Power quality is a term which is ultimately a consumer driven issue that has

different things to different people.

Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Standard IEEE1100 defines

power quality as “the concept of powering and grounding sensitive electronic
equipment in a manner suitable for the equipment.”

A simpler and perhaps more concise definition might state: “Power quality is a set of
electrical boundaries that allows a piece of equipment to function in its intended
manner without significant loss of performance or life expectancy.”
This definition embraces two things that we demand from an electrical device:
performance and life expectancy.

Any power problem manifested in voltage, current or frequency deviations that

results in failure or misoperation of customer equipment will consider as power
quality issue.
What is Electric Power Quality?

• To maintain the power distribution bus voltages to near sinusoidal

waveform at rated voltage magnitude & frequency.

• It is a measure of how well electric power can be utilized by

customers.
 Need for Power Quality:
In the recent years, power quality (PQ) has become a significant issue for both power
suppliers and customers.

There have been three important changes in relation to power quality.

• First of all, the characteristics of load have become so complex that the voltage and
current of the power line connected with these loads are easy to be distorted.

• Lately, non-linear loads with power electronic interface that generate large harmonic
current have been greatly increased in power system.

• Next, the end-user equipments have become more sensitive to power quality than
before.
CLASSIFICATION OF LOADS

LINEAR LOAD

• The voltage and current waveforms in electrical circuits with linear loads look alike i. e. no
distortion.
• Example: Motors operating from sinusoidal supply mains with unsaturated magnetic circuit.
• A linear element in a power system is a component in which the current is proportional to the voltage. This
means that the current wave shape will be the same as the voltage as shown in fig.1. Typical examples of
linear loads include motors, heaters and incandescent lamps.

• AC electrical loads where the voltage and current waveforms are sinusoidal. The current at any time is
proportional to voltage. Linear Loads are: power factor improvement capacitors, incandesant lamps, heaters
etc. Applies to those ac loads where the current is not proportional to the voltage. Foremost among loads
meeting their definition is gas discharge lighting having saturated ballast coils and thyristor (SCR)
controlled loads.
 NON-LINEAR LOAD
• The current waveform does not resemble the applied voltage waveform.
• Example: Motors operating from power converters
• The nature of non-linear loads is to generate harmonics in the current waveform. This
distortion of the current waveform leads to distortion of the voltage waveform. Under these
conditions, the voltage waveform is no longer proportional to the current. Non Linear Loads are:
computer, laser printers, sumps, rectifier, plc, electronic ballast, refrigerator, TV etc. The current
wave shape on a non-linear load is not the same as the voltage as shown in figure. Typical
examples of non-linear loads include rectifiers (power
supplies, UPS units, discharge lighting), adjustable speed motor drives, ferromagnetic devices,
DC motor drives and arcing equipment. The current drawn by non-linear loads is not sinusoidal
but it is periodic, meaning that the current wave looks the same from cycle to cycle. Periodic
waveforms can be described mathematically as a series of sinusoidal waveforms that have been
summed together as shown in fig. The sinusoidal components are integer multiples of the
fundamental where the fundamental, in the United States, is 60 Hz. The only way to measure a
voltage or current that contains harmonics is to use a true-RMS reading meter. If an averaging
meter is used, which is the most common type, the error can be significant.
NATURAL CAUSES
The following symptoms are indicators of Power Quality problems:

1. Piece of equipment misoperates at the same time of day.

2. Circuit breakers trip without being overloaded.

3. Equipment fails during a thunderstorm.

4. Automated systems stop for no apparent reason.

5. Electronic systems fail or fail to operate on a frequent basis.

6. Electronic systems work in one location but not in another location.

 Transients
A transient is that part of change in a system variable that disappears
during transition from one steady-state operating condition to another.
(OR)
A Sudden increase or decrease in current or voltage characterizes them
Transients can be classified into two categories –

impulsive transients and

oscillatory transients.
Long-Duration Voltage Variations

Long-duration variations encompass root-mean-square (rms)

deviations at power frequencies for longer than 1 min.

ANSI C84.1 specifies the steady-state voltage tolerances expected

on a power system.

Long-duration variations can be either overvoltages or

undervoltages.

Overvoltages and undervoltages generally are not the result of

system faults, but are caused by load variations on the system and
system switching operations.
Overvoltage
An overvoltage is an increase in the rms ac voltage greater than 110
percent at the power frequency for a duration longer than 1 min.

Overvoltages are usually the result of load switching (e.g., switching

off a large load or energizing a capacitor bank).

The overvoltages result because either the system is too weak for the
desired voltage regulation or voltage controls are inadequate.

Incorrect tap settings on transformers can also result in system

overvoltages.
Undervoltage

An undervoltage is a decrease in the rms ac voltage to less than 90

percent at the power frequency for a duration longer than 1 min.

Undervoltages are the result of switching events that are the

opposite of the events that cause overvoltages.

A load switching on or a capacitor bank switching off can cause an

undervoltage until voltage regulation equipment on the system can
bring the voltage back to within tolerances.

Overloaded circuits can result in undervoltages also.

Sustained interruptions
When the supply voltage has been zero for a period of time in excess of 1 min, the
long-duration voltage variation is considered a sustained interruption.
Voltage interruptions longer than 1 min are often permanent and require human intervention
to repair the system for restoration.
The term sustained interruption refers to specific power system phenomena and, in general,
has no relation to the usage of the term outage.
Utilities use outage or interruption to describe phenomena of similar nature for reliability
reporting purposes. However, this causes confusion for end users who think of an outage as
any interruption of power that shuts down a process. This could be as little as one-half of a
cycle.
Outage, as defined in IEEE Standard 100,8 does not refer to a specific phenomenon, but rather
to the state of a component in a system that has failed to function as expected. Also, use of the
term interruption in the context of power quality monitoring has no relation to reliability or
other continuity of service statistics.
Thus, this term has been defined to be more specific regarding the absence of voltage for long
periods.
Short-Duration Voltage Variations

Short-duration voltage variations are caused by fault conditions,

the energization of large loads which require high starting
currents, or intermittent loose connections in power wiring.

Depending on the fault location and the system conditions, the

fault can cause either temporary voltage drops (sags), voltage
rises (swells), or a complete loss of voltage (interruptions).

The fault condition can be close to or remote from the point of

interest.

In either case, the impact on the voltage during the actual fault
condition is of the short-duration variation until protective
devices operate to clear the fault.
Interruption
An interruption occurs when the supply voltage or load current decreases to less than 0.1 pu
for a period of time not exceeding 1 min.
Interruptions can be the result of power system faults, equipment
failures, and control malfunctions.
The interruptions are measured by their duration since the voltage magnitude is always less
than 10 percent of nominal.
The duration of an interruption due to a fault on the utility system is determined by the
operating time of utility protective devices.
Instantaneous reclosing generally will limit the interruption caused by a nonpermanent fault
to less than 30 cycles.
Delayed reclosing of the protective device may cause a momentary or temporary
interruption.
The duration of an interruption due to equipment malfunctions or loose connections can be
irregular.
Some interruptions may be preceded by a voltage sag when these interruptions are due to
faults on the source system. The voltage sag occurs between the time a fault initiates and the
protective device operates.
Sags (dips)
A sag is a decrease to between 0.1 and 0.9 pu in rms voltage or current at the power
frequency for durations from 0.5 cycle to 1 min.

Voltage sags are usually associated with system faults but can also be caused by
energization of heavy loads or starting of large motors.
voltage sag that can be associated with a single- line-to-ground (SLG) fault on another
feeder from the same substation.
An 80 percent sag exists for about 3 cycles until the substation breaker is able to
interrupt the fault current
The effect of a large motor starting. An induction motor will draw 6 to 10
times its full load current during start-up.

If the current magnitude is large relative to the available fault current in the
system at that point, the resulting voltage sag can be significant.

In this case, the voltage sags immediately to 80 percent and then gradually
returns to normal in about 3 s.
Swells
A swell is defined as an increase to between 1.1 and 1.8 pu in rms voltage or current at the power frequency for
durations from 0.5 cycle to 1 min.

As with sags, swells are usually associated with system fault conditions, but they are not as common as voltage
sags.
One way that a swell can occur is from the temporary voltage rise on the unfaulted phases during an SLG fault.
Swells can also be caused by switching off a large load or energizing a large capacitor bank.

Figure illustrates a voltage swell caused by an SLG fault.

Voltage Imbalance
Voltage imbalance (also called voltage unbalance) is sometimes
defined as the maximum deviation from the average of the
three-phase voltages or currents, divided by the average of the
three-phase voltages or currents, expressed in percent.
The ratio of either the negative- or zerosequence component to the
positive-sequence component can be used to specify the percent
unbalance.
The primary source of voltage unbalances of less than 2 percent is
single-phase loads on a three-phase circuit.
Voltage unbalance can also be the result of blown fuses in one
phase of a three-phase capacitor bank.
Severe voltage unbalance (greater than 5 percent) can result from
single-phasing conditions.
Figure shows an example of these two ratios for a 1-week
trend of imbalance on a residential feeder.
Waveform Distortion
Waveform distortion is defined as a steady-state deviation from an
ideal sine wave of power frequency principally characterized by the
spectral content of the deviation.

There are five primary types of waveform distortion:

■ DC offset
■ Harmonics
■ Interharmonics
■ Notching
■ Noise
DC offset. The presence of a dc voltage or current in an ac power system
is termed dc offset.
This can occur as the result of a geomagnetic disturbance
or asymmetry of electronic power converters.
Incandescent light bulb life extenders, for example, may consist of
diodes that reduce the rms voltage supplied to the light bulb by half-wave
rectification.
Direct current in ac networks can have a detrimental effect by biasing
transformer cores so they saturate in normal operation. This causes
additional heating and loss of transformer life.
Direct current may also cause the electrolytic erosion of grounding
electrodes and other connectors.
Harmonics. Harmonics are sinusoidal voltages or currents having
frequencies that are integer multiples of the frequency at which the supply
system is designed to operate (termed the fundamental frequency;usually
50 or 60 Hz).

Periodically distorted waveforms can be decomposed into a sum of the

fundamental frequency and the harmonics.

Harmonic distortion originates in the nonlinear characteristics of

devices and loads on the power system.
Harmonic distortion levels are described by the complete harmonic
spectrum with magnitudes and phase angles of each individual harmonic
component. It is also common to use a single quantity, the total harmonic
distortion (THD), as a measure of the effective value of harmonic
distortion.
Figure illustrates the waveform and harmonic spectrum
for a typical adjustable-speed-drive (ASD) input current.
Current distortion levels can be characterized by a THD
value, as previously described, but this can often be
misleading. For example, many adjustable-speed drives
will exhibit high THD values for the input current when
they are operating at very light loads. This is not
necessarily a significant concern because the magnitude of
harmonic current is low, even though its relative distortion
is high.
To handle this concern for characterizing harmonic
currents in a consistent fashion, IEEE Standard 519-1992
defines another term, the total demand distortion (TDD).
This term is the same as the total harmonic distortion
except that the distortion is expressed as a percent of some
rated load current rather than as a percent of the
fundamental current magnitude at the instant of
measurement.
IEEE Standard 519-1992 provides guidelines for harmonic
current and voltage distortion levels on distribution and
transmission circuits.
 Interharmonics. Voltages or currents having frequency components that are not
integer multiples of the frequency at which the supply system is designed to operate
(e.g., 50 or 60 Hz) are called interharmonics.
They can appear as discrete frequencies or as a wideband spectrum.
Interharmonics can be found in networks of all voltage classes.
The main sources of interharmonic waveform distortion are static frequency converters,
cycloconverters, induction furnaces, and arcing devices.
Power line carrier signals can also be considered as interharmonics.
The origins and effects of interharmonic distortion.

It is generally the result of frequency conversion and is often not constant; it varies with
load.
Such interharmonic currents can excite quite severe resonances on the power system as
the varying interharmonic frequency becomes coincident with natural frequencies of the
system.
They have been shown to affect power-line-carrier signaling and induce visual flicker
in fluorescent and other arc lighting as well as in computer display devices.
Notching. Notching is a periodic
Figure shows an example of voltage notching from a
voltage disturbance caused by the three-phase converter that produces continuous dc
normal operation of power current.
electronic devices when current is
commutated from one phase to The notches occur when the current commutates from one
phase to another.
another.
Since notching occurs During this period,there is a momentary short circuit between
continuously, it can be two phases, pulling the voltage as close to zero as permitted
by system impedances.
characterized through the harmonic
spectrum of the affected voltage.
However, it is generally treated as a
special case.
The frequency components
associated with notching can be
quite high and may not be readily
characterized with measurement
equipment normally used for
harmonic analysis.
 Noise. Noise is defined as unwanted electrical signals with broadband
spectral content lower than 200 kHz superimposed upon the power system
voltage or current in phase conductors, or found on neutral conductors
or signal lines.
Noise in power systems can be caused by power electronic devices,
control circuits, arcing equipment, loads with solid-state rectifiers, and
switching power supplies.
Noise problems are often intensified by improper grounding that fails to
conduct noise away from the power system.
Basically, noise consists of any unwanted distortion of the power signal
that cannot be classified as harmonic distortion or transients.
Noise disturbs electronic devices such as microcomputer and
programmable controllers. The problem can be mitigated by using filters,
isolation transformers, and line conditioners.
Voltage Fluctuation
Voltage fluctuations are systematic variations of the voltage envelope or a series of
random voltage changes, the magnitude of which does not normally exceed the voltage
ranges specified by ANSI C84.1 of 0.9 to 1.1 pu.
IEC 61000-2-1 defines various types of voltage fluctuations. We will restrict our
discussion here to IEC 61000-2-1 Type (d) voltage fluctuations, which are
characterized as a series of random or continuous voltage fluctuations.

Loads that can exhibit continuous, rapid variations in the load current magnitude can
cause voltage variations that are often referred to as flicker.

The term flicker is derived from the impact of the voltage fluctuation on lamps such
that they are perceived by the human eye to flicker.

To be technically correct, voltage fluctuation is an electromagnetic phenomenon while

flicker is an undesirable result of the voltage fluctuation in some loads. However, the
two terms are often linked together in standards. Therefore, we will also use the
common term voltage flicker to describe such voltage fluctuations.
An example of a voltage waveform which produces flicker is shown in Fig. This is caused by
an arc furnace, one of the most common causes of voltage fluctuations on utility transmission
and distribution systems.
The flicker signal is defined by its rms magnitude expressed as a percent of the fundamental.
Voltage flicker is measured with respect to the sensitivity of the human eye. Typically,
magnitudes as low as 0.5 percent can result in perceptible lamp flicker if the frequencies are
in the range of 6 to 8 Hz.
Power Frequency Variations
Power frequency variations are defined as the deviation of the power system fundamental frequency from it
specified nominal value (e.g., 50 or 60 Hz).
The power system frequency is directly related to the rotational speed of the generators supplying the
system.
There are slight variations in frequency as the dynamic balance between load and generation
changes. The size of the frequency shift and its duration depend on the load characteristics and the response
of the generation control system to load changes. Figure illustrates frequency variations for a 24-h
period on a typical 13-kV substation bus.
Frequency variations that go outside of accepted limits for normal steady-state
operation of the power system can be caused by faults on the bulk power
transmission system, a large block of load being disconnected, or a large source of
generation going off-line.

On modern interconnected power systems, significant frequency variations are rare.

Frequency variations of consequence are much more likely to occur for loads that are
supplied by a generator isolated from the utility system.

In such cases, governor response to abrupt load changes may not be adequate to
regulate within the narrow bandwidth required by frequency-sensitive equipment.
Voltage notching can sometimes be mistaken for frequency deviation.

The notches may come sufficiently close to zero to cause errors in instruments and
control systems that rely on zero crossings to derive frequency or time.
 CBEMA curves

One of the most frequently employed displays of data to represent the power
quality is the so-called CBEMA curve.

A portion of the curve adapted from IEEE Standard 4469 that we typically use
in our analysis of power quality monitoring results is shown in Fig.

This curve was originally developed by CBEMA to describe the tolerance of

mainframe computer equipment to the magnitude and duration of voltage
variations on the power system.

While many modern computers have greater tolerance than this, the curve has
become a standard design
target for sensitive equipment to be applied on the power system and a common
format for reporting power quality variation data.
The axes represent magnitude and duration of the event.

Points below the envelope are presumed to cause the load

to drop out due to lack of energy.

Points above the envelope are presumed to cause other

malfunctions such as insulation failure, overvoltage trip,
and overexcitation.

The upper curve is actually defined down to 0.001 cycle

where it has a value of about 375 percent voltage.

We typically employ the curve only from 0.1 cycle and

higher due to limitations in power quality monitoring
instruments and differences in opinion over defining the
magnitude values in the subcycle time frame.
 The CBEMA organization has been replaced by
ITI,10 and a modified curve has been developed that
specifically applies to common 120-V computer
equipment (see Fig. 2.16).
The concept is similar to the CBEMA curve.

Although developed for 120-V computer equipment,

the curve has been applied to general power quality
evaluation like its predecessor curve.

Both curves are used as a reference in this book to

define the withstand capability of various loads and
devices for protection from power quality variations.
For display of large quantities of power quality
monitoring data, we frequently add a third axis to the
plot to denote the number of events within a certain
predefined cell of magnitude and duration.
 International Standards of power quality:
IEEE Standards:
✔ IEEE power quality standards: Institute Of Electrical and Electronics Engineer.
✔ IEC power quality standards: International Electro Technical Commission.
✔ SEMI power quality standards: Semiconductor Equipment and Material International.

✔ IEEE Std 519-1992: IEEE Recommended practices and requirements for Harmonic control in Electric
power systems.
✔ IEEE Std 1159-1995: IEEE Recommended practices for monitoring electrical power
✔ IEEE std 141-1993, IEEE Recommended practice for electric power distribution for industrial plants.
✔ IEEE std 1159-1995, IEEE recommended practice for Monitoring electrical power quality.

IEC Standards:
✔ Definitions and methodology 61000-1-X
✔ Environment 61000-2-X
✔ Limits 61000-3-X
✔ Tests and measurements 61000-4-X
✔ Installation and mitigation 61000-5-X
✔ Generic immunity and emissions 61000-6-X
SEMI standards
✔ E-10-1999, Standard for Definition and Measurement of Equipment Reliability, Availability, and
Maintainability defines the sag ride through capability. SEMI F-42-1999, Test Method for Semiconductor
Processing Equipment Voltage Sag Immunity defines the test methodology to confirm compliance to the
standard.