCOS India Pvt. Ltd.
Introduction
The term Power Quality has been used to describe the extent of variation of the voltage,
current and frequency on the power system. Most power apparatus made over a decade back
could operate normally with relatively wide variations of these parameters. However, equipment
added to power system in recent years generally is not tolerant to these variations for two main
reasons. First one is that design tolerances have been going down in a competitive market and
second one is the increasing use of sophisticated electronic controls.

The problem is

aggravated by the deteriorating quality of power due to increasing number of non-linear loads,
switching devices etc.

Hence, system disturbances, which were tolerated earlier, may now cause interruption to
industrial power system with a resulting loss of production and this could be substantial with
greater stress on productivity & quality now.

Especially for a developing country like India, power quality is of prime importance considering
the need for energy conservation. It is a paradox that some of the energy conserving devices
themselves is the reason for some of the power quality problems. It is a well-established fact
that energy conservation and power quality are strongly linked. Improvement in power quality
helps reduce the losses in the system and in the individual equipment.

Lack of institutional support has been a major impediment to improving power quality. Some of
the institutional barriers (issues) today to the improvement of power quality are the following.

Difficulty in quantifying the cost of (poor) power quality and costing of power conditioning
devices.

Lack of power quality data (lack of adequate & appropriate monitoring devices and data
base)

Lack of adequate Standards & Guidelines

Inappropriate utility regulations & Tariff structure

Lack of awareness amongst various players

Costing Of Poor Power Quality

A major hurdle in the improvement of power quality is the lack of clear understanding of the
implications of poor power quality and the quantification of effects of poor power quality.

In most cases what is considered as the cost of poor power quality is just the penalty / tariff to
be paid for not meeting the norms for power quality. Though in principle this is correct,
considering the fact that most utility regulations do not adequately capture the total cost of poor
power quality, this leads to a wrong picture. Also with the hidden costs, mainly in the form of
subsidized tariffs, even some well-laid out utility regulations do not capture the actual cost of
power quality.

Some of the effects of poor power quality are:

Increased currents & losses in the system

Lower Energy efficiency of equipment & systems

Blocked capacity / Higher Investment

Additional heating and lower reliability / life of equipment

Premature failure of equipment

Mal-function of equipment

Poor operational efficiency

Poor quality of products manufactured

It is not realized that apart from tariff related costs there are a lot of direct benefits associated
with better power quality. These include increased productivity, better quality of production,
enhanced reliability and life of equipment, reduced maintenance costs, savings in energy etc. In
many cases the direct benefits may be larger than the savings affected on electricity. In some
cases the tariff related costs could be much more than the actual cost of power quality (direct
benefits), and this could lead to installation of inappropriate power conditioning devices.

The first step in improving power quality has to be evolving norms for quantifying the cost of
(poor) power quality using techniques that have a holistic approach and capture the true cost of
power quality.

A basic requisite for costing (quantification) of poor power quality and also for the formulation of
proper standards, guidelines & regulations is the measurement of power quality and the
availability of power quality data. PQ variations such as momentary interruptions, voltage sags,
switching transients and harmonic distortion can impact customer operations, causing
equipment damage and significant costs in lost production and down time. Electric utilities must
be able to characterize and assess the system performance at all levels of the system.
Especially in a deregulated environment it is very important to assess the system performance
and identify the sources of power quality problems as to plan system improvements and also to
track performance indices.
Power Quality Monitoring
The basic questions associated with the monitoring of power quality are

Why monitor?

What to monitor?

What are the limits?

When to monitor?

Where to monitor?

How to monitor?

Who should monitor?

What to do with data?

Why Monitor? : Need for monitoring & various applications of monitoring.

PQ monitoring has traditionally been used for problem solving in industrial, commercial and
residential systems. PQ monitoring is becoming an integral part of overall system performance
assessment.

Benefits of PQ monitoring include

Understanding PQ & reliability: The monitoring system permits the utility to characterize the
system performance in terms of its impact on customer equipment. Customers are
increasingly concerned about this as deregulation takes over and there may be less
incentive for the distribution company to provide the levels of PQ that are required for proper
operation of the customers facility.

Prioritizing system improvements: Utilities traditionally prioritize capital expenditures and

system maintenance based on solving system problems and handling system growth. These

expenditures are also related to maintaining an acceptable level of reliability. A more

customer driven approach to prioritizing system expenditures is based on the cost of system
disturbance to customers. Prioritizing system expenditures based on end-user costs has the
objective of achieving highest level of customer satisfaction. In this period of deregulation
such an objective could be particularly important. Understanding the impacts of PQ
variations on customers requires monitoring of PQ along with customers follow-ups to
assess the impacts.

Identifying problem conditions

: PQ monitoring can identify problem conditions throughout

the system before they cause widespread customer complaints, equipment malfunctions
and even equipment failures. (e.g. resonance conditions, switching transients etc)

Other uses of PQ monitoring include information services to customers, enhanced PQ services

and contracts related to quality of power being delivered, formulation of regulations & standards.

Some of the applications of intelligent PQ monitoring include

Industrial PQ monitoring

Energy & demand profiling with identification of opportunities for energy savings

Harmonic evaluation to identify transformer loading concerns, resonance concerns, maloperation of equipment

Voltage sag evaluation to identify sensitive equipment and possible opportunities for ride
through solutions

Power factor correction evaluation to identify proper operation of capacitor banks,

resonance conditions, etc.

Motor starting evaluation to identify switching problems, inrush current concerns etc.

Power system performance assessment

Equipment performance trends, correlation with system performance trends and

identification of conditions that may need attention

Voltage sag characterizing and assessment to identify the cause of voltage sags and
examining mitigation techniques.

Capacitor switching monitoring to characterize switching transients.

Performance indices calculation and reporting for system performance benchmarking and
for prioritizing of system maintenance and improvement investments.

Capacitor performance assessment

Transformer loading for loss of life, harmonic loading impacts etc.

Feeder load monitoring and predictive assessment of future loads.

What to monitor?
The most important aspect of PQ monitoring is to evaluate the various indices and track them
on a continuous basis. The indices include power quality indices and reliability indices.

Power quality indices include parameters such as power factor (displacement & distortion),
Harmonics (THD, TDD, Harmonic spectrum, crest factor), sags & swells, transients, unbalance,
sequence components, neutral currents,

Reliability indices include parameters such as SAIFI, SAIDI, CAIFI, CAIDI etc.
What are the limits?
The limits for PQ parameters an be derived based on

Standards (ANSI, IEEE, NEMA, ITIC, CBEMA, IEC, AS, CE, FCC)

Utility regulations (Monetary & Non-Monetary)

Statutory compliances

Customer requirements. More than standards and regulations, this is the most important

aspect. The customer requirements ultimately determine the quality of power that is acceptable
as what is good enough for a arc furnace may not be god enough for a adjustable sped drive
and what is good enough for a drive may not be good enough for a computer center.
When to monitor?
PQ monitoring can be carried out at various points in time.

Before installation of plant / Equipment: It is highly recommended to monitor PQ before

installation any new equipment (especially sensitive equipment or non-linear loads). Tis
will help ensure compatibility of the equipment to the system conditions.

Before expansion: To check the impact of changes in system impedances and ensure
that the power quality is god even with expansion.

After expansion: to check the performance of the pant under new conditions.

After problem occurrence / suspect: for identifying the root cause.

Annually / Periodically: As a performance monitoring of system and power conditioning

devices.

Formulation of guidelines: To help understand the existing PQ level and formulate

standards and for costing poor power quality.

Continuously: Is the best method to monitor energy loss, equipment performance etc.
and plan energy saving measures, equipment performance measure etc.

Where to monitor?
It is important to monitor PQ at appropriate locations and some of the possible locations are:

Close to sensitive /critical equipment (such as input of CNC machines, )

Close to source of PQ problem (such as input of drives, arc furnaces etc.)

PCC / metering point

Major Nodes / Branches

How to monitor?
A host of PQ monitoring tools is available right from hand held multimeters to advanced
networked monitors based on expert system software. The clear trend in PQ monitoring is to
use a systems approach. The PQ monitoring system should continuously assess the
performance of the system and assist in identifying problems as well as provide information for
long term evaluation of performance. One of the important development areas for PQ
monitoring is the implementation of intelligent systems that can automatically evaluate
disturbances and conditions to make conclusions about the cause of the problem or even
predict problems before they occur.

One could use basic monitors such as multimeters, hand held PQ analyzers, demand meters
etc. or dedicated monitors such as Harmonic analyzer, flicker meter, event/disturbance
recorders, impedance analyzers or advanced monitors such as networked PQ analyzers. The
monitoring equipment could be standalone, integrated or networked depending upon the
monitoring objectives. The measurement / monitoring could be either snap shot, full cycle or
continuous.

While a host of monitoring equipment is available it is important to choose the appropriate

equipment which offers the highest reliability, best features, required accuracy and
performance.

Who should monitor?

Supplier of power

For monitoring contractual obligations

For system performance monitoring & planning improvement

Consumer

For identifying improvement measures

For checking compliance

For monitoring performance of plant

Regulator

To ensure compliance

To formulate standards

Manufacturer of power conditioning solutions

For performance guarantee

For design & development

What to do with data?

While it is essential to collect data, it is important to derive value out of measurement by
intelligent data analysis. While collection and compilation of data is basic, analysis of data such
as trending, limit analysis, correlation etc. is important as they lead to diagnosis and
performance improvement actions.
References
1. Trends in power quality monitoring, Mark McGranaghan, IEEE power engineering review,
October 2001.
2. Understanding power quality problems voltage sags & interruptions, Math H J Bollen,
IEEE press.
3. An integrated approach to power quality improvement, R Venkatesh & S R Kannan, - ET
power tech 2001, Mumbai, India.
4. Solutions to the power quality problem, Prof. Ray Arnold, IEE power engineering journal,
April 2001
5. Power quality issues a distribution company perspective, IEE power engineering journal,
April 2001
6. Monitoring power for the future, Afroz K. Khan, IEE power engineering journal, April 2001
7. Distributed power generation, H lee Willis and Walter G Scott, Marcel Dekker.