Power Quality (PQ) Concerns for Energy Efficient Economy

INTRODUCTION

Power Quality and Reliability is the key to successful delivery of quality product and uninterrupted operation
of an industry, be it conventional or service sector. It is now even more critical to the industry, pursuing
Energy Efficiency (EE) because of the increasing application of electronic loads and digital controllers which
are sensitive to the quality of power supplied. These can have serious economic consequences and cost
business millions of rupees each year in revenue loss, process improvements, opportunity loss, equipment
failure, electrical hazards like fire and scrapped product. Any such incident reflects adversely in specific
energy consumption (SEC) by an industry. There is a dire need for all concerned to deliberate and act on the
vital issue of power quality and the latest technologies for mitigation and improvement of energy utilisation
efficiency and reliability.

With the concept of automated industrial process, intelligent building setting in, various industrial and
commercial building utilities are getting centralized control with full automation which calls for high degree of
reliable and safe power distribution system. Digital economy demands quality power and while being
sensitive to such power quality environment they themselves are also cause for polluting the power quality
environment.

The world has changed. We are no more in pure sine wave era controlled by linear loads; rather we are
almost fully controlled by non-linear loads. In the world of power electronics, bad power quality phenomenon
can cause malfunctioning of sophisticated equipment. Harmonics, voltage unbalance, voltage sag and flicker
problems, standing waves and resonance – are some of the issues that adversely affect energy
consumption, production and its quality, leading to huge loss in terms of energy, product, service, and
damage to equipment. Thus, it becomes imperative to be aware of quality of power and the deviation of the
quality parameters from the norms or standard to avoid breakdown, service failure or equipment damage.

Fig 1: Various Industrial Equipment affected by poor Power Quality (Source: LPQI Survey)

POWER QUALITY – CONCEPT

How we define PQ is determined by our perspective. This general definition covers both the user’s
perspective and the utility perspective. Power Quality is a set of characteristics of the electrical power supply
and the electrical system. Power Quality is also a set of characteristics of the load and it’s influence on the
supply voltage. Industry requires standards to benchmark and address issues of power quality. Today we
are mainly following American (IEEE Standards) or in some cases European Standards (IEC or EN
Standards). But home grown standards to suit our own environment are a must. Take the case of domestic
inverter – a unique case that only exist here and nowhere else in developed world. Another case of voltage
stabiliser to protect our domestic and sensitive industrial equipment is very unique to our environment.

The recent demand for more efficient use of electricity is impacting Power Quality both at the user level and
the utility level. The correlation between power quality and energy efficiency is not well understood though
energy efficiency drives have now caught serious attention of both the industry and commerce. There is
neither any published study in India on the impact of energy efficiency improvement devices on Power
Quality nor any national product standards that could address the issue. Need is to explore each technology
of device and its impact on Power Quality. Various equipment (see fig 2 below), those are perceived to
contribute to poor power quality environment; though they are governed by national product standards (BIS),
might not have PQ dimension at all. The technologies for investigation could include: Variable Speed Drives
(VSD) for motors, Light dimmers, Fluorescent lamps, LED lamps, Computer power supplies and Power
Factor improvement capacitors /filters, inverters /UPS etc. Recent effort and barriers faced by Bureau of
Energy Efficiency (BEE) and BIS while formulating CFL standards is a pointer to this gap. Need exist for
testing each technology that improves the efficiency of the loads or the electrical system as well has some
positive and negative impact on the power quality or increases the sensitivity of loads to power quality
characteristics.

Fig 2: Various equipment perceived to be sources for power quality problem

Debate surfaces time and again on Electro Magnetic Interference or Electromagnetic Compatibility
(EMI/EMC) issues and Effects on human life. Recently the Union health ministry commissioned the first
large scale study of the effects of radio frequency radiation from mobile phones on humans. With around
930 million (as on Sept 2014) mobile phone subscribers currently in India, and many more using other
appliances like television, computer, inverter based air-conditioners, vacuum cleaner, microwave etc, usually
found with high frequency radiation the fear is that these ‘essentials’ of life may actually be posing a big
health risk because of their electromagnetic fields (EMFs).

Recent times we also have seen that both at IEC level and also at British Standard Level the issue of
electromagnetic compatibility whether for fixed installations or for equipment characteristics have been
addressed in detail through standards like BS - 7671 (2008) specifying requirements for electrical
installations, but such efforts are yet to be taken up at our national standards level. In absence of any
mandatory EMC directive, like in EU (EMC Directive 2004/108/EC), in our country today there is no thrust by
designers on considering system performance requirements from power quality perspective. If this is not
being implemented, potential PQ site problems may surface very quickly post-commissioning. Our old
distribution systems are given make up with latest electronic gizmos but without knowing the effects. Recent
spate of infernos across India should be wake up call. It would be interesting to study or technically
investigate for quantifying the wiring or electrical distribution system losses due to non-linear loads –
harmonics for typical installations in commercial buildings (high rises). Such study might enable us to
disseminate the findings to designers and users of commercial buildings and industries for PQ mitigation
coupled with energy efficiency.

Power Quality (PQ) is attracting increased attention due to the proliferation of power electronic systems in
the market. Power electronic circuits cause distortions in the current and voltage waveforms (popularly
known as harmonic distortion), reduce the power factor and make the conventional measuring instruments
function erroneously. They affect adversely the functioning of other power electronic systems such as
adjustable speed drives (VSD), personal computers, power supplies etc. resulting in failure of circuit
breakers, capacitors and loss of data. Although internationally there have been stringent power quality
standards available from electrical standard organizations like IEEE and IEC, in India, there is no such
standard available from any of the organizations like BIS or CEA or ERCs. Some of the state regulatory
commissions have prescribed few standards regarding supply interruption (SAIDI, SAIFI, CAIDI, CAIFI
indexes), frequency, voltage magnitude and harmonic distortion. However given the poor health of the
utilities and majority approach of business as usual to opt for load shedding to tide over availability crisis, it is
doubtful if they would be interested in pursuing power quality with all eagerness. The business case can best
be described in the fig 3 below:

Fig 3: Utility Business Vs Socio Economic Optimisation

Under the current business as usual arrangement, the utility companies (DISCOMs) in order to maximising
their profits will minimize their costs, in point A, but here the outage costs are high. But the socio-economic
optimal point is in B, where the sum of outage cost and the companies’ cost are at the lowest. May be on the
introduction of Cost of Energy Not Supplied (CENS) through regulatory intervention – the companies will be
better off by balancing their internal costs and quality of supply towards a socio-economic optimum. In any
case, it is a long way to go when one can see in our country a negotiated contract for quality electricity
supply between a utility and a large industrial consumer.

ECONOMIC LOSS DUE TO POOR POWER QUALITY

The massive economic loss that could be suffered by industries is not well understood or captured today at
the industry level. Neither there exist any systematic study. Some time back a Universal Consulting study,
done for Wartsila India, based report (August 2009) indicated that India suffers a staggering loss of INR
100,000 Crore (1000 Billion) due to nationwide power outage. It also indicated that Indians are spending INR
30,000 Crore (300 Billion) annually to operate inefficient power back-ups using gen sets and inverters. But
that is only limited to loss due to energy not supplied. No one has any idea about the cost that arises out of
poor power quality. A recent joint study on ‘Impact of PQ in Indian Industries’ undertaken by IIT Delhi with
Asia Power Quality Initiative (APQI) concluded as follows:

“Almost all the industries suffer due to various power quality problems. In fact, many of the industries are not
even aware of various PQ problems like harmonics, flickers etc. They do not even possess equipment to
measure these aberrations in power quality. It is a must to educate and create awareness among industries
regarding power quality. This calls for BIS taking a firm and bold step to introduce power quality standards
that are suited for our country. For this, academicians, industrialists, consumers, utilities and regulatory
bodies should come together and have several thorough brainstorming sessions. This will create a healthy
and reliable power grid and utility in our country enhancing productivity and GDP growth”. .

So we are still far away to assess realistically the economic impact of poor power quality. But some of the
developed world study is a clear pointer of the size of iceberg that we might be threatened of.
An European research by Copper Development Association indicates typical financial loss per event as
follows:
Sr. Industry Types Typical Loss per event (INR equivalent)
1 Financial Operations Rs 3,00,000,000/event
2 Semi-conductor Manufacturing Rs 1,90,000,000/event
3 IT/ITES operations Rs 3,75,00,000/event
4 Telecommunications Rs 15,00,000/minute
5 Data Processing Rs 5,00,000/minute
6 Steel / Heavy Manufacturing Industry Rs 1,50,00,000/event
7 Plastic Rs 5,00,000-7,50,000/event
Source: Cost of Power Quality – CDA March 2001
A study done in Europe over a period of three years estimated that EU suffers from a loss of Euro 150 billion
per annum due to various power quality issues (see Fig 4a). The same study also has concluded that
equipment are most vulnerable (see Fig 4b) from poor PQ impact.

Fig 4a: Cost of Poor Power Quality Fig 4b: Areas of Loss suffered due to poor PQ
Source: LPQI Survey on Economic Impact of Poor Power Quality in European Union 2007- 08

INDIA PERSPECTIVE

Acute power shortage in last decade of course has created an alarming situation in the country. Policy
makers are deeply engaged in solving much exasperating demand – supply gap problem in the country.
These apart, power quality problems like voltage fluctuation, frequency variation, surges and sags,
harmonics, generation of spikes, impulses, high earth leakage current, missing cycles, black-outs, brown-
outs, etc. are playing havoc on our critical assets. Besides increased SECs, downtime and production losses
they cause incalculable damage to our costly capital equipment and consequent to the economy.

Power line disturbances such as voltage sag / swell, outages, flicker; harmonics can cause a heavy loss to
electric utility customer. This is due to the wide application of the non-linear and electronically switched
devices and distribution systems aspiring to elevate into Smart Grid. At the same time, modern industrial
equipment are more sensitive to these power quality problems than before and need better quality of
electrical power. The basic reason is that the minor power disruptions which one would have noticed only as
momentary flickering in the lights, may now interrupt the whole automated factory assembly lines with
sensitive electronic controllers or make all computers in an office go blank at once.

The generally encountered power quality issues are voltage dips and fluctuation, momentary interruptions,
transients, etc (see fig 5 below). Except the power outages and transients due to lightening, other power
quality problems like sags, swells, short term interruptions, harmonics, distortions, etc. occur either due to
some faults in distribution feeders or interference from loads. During short circuits, fault clearing process in
feeder or even heavy loads switching in/out, the neighbouring feeders can get affected with sags or swells in
the supply voltages. It is matter of time to see if the Smart Grid idea could address PQ or accentuate the
problem further if not addressed right at beginning.

Fig 5: Typical PQ Issues faced by an average Industry

Due to increasing and extensive application of power electronic equipment, industries and commercial
establishments are frequently encountered with different types of PQ disturbances, also commonly referred
as PQ phenomena1. Some physical manifestations of the PQ problems are mentioned below:

Electrical Equipment Damage or Failure PQ phenomena category

Air Conditioning Premature compressor failure Voltage variation
Computerized reservation Data loss / data error Voltage variation
system
Digital scale Unit damage Transient
Induction Motors Affects control systems Voltage sags and interruptions
Contactors and Relays Circuit breakdown Voltage sags and Voltage interruptions
Controllers Device damage Voltage sag
Energy Management Loss of control Transient
1
There are typically two types of Power Disturbances which can create economic costs for an entity:
i. Power Outages – An outage is a complete loss of power and results from either planned load shedding, or
unplanned breakdowns, because of faults on the transmission or distribution electrical system.
ii. Power Quality phenomena – A PQ phenomena occurs in case of any deviation in shape of voltage and
current waveforms (from the ideal) and include events like voltage sags / swells, transients, interruptions (short
and long), flickering or long term conditions such as harmonics, voltage imbalance, etc.

‘INDUSTRIAL CUSTOMERS’ AND PQ INTERCONNECTION

Today’s customers are highly dependent on digital technology and power electronic devices, with increasing
use of various types of electronic appliances, ballasts, variable speed drives, etc. These devices when used
produce current distortions in the network due to their non-linear operating characteristics. These
disturbances then travel upstream because of insufficient isolation of each customer from the grid. This
increase current in turn causes additional energy losses in the system and also pose increased demand of
apparent power to individual customer and also entire network faces the risk of premature aging and failure.

Some of commonly reported PQ complaints from end-customers:

Equipments affected by poor External Manifestation of Electrical Manifestation of poor

PQ poor PQ PQ
IT equipments Computer lock-ups and data Presence of earth leakage
loss current causing small voltage
drops in earth conductors
Variable speed drives, telecom Motors and drives Capacitor bank failure, shocks
equipment, arc furnace, welding malfunctioning, computer due to neutral voltage, Flickering
equipment, relays, static screen freeze, loss of data of lights, noise in telecom lines
converters, security and access
control systems, etc.
Motors and process devices Malfunctioning of motors and Presence of voltage and current
process devices. Extra harmonics in the power supply
heating, decreased operational
efficiency and premature aging
of the equipment.
Relays, circuit breakers and Nuisance tripping of protective Distorted voltage waveform
contactors devices because of voltage dip
Sensitive measurements of Loss of synchronization in Severe harmonic distortion
process control equipment processing equipment creating additional zero-crossings
within a cycle of the sine wave

Table 1. Customers reported problem due to poor PQ Environment (Source: 6. Sharmistha Bhattacharyya and Sjef
Cobben, Technical University of Eindhoven)
With increased awareness, Customers can take below precautions to support building healthy PQ
environment:

 Undertake PQ monitoring and periodic power quality audit (PQ Audit)

 Maintain power factor within prescribed limits to reduce reactive power demand, which in turn will
balance the voltage in their premise and also overall network
 Reduce harmonic currents while using more energy efficient equipment at their premise
 Keep a log of faced power disturbances at premises, which may come handy in finding effective
solutions
 Capture financial information correlated with the PQ event for establishing return on investment in
proposing any PQ mitigation proposal before the plant management

ISSUES AND INITIATIVE TO ADDRESS THEM

How do power quality problems occur? How do we go scientifically auditing power quality problems? How do
we manage power quality? What are the technologies, equipment and systems and standards available for
the ensuring continuity of quality power and conditioning it?

These are some of the issues.

Power Quality is an area with lots of information gap and often misunderstood from the view point of its
potential to damage. The effect of power quality deficiency is not quantified accurately. Neither there is any
national level study bringing out the gross national level loss due to Power Quality Issues.

For cost competitiveness industries are more concerned about direct power cost (physically visible through
the bill) rather than the end effect on product quality or process due to PQ which manifests itself in an
intangible manner.

The solution providers, spanning from multinationals to next door system integrator, often do not work in
tandem. Lack of clarity and knowledge at customer end often makes the environment non-conducive for
solution providers.

These are the areas where Asia Power Quality Initiative (APQI) has stepped in to provide a neutral platform
for comprehensive knowledge resources and free sharing of such experiences amongst all stakeholders.
The aim is to build up the capacity, facilitate policy debate, and facilitate market transformation and
information dissemination through shared learning. In Europe, a role model has been set up by Leonardo
Power Quality Initiative (LPQI) which has become a larger movement with diverse knowledge base. LPQI is
a credible non-commercial voice for sharing good things i.e. learning. Having LPQI as a background
knowledge base, International Copper Association India, a not for profit organisation, is customizing the
learning’s for India under the umbrella organization; Asia Power Quality Initiative (APQI) – India to assist the
cause.

- By Mr. Manas Kundu, Director (Energy Solutions), International Copper Association (India) and APQI India
Co-ordinator.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. 9th International Conference – Electrical Power Quality and Utilisation, Barcelona Oct 2007 –
Roman Targosz and Jonathan Manson – ‘Pan European Power Quality Survey’
2. Shawn Mc Nulty, Primen (EPRI), ‘The Cost of Power Disturbances to Industrial and Digital
Economy Companies” –June 2001.
3. Johan Driesen, Hans De Keulenaer et all – ‘Leonardo Power Quality Initiative – An integrated
approach towards (E-) Learning in electrical engineering – 2005
4. Report on “Economic Impact Of Poor Power Quality In Various Industrial Sectors In India” – by Dr
G Bhuvaneswari and Dr Bhim Singh – Oct/Nov 2011.
5. ‘The Relationship between Energy Savings and PQ Mitigation Technologies’ – by Bill Howe, PE,
Program Manager, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) –USA.
6. Sharmistha Bhattacharyya and Sjef Cobben, Technical University of Eindhoven, “Consequences of
Poor Power Quality – An Overview”