An Over-view of Power Quality

Akash Kewal Ram

Engineer Sales
AREVA T&D Pakistan Private Limited

Karachi, 28th January 2009

What is Power Quality??

The term power quality means different things to different people

the normal operation of electrical equipment which you can

depend on to keep your household & business running
properly and efficiently

If electrical equipment operates correctly and reliably without

being damaged or stressed, we would say that the electrical
power is of good quality

any deviation from normal voltage source can be classified as

a power quality issue

When power quality is affected you may notice a brief

interruption of power such as the blinking of your computer or
dimming of your lights
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What is Power Quality??

A utility may define power quality as reliability and show statistics
demonstrating that its system is 99.9 percent reliable

A manufacturer of load equipment may define power quality as

those characteristics of the power supply that enable the
equipment to work properly

Power quality is ultimately a consumer-driven issue

Any power problem manifested
in voltage, current, or frequency
deviations that results in failure
or misoperation of customer
equipment
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A simple example
A standard 100-watt light bulb requires 230 V to produce the
designed light output. If the voltage drops to 207 V (-10%), the
light bulb still works but puts out less lumens and is dimmer. If
the voltage is removed as during a power outage, the light goes
out. If however the voltage rises to 253 V (+10%), the light bulb
will produce more lumens than it was intended to.
This may result in:

causing overheating and stress on filament will reduce life

increased need for air conditioning
Variation of lumens output not desirable
Increased power consumption

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Power Quality Self Assessment

Flickers
Equipment damage
Failure of data processing / electronic
equipments

Computer lockups
Problem with switching of high loads
Overheat neutrals
Nuisance tripping
Utility metering problems
Electricity outage
IEC 6100-4-30 (PQ measurement standard)
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Ideal Power Quality

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Poor Power Quality

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Cost of Poor Power Quality

Electrical Disturbances cost $26 b to US companies (Per year)

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Power Quality as per IEC 61000-2-4

IEC 61000-2-4 lays down what is considered as power quality
criteria with regard to certain types of electrical power
distribution systems.
According to this approach power quality may be co-related
with four topics:

Voltage
Frequency
Harmonic distortion
Power factor

AREVA T&D Presentation (long version)

Power Quality & Voltage

The impact of voltage variations is to cause higher energy
consumption.

For a given MW of power rating, the current drawn goes up

inversely in proportion to the voltage - drop in voltage would
result in increased current

increased current causes increase in IR losses of the

network. For ex: a 20% drop in voltage would increase the
losses in the network by 56%

increased current contribute to increasing the voltage drop

hence intensifying the problem

Drop in efficiency of motors - characteristics of motors are

such that a drop in voltage will mean a higher energy
consumption to do the same job

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Power Quality & Voltage

variations in voltage are a frequent occurrence in power
distribution networks.

voltage drop could be as much as 40% of the rated value

increasing corresponding IR losses by 277% - results in
increased energy wastage and higher power demand
Voltage variation:
1. factors arising from transmission & distribution of power
2. within a network due to the characteristics of the loads
Other Voltage problems:
1. Under or over voltage
2. Dips and surges
3. Voltage impulses
4. Wave shape faults
5. Voltage swells
6. Blackouts, etc
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Power Quality & Voltage

Electricity Act 1937 voltage variation 12.5% for
MV & 5% for LV

IEC - voltage variation 6% for MV & 5% for LV

Most of motors are manufactured to operate in
tolerance of 5% (IEC) to 10% ( NEMA/USA)

Types of voltage variations:

1. Short term (may last up to 10 sec or less)
2. Exceeding 10 sec or up to hours

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Power Quality & Voltage

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Power Quality & Frequency

variations can occur, due to the load levels on the
electricity supply system

a highly overloaded power system will experience a

drop in frequency.

Mismatch in different section of a grid can cause

power quality and power supply problems particularly,
when it is important to have an integrated and
interconnected grid

Impact on energy conservation is less than other

other parameters

more stable than the voltage

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Power Quality & Harmonics

due to feedback of harmonic currents from non linear loads

is a form of electrical pollution on the network

The presence of harmonic distortion has a
significant impact in increasing energy
consumption

iron loss is also a function of the power of the

frequency - presence of higher frequency
components increases it, hence energy
consumption will go up and this is of particular
importance in the distribution transformer whose
all day efficiency could be significantly reduced
because of this aspect.
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Power Quality & Harmonics

high losses increased temperature - faster ageing

of the insulation

increased IR losses depends on skin effect - the

phenomenon causes over heating - increasing the
amount of energy consumption

Allowable limit of voltage harmonic (5%) & current

harmonic (10%)

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Effects of Harmonics
On Induction Motors
Power consumption increases
Thermal Losses
Voltage harmonics causes extra losses in direct line
connected motors

The 5th harmonics creates a counter rotating field, where

as the 7th harmonic creates a rotating field beyond the
motors synchronous speed. The pulsating torque causes
wear and tear on couplings and bearing

3% voltage distortion is permitted for Explosion Proof

Motors as per EN60034-2o

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Effects of Harmonics
Miscellaneous Effects
Capacitor failure
Thermal Losses reduced life
Faulty operation of fuse and circuit breaker
Unbalance, Distribution Transformers and Neutral Currents
Increased stray losses in transformer resulting increase in iron, copper or
eddy, de-rating

Increased losses in generator/multiple zero crossing affect the timing of the

voltage regulator, causing interference and operation instability

Incorrect recording by utility meters

Miss operation of drives
Interferences in computer/telephone
Increased maintenance cost

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Power Quality & Power Factor

Power factor
measured as a ratio of active energy to apparent energy over
a specified time period

ideal power factor is unity - cannot be achieved due to the

nature of loads used e.g. inductive & nonlinear loads

lower power factor means more current drawn for the same
load - causes increase in apparent power demand, i.e., kVA
demand & increases IR losses

more system capacity is needed to supply the same load

lower power factor results in higher energy consumption
lowering of power factor also causes voltage drop

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Losses Due to Power Quality

In general

A rectangular supply voltage provokes 20% increase

in losses

A supply voltage with THDV* = 10% results in

additional 6% losses

Transformer losses increase 10 to 15%

De-rating of generator will be 10%
Increase in capital cost due to over sizes of
equipment

* total harmonic distortion value

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Conclusion
The perfect power supply would be one that is always
available within voltage & frequency tolerances and
has pure noise free sinusoidal wave shape.

The Power Quality issues such as voltage variations,

frequency variations, harmonic distortions and power
factor combine together to reduce the overall
operating efficiency of electrical networks and also
results in increased power supply demand,
unnecessary wastage of energy and malfunctioning /
damage of equipment.

Electric power is food of electric equipment, if food is

healthy than equipment is healthy.

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Causes of blackouts
The overhead and underground lines that deliver electricity
to you every day are exposed to:

Weather, trees, animals, vehicles and people. Events that

commonly impact power quality Lightning strikes

Wind and heavy rain that cause objects to be blown onto

the exposed lines
Trees or limbs falling onto the power lines

Small animals / vermins that get onto the power lines or

into ground mounted equipment;

Cars that run off the road and hit power poles and
ground mounted equipment;

Construction companies that accidentally dig into the

underground lines while building new homes or offices

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Occurrence of PQ Problems

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BLACKOUT: Total loss of commercial power

DROPOUT: A discrete voltage loss
SAG: (complete or partial) for a very short period of time (milliseconds) constitutes a
dropout.
FLUCTUATION: A surge or sag in voltage amplitude, often caused by load switching
or fault clearing.
HARMONIC: A sinusoidal component of an AC voltage that is a multiple of the
fundamental waveform frequency.
IMPULSE: Transient voltage or current condition of positive or negative amplitude.
NOISE: An undesirable signal which is irregular yet oscillatory that is super imposed
on the desired signal. See common mode noise and normal mode noise.
OUTAGE: An outage is a long-term power interruption.
OVERVOLTAGE: A voltage greater than the rating of a device or component.
SAG: A reduction in a voltage envelope. The duration is usually from one cycle to a
few seconds. Usually, sags are caused by fault clearing or heavy load startup.
SURGE: A short-term positive change in amplitude of a voltage.
TRANSIENT: A high amplitude, short duration impulse superimposed on the normal
voltage or current.
NONLINEAR LOAD: Electrical loads in which the instantaneous current is not
proportional to the instantaneous voltage, or, effectively, the load impedance varies
with voltage.
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