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Chapter 2
Power Quality Problems

2.1. Introduction

An electrical power system is defined with it’s fundamental

constituents namely generation unit, transformer unit, transmission

line, load unit. These units have to operate in synchronization with

each other for better quality of power delivery. A fault in a sectional

unit results in the failure of the entire power system network. In an

electrical power system the transmission section operates for

maximum operation and is frequently subjected to various types of

electrical faults.

2.2. Power Quality Problems

Power quality issues are of most concern now-a-days. The wide

spread of electronic equipment, such as information technology

equipment, power electronics such as Adjustable Speed

Drives(ASD),Programmable Logic Controllers(PLC), energy-efficient

lighting, led to a complete change of electric loads nature. These loads

are simultaneously the major causers and major victims of power

quality problems. Due to their non-linearity, all these loads cause

disturbances in the voltage waveform.

Along with technology advance, the organization of world wide

economy has evolved towards globalization and the profit margins of

many activities tends to decrease. The increased sensitivity of the vast

majority of processes (industrial, services and even residential) to PQ

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problems turns the availability of electric power with quality a crucial

factor for competitiveness in every sector. The most critical areas are

the continuous process industry and the information technology

services. When a disturbance occurs, financial losses may happen,

with a consequent loss of productivity and competitiveness.

Although many efforts have been taken by the utilities, some

consumers require a level of PQ higher than provided by modern

electric networks. This implies that some measures must be taken in

order to achieve higher levels of power quality.

2.3. Types of Power Quality Problems

2.3.1. Power Surges

A power surge takes place when the voltage is 110% or more above

normal. The most common cause is heavy electrical equipment being

turned off. Under these conditions, computer systems and other high

tech equipment can experience flickering lights, equipment shutoff,

errors or memory loss.

The possible solutions are surge suppressors, voltage regulators,

uninterruptable power supplies, power conditioners.

2.3.2. High Voltage Spikes

High-voltage spikes occur when there is a sudden voltage peak of

up to 6,000 volts. These spikes are usually the result of nearby

lightning strikes, but there can be other causes as well. The effects on

vulnerable electronic systems can include loss of data and burned

circuit boards.
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The possible solutions are surge suppressors, voltage regulators,

uninterruptable power supplies, power conditioners.

2.3.3. Transients

Transients are potentially the most damaging type of power quality

disturbance that you may encounter. Transients fall into 2 categories.

1. Oscillatory.

2. Impulsive.

The possible solutions are surge suppressors, voltage regulators,

uninterruptable power supplies, power conditioners.

2.3.4. Frequency Variation

A frequency variation involves a change in frequency from the

normally stable utility frequency of 50 or 60 Hz, depending on your

geographic location. This may be caused by erratic operation of

emergency generators or unstable frequency power sources. For

sensitive equipment, the results can be data loss, program failure,

equipment lock-up or complete shut down.

The possible solutions are voltage regulators, power conditioners.

2.3.5. Power Sag

Sag is the reduction of AC Voltage at a given frequency for the

duration of 0.5 cycles to 1 minute’s time. Sages are usually caused by

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system faults, and often the result of switching on loads with high

demand startup currents.

The possible solutions are voltage regulators, uninterruptable

power supplies, power conditioners.

2.3.6. Electrical Line Noise

Electrical line noise is defined as Radio Frequency Interference

(RFI) and Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) and causes unwanted

effects in the circuits of computer systems. Sources of the problems

include motors, relays, motor control devices, broadcast

transmissions, microwave radiation, and distant electrical storms.

RFI, EMI and other frequency problems can cause equipment to lock-

up, and data error or loss.

The possible solutions are voltage regulators, uninterruptable

power supplies, power conditioners.

2.3.7. Short Circuit

A short circuit (or "short") is not normally considered a quality

problem as much as it is a dangerous operational malfunction or

fault. Short circuit refers to a condition where two "hot" lines are

connected directly (or through small impedance) or one "hot" line is

connected directly to ground.

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A short circuit causes very high fault currents to flow through the

wiring and all devices between the point of the short and the incoming

power line. Left unchecked, a short circuit can very quickly lead to

catastrophic overheating, melting and burning of wiring and devices.

The opening of a breaker or the operation of a protective fuse is the

normal means of guarding against damage from shorts circuits. It is

imperative that protective breakers and fuses be of the proper size and

characteristics to avoid the dangers of short circuits. Also see Fault

Clearing.

2.3.8. Blackouts

A power failure or blackout is a zero-voltage condition that lasts for

more than two cycles. It may be caused by tripping a circuit breaker,

power distribution failure or utility power failure. A blackout can

cause data loss or corruption and equipment damage.

The possible solutions are generators.

2.3.9. Undervoltage or Brownout

Undervoltage is a decrease in voltage below 90% of its nominal

value for more than one minute. Undervoltage is sometimes called a

"brownout" although this term is not officially defined. Brownout is

often used when the utility intentionally reduces system voltage to

accommodate high demand or other problems.

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Figure 2.1: Under voltage.

The symptoms of undervoltage can range from none to daily

equipment malfunction or premature equipment failure. Undervoltage

may go unnoticed until new equipment is installed or the electrical

system is otherwise changed and the new combined load depresses

(see Sags) the voltage to a point where symptoms become apparent.

Besides the obvious malfunction of equipment, chronic undervoltage

can cause excess wear on certain devices like motors as they will tend

to run overly hot if the voltage is low.

Undervoltage is generally a chronic problem aggravated by a

number of factors beyond the end user's control. Electric utilities try

to maintain voltage levels delivered to customers at ±5%. However,

factors like weather, high demand and others can cause the utility

voltage to fall within a ±10% range. Even under ideal conditions, most

customers will see a drop in utility voltage levels over the course of the

day as demand begins to increase around 8 AM and peaks around 3

or 4 PM.

Distribution system characteristics can also contribute to

chronically low voltage situations. For example, customers at the end

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of a long line may be subject to a permanent voltage drop due to line

losses on top of the utility voltage variations.

2.3.10. Harmonic

Harmonics are a recurring distortion of the waveform that can be

caused by various devices including variable frequency drives, non-

linear power supplies and electronic ballasts. Certain types of power

conditioners like ferro resonant or constant voltage (CVT) transformers

can add significant harmonic distortion to the waveform.

Waveform distortion can also be an issue with uninterruptible

power supplies (UPS) and other inverter-based power conditioners.

The UPS does not actually add distortion, but because the UPS

digitally synthesizes a waveform, that waveform may be square or

jagged rather than a smooth sine wave.

Figure 2.2: Harmonic.

Symptoms of harmonic distortion include overheating and

equipment operational problems.

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2.3.11. Notching

Notching is a disturbance of opposite polarity to the normal voltage

waveform (which is subtracted from the normal waveform) lasting for

less than one-half cycle. Notching is frequently caused by

malfunctioning electronic switches or power conditioners.

Figure 2.3: Notching.

While it is generally not a major problem, notching can cause

equipment, especially electronics, to operate improperly.

2.3.12. Swell

A swell is the opposite of sag - an increase in voltage above 110%

of nominal for one-half cycle to one minute.

Although swells occur infrequently when compared to sags, they

can cause equipment malfunction and premature wear.

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Figure 2.4: Swell.

Swells can be caused by shutting off loads or switching capacitor

banks on.

2.3.13. Voltage Sags

Voltage sags or voltage dips are brief reductions in voltage,

typically lasting from a cycle to a second, or tens of milliseconds to

hundreds of milliseconds as shown in figure 2.5. Voltage swells are

brief increases in voltage over the same time range. Longer periods of

low or high voltage are referred as ‘under voltage’ or ‘over voltage’

respectively. Voltage sags are caused by an abrupt increase in loads

such as short circuits, faults, starting of electrical motors, turning on

electric heaters, or by an abrupt increase in source impedance,

typically caused by a loose connection. Voltage swells are caused by

an abrupt reduction in load on a circuit with a damaged voltage

regulator, although they are also caused by a damaged or loose

neutral connection.
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Figure 2.5: Typical voltage sag.

Most of the common power disturbances are due to voltage sags.

At a typical industrial site, sags occur frequently at the service line

terminals and equipment terminals. Voltage sags can arrive from the

utility; however, in most of the cases, the majority of sags are

generated inside a building. For example, in residential wiring, the

most common cause of voltage sags is the starting current drawn by

refrigerator and air conditioning motors. Sags do not generally disturb

incandescent or fluorescent lighting, motors or heaters. However,

some electronic equipment lacks sufficient internal energy storage

and, therefore, cannot ride through sags in the supply voltage.

Equipment rides through very brief and deep sags, or longer but

shallower sags. The voltage dip performance varies for different kinds
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of systems (rural versus urban, overhead versus underground). It is

important to include some of these important factors in the

specification of the power quality grades. It is also important to specify

the performance for momentary interruptions. These events are

problems for customers and are not included in most of the

assessments of reliability.

Voltage sags are short duration reductions in RMS voltage, caused

by short circuits, overloads, and starting of large motors. The interest

in voltage sags is mainly due to the problems caused on several types

of equipment like adjustable speed drives, process control equipment,

and computers. Some of the equipments trip when the RMS voltage

drops below 90% for more than one or two cycles. Voltage sag is not

as damaging to industry as an (long or short) interruption. As voltage

sags are more than interruptions the total damage due to sags are still

larger. Short interruptions and most of the long interruptions

originate in the local distribution network. However, voltage sags at

equipment terminals are due to short circuit faults occurring at

hundreds of kilometers away in the transmission system. Thus voltage

sag is a global problem than an interruption. Reducing the number of

interruptions require improvements on one feeder. Reducing the

number of voltage sags requires improvements on several feeders, and

often even at transmission lines.

An example of voltage sag due to a short circuit fault is shown in

Figure 2.6. The voltage amplitude drops to 20% of the pre-event

voltage for about two cycles. After these two cycles the voltage comes
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back to the pre-sag voltage. This magnitude and duration are the

main characteristics of voltage sag. It is concluded from figure 2.6 that

the magnitude and duration do not completely characterize the sag.

Time in cycles
Figure 2.6: A voltage sag due to a short circuit fault
voltage in one phase in time domain.

During sag voltage contains higher frequency components. Also the

voltage shows a small overshoot immediately after the sag.

Most of the voltage sags are due to short circuit faults. Voltage

sags trips the equipment.

2.4. Voltage Sag Magnitude

The magnitude of voltage sag is determined by several ways. Most

of the existing monitors obtain the sag magnitude from the Root Mean

Square (RMS) voltages. But this situation may change in the future.

There are several alternative ways of quantifying the voltage level. Two
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obvious examples are the magnitude of the fundamental (power

frequency) component of the voltage and the peak voltage over each

cycle or half cycle. As long as the voltage is sinusoidal, it does not

matter whether RMS voltage, fundamental voltage, or peak voltage is

used to obtain the sag magnitude. But during voltage sag this is often

not the case. Knowing the magnitude and duration of a voltage sag, it

can be represented by a point in a magnitude-duration plane. This

way of characterizing sag has been shown to be extremely useful for

various types of studies as it describes both equipment and system

performance.

2.5. Harmonics

Ideally, voltage and current waveforms are perfect sinusoids.

However, due to the increased popularity of electronic and other non-

linear loads, these waveforms are often distorted. This deviation from

a perfect sine wave can be represented by harmonic sinusoidal

components with a frequency that is an integral multiple of the

fundamental frequency as shown in figure 2.7. Thus, a pure voltage or

current sine wave does not have distortions and harmonics, and a

non-sinusoidal wave have distortions and harmonics. To quantify the

distortion, the term Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) is used. The term

expresses the distortion as a percentage of the fundamental (pure

sine) voltage and current waveforms.

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Figure 2.7: Distorted waveform of fundamental and 3rd harmonics.

Distorted waveform (50 Hz = Fundamental + 3rd Harmonic)

Fundamental frequency = 50 Hz, 3rd Harmonic =150 Hz.

2.6. Problems of Harmonics

At present harmonics are problems because they cause increased

losses in the customer and utility power system components.

Transformers are sensitive to this problem and are to be derated to

50% capacity while feeding loads with extremely distorted current

waveforms (current total harmonic distortion above 100%). Loads with

highly distorted current waveforms also have a very poor power factor;

thus loads use excess power system capacity and cause overloading.

Voltage source electronic adjustable speed drives often have a total

power factor of approximately 65% because of the highly distorted

current. This total power factor is corrected to approximately 85%

using line-side chokes (reactors) on the drive. The chokes limit the
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rate of rise and the peak value of the line current, reducing the

current THD. In addition, current harmonics distort the voltage

waveforms and cause voltage harmonics. Voltage distortion affects

sensitive electronic loads, electric motors and capacitor banks. In

electric motors, negative sequence harmonics (i.e. 5th, 11th and 17th)

produce rotating magnetic fields as shown in the figure 2.4. These

fields rotate in a direction opposite to the fundamental magnetic field

and cause not only overheating but also mechanical oscillations in the

motor load system.

Figure 2.8: Balanced 3-phase voltage with 3-phase harmonic.

Single phase non-linear loads, like personal computers, electronic

ballasts and other electronic equipment, generate odd harmonics (i.e.

3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, etc.). The troublesome harmonics for single phase

loads are the 3rd and odd multiples of the 3rd harmonics (9th, 15th,
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etc.). These harmonics are called “triplens”. Since the phase ‘A’ triplen

harmonics, phase ‘B’ triplen harmonics and phase ‘C’ triplen

harmonics are in phase with each other, they add on the neutral

conductor of a 3-phase 4-wire system. This can overload the neutral if

it is not sized to handle this type of load.

There is a chance of a harmonics problem when non-linear loads

are a considerable part of the total load (more than 20%),. Another

consideration is the amount of current distortion produced by the

non-linear loads. Electronic ballasts, for example, have current THD

ranging from 6% to 100%. It is important to avoid electronic ballasts

with more than 20% current THD. Pulse Width Modulation Adjustable

Speed Drives(PWMASD) typically produce nearly 100% current THD,

which can be reduced to less than half by installing inexpensive 3%

impedance line-side reactors (chokes).

Another important way to check harmonic currents is by

measuring the current in the neutral of a 3-phase 4-wire system. If

the neutral current is considerably higher than the value predicted

from the imbalance in the phase currents then there is a good

possibility of presence of triple harmonics.

Harmonics mean trouble if the power system is not designed to

handle them. High harmonic neutral currents are a problem if the

neutral is not properly sized. Current harmonics are not a problem to

a transformer if it is derated appropriately. Even the voltage

distortions below 8% THD at the point of utilization is acceptable as

long as sensitive equipment is not affected. However, it is always

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important to be aware of the presence of harmonics and minimize

them by purchasing low distortion electronic ballasts and reactors for

Pulse Width Modulation Adjustable Speed Drives. This not only

checks the harmonics but also improves the power factor and saves

energy by reducing losses on power system components. In addition, if

there is a considerable increase in non-linear loads then it is

important to check power system components to prevent problems.

2.7. Electrical Faults

In electrical power systems consisting of generators, transformers,

transmission lines and distribution circuits, most of the faults, about

two-thirds, are liable to occur in the transmission lines.

A fault in a circuit is any failure which interfaces with the normal

flow of current. The faults occur in power system due to insulation

failure of equipments, flashover of lines initiated by a lightning stroke,

due to permanent damage to conductors and towers or due to

accidental faulty operations. The faults can be broadly classified into

shunt faults(short circuits) and series faults(open conductors).

The shunt fault involves short circuit between conductor and

ground or short circuit between two or more conductors. The shunt

faults are characterized by increase in current and fall in voltage and

frequency. Shunt faults are classified as follows:

1. Single line to Ground fault (LG fault).

2. Line to Line fault (LL fault).

3. Double line to Ground fault (LLG fault).

4. Three phase fault.

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The series fault may occur with one or more broken conductors

which creates open circuits. It also happens in circuits controlled by

fuses or circuit breakers which do not open all phases, i.e., one or two

phases of the circuit may open and the other phases may be closed.

The series faults are characterized by increase in voltage and

frequency and fall in current in the faulted phase. The series faults

may be classified as open conductor fault and two open conductor

fault.

In the faults mentioned above, three phase fault is a symmetrical

fault and all other faults are unsymmetrical faults. The symmetrical

fault conditions are analyzed on per phase using Thevenin’s theorem

or by using bus impedance matrix. The unsymmetrical faults are

analyzed using symmetrical components.

The relative frequency of occurrence of various types of faults in

the power systems in the order of decreasing severity is as follows:

Three phase faults-5%

Double line to Ground fault-10%

Line to Line fault-15%

Single line to Ground fault-70%

Adequate protection has to be afforded to the power system

components by incorporating relays and circuit breakers, as the faults

may cause interruption in power supply to the consumers; substantial

decrease in voltage and frequency, decrease in stability of parallel

operation, possibility of drop out of generators and separate

generating stations operating in parallel and damage to equipment

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near the short-circuit points. Circuits should be switched out as

warranted by the severity of faults.

2.8. Conclusions

In this chapter several power quality problems like power surges,

voltage spikes, transients, frequency variations, power sags, electrical

line noise, short circuit, black outs, under voltage or brown out,

notching, swell, voltage sags, harmonics and problems of harmonics

are discussed. A brief review of electrical faults is presented.

In the next chapter the pattern classification using ANN, spectral

analysis, spectral filter design and system design are dealt.