Application of Signal Processing in Power Quality Monitoring

The definition of power quality according to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) dictionary [159, page 807] is that “power quality is the concept of powering and grounding sensitive equipment in a matter that is suitable to the operation of that equipment.” In recent years, power quality (PQ) has become a significant issue for both utilities and customers. PQ issues and the resulting problems are the consequences of the increasing use of solid-state switching devices, non-linear and power electronically switched loads, unbalanced power systems, lighting controls, computer and data processing equipment, as well as industrial plant rectifiers and inverters. These electronic-type loads cause quasi-static harmonic dynamic voltage distortions, inrush, pulse-type current phenomenon with excessive harmonics, and high distortion. A PQ problem usually involves a variation in the electric service voltage or current, such as voltage dips and fluctuations, momentary interruptions, harmonics, and oscillatory transients, causing failure or inoperability of the power service equipment. Hence, to improve PQ, a fast and reliable detection of disturbances and sources and causes of such disturbances must be known before any appropriate mitigating action can be taken. The algorithms for detection and classification of power quality disturbances (PQDs) are generally divided into three main steps: (1) generation of PQDs, (2) feature extraction, and (3) classification of extracted vectors (Uyara et al., 2008; Gaing 2004; Moravej et al., 2010; Moravej et al., 2011a). It will be evident that the electricity supply waveform, often thought of as composed of pure sinusoidal quantities, can suffer a wide variety of disturbances. Mathematical equations and simulation software such as MATLAB simulink (MATLAB), PSCAD/EMTDC (PSCAD/EMTDC 1997), ATP (ATPDraw for Windows 1998) are usually used for generation of PQ events. To make the study of Power Quality problems useful, the various types of disturbances need to be classified by magnitude and duration. This is especially important for manufacturers and users of equipment that may be at risk. Manufacturers need to know what is expected of their equipment, and users, through monitoring, can determine if an equipment malfunction is due to a disturbance or problems within the equipment itself. Not surprisingly, standards have been introduced to cover this field. They define the types and sizes of disturbance, and the tolerance of various types of equipment to the possible