Power Quality

EE 903-E38
2. Analysis of Power Quality Issues
 Analysis of harmonic distortion
• The rise in the use of power electronic loads and the increasing use of power
factor correction capacitors is causing a general rise in the level of harmonics.
• For many purposes the distorting loads can be modeled as harmonic current
sources. When there is a finite source impedance at the nth harmonic z(n0),
then the nth harmonic current flowing to the source will generates a harmonic
voltage at the connection point of common coupling resulting in voltage
distortion.
The main impacts can be summarized as
-Increased losses
-Reduced equipment life
-Interference with protection control and communication circuits
-Interference with customer equipment
 Fourier Series
General Trigonometric Form
For a periodic function 𝑓(𝑡) with period 𝑇, the Fourier series is given by:

where:
𝑎0​ is the average (or DC) component.
𝑎𝑛 and 𝑏𝑛, the Fourier coefficients, are the
rectangular components of the nth harmonic.
The corresponding nth harmonic vector is
Magnitude Phase angle
Complex Form
The same periodic function 𝑓(𝑡) can be represented in the complex form as:

where 𝑐𝑛​ are the complex Fourier coefficients, calculated as:

 Fourier Transform
For a continuous-time signal 𝑓(𝑡), the Fourier Transform 𝐹{𝑓(𝑡)} is defined as:
 Discrete Fourier Transform
Most of the measurements of electrical parameters face signals in discrete forms. To deal
with such discrete signals, Fourier transform (FT) is modified as Discrete Fourier transforms
(DFT).
For a sequence 𝑥[𝑛] of length 𝑁, where 𝑛=0,1,2,…,𝑁−1, the DFT 𝑋[𝑘] is defined as:

where:
𝑋[𝑘] is the frequency-domain representation of the sequence at frequency index 𝑘.
𝑥[𝑛] is the time-domain sequence.
𝑘 ranges from 0 to 𝑁−1, representing the frequency index.

The DFT calculates the contribution of each sample 𝑥[𝑛] in the time domain to the
frequency component 𝑋[𝑘] in the frequency domain. However, it suffers from high
execution time for large values of N.

The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is an algorithm for efficiently computing the DFT. It reduces
the computational complexity of DFT from 𝑂(𝑁2) to 𝑂(𝑁log𝑁), making it practical for real-
time DSP and large-scale signal analysis.
 Harmonic Indices
For most applications, it is sufficient to
Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) consider the harmonic range from 2nd
to 25th, but most standards specify up
The percentage total harmonic distortion of a voltage to the 50th.
signal with the rms value of VI and rms harmonic
contents of Vn, n = 2, ... ,   is given by

Distortion Index (DIN)

DIN is an alternate definition that represents the
harmonic distortion and is given by

THD and DIN are interrelated by the following equations:

 Harmonic Indices: Exercise
The following waveform contains 50 Hz fundamental, plus 3rd , 5th , 7th, 9th and 11th
harmonics with their magnitudes being reciprocal of their harmonic numbers. Calculate
the THD and the DIN.

It can be seen that the values of THD and DIN obtained are in accordance to their
interrelation given in the previous slide.

Both these indices quantify the harmonic distortion. Their use is a matter of preference.
The IEEE prefers the use of THD while the IEC prefer DIN.
 Harmonic Indices
Total Demand Distortion (TDD)
Characterizing current distortion levels by a THD value can be
misleading when the fundamental load current is low. IEEE
Standard 519:1992 defines a new factor called the Total Demand
Distortion (TDD) factor that expresses the distortion as a
percentage of rated or maximum load current, rather than as a
percentage of the fundamental current.

Power factor

This quantity cannot be used in a case when the voltage and current waveforms are
not sinusoidal.
In such a case a quantity like the displacement factor
(DF) may be of interest. This is defined by

The displacement factor is equal to the power factor for the sinusoidal
case. However for non-sinusoidal cases, the following inequality holds
 Analysis of power outages
• Most common cause of an outage is equipment or component
failure, e.g., loss of a generator, transformer or feeder due to faults.
• Sometimes utilities use scheduled outages to maintain the power
equipment. Typical scheduled maintenance involves changing of
transformer oil, replacement of a section of feeder conductors or
changing of old and faulty switchgear or other equipment.
• It is the unscheduled outages that cause major problems to both
utilities and customers alike. Such outages cause higher financial loss
to the customers arising from loss of production in factories and
assembly lines, rotting or contamination of edible materials in food
processing plants. The impact of even short outages in semiconductor
plants can be very severe. It is therefore imperative that such outages
are minimized.
 Analysis of power outages
There are various reliability indices that define the response of the system to the outages.
System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI):
This defines the total number of customer interruption events that have occurred over a period of
time (usually one year) divided by the total number of customers.

Customer Average Interruption Frequency Index (CAIFI):

This is defined as

The index SAIFI is useful in that it gives the average interruptions per customer. The problem with this
approach is that not all customers in the system face an equal amount of interruptions.
This aspect is addressed by the use of the index CAIFI which normalizes the number of interruptions
with respect to the total number of customers who have faced interruptions. The numerical value of
CAIFI will be greater than or equal to that of SAIFI.

It is interesting to note that a comparison of these two indices can give us an insight into the system.
For example if the relative difference between these two indices is large, then it means that the
interruptions have affected some groups of customers more than the others. This can be due to
poor grounding, poor design or poor maintenance. Further investigation will then be required to
determine and rectify the cause.
 Analysis of power outages
System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI):
This defines the average duration of all interruptions per customer

Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI):

The total interruption duration over a year is averaged amongst the customers, who had at least
one interruption

The frequency indices like SAIFI and CAIFI tell us how often faults occur. They give us an
indication about system equipment and network layout. The regulator of utility can declare
a maximum limit on any of these indices as the key performance measure and the utility
can respond by rescheduling their maintenance procedure to be within the maximum limit.

The duration indices like SAIDI and CAIDI, on the other hand, give us an indication of the
ability of the utility to limit the faulted section to the smallest number of customers and
the ability to control the repair time. These indices can be used to identify when it is critical
to reschedule the repair procedures of the utility such that the load curtailment can be
kept at the minimum.
 Analysis of power outages - Exercise
Consider a distribution system with 100,000
customers.

Note from the customer interruption

data that for the interruption case-2,
10,000 customers of bus 2 and 2,000 of
bus 4 are affected for different duration.
Again in the interruption case 5 that
involves bus 4, the same 2,000
customers involved in case 2 are
affected again. In addition, another
3,000 customers are also affected for
the interruption case 5.

Calculate SAIFI, CAIFI, SAIDI, CAIDI.

 Analysis of power outages - Exercise
Total interruptions = (15 + 10+ 2 + 5 + 3 + 5) x 1000 = 40,000

Total number of customers affected by the interruptions

= 38,000

Note that CAIFI > 1 implies that some customers

have undergone more number of outages than the
others per year.

To compute SAIDI and CAIDI we have to translate

the interruption data into customer-minutes lost
due to interruptions.
Customer - minutes lost =
(1.8 + 0.9 + 0.12 + 1.2 + 0.09 + 0.3)x 106
= 4,410,000 From the above example:

= Fraction of customers who had at least

one outage
 Analysis of voltage sag
The Detroit Edison sag score (SS) is defined as

where VA, VB and VC are the rms values of the phase voltages in per unit.

The advantage of this method is simplicity. However, this method does not consider the
duration of the voltage sag which is a an important parameter to indicate the damage a
sag event may have on a particular load.
 Analysis of voltage sag
Voltage Sag Energy is defined as:

where V is the rms voltage, Vnom is the nominal voltage, and T is the duration of voltage
sag

The voltage sag energy has the unit of time; it may be expressed in cycles, milliseconds, or
seconds.
 Analysis of voltage sag
RMS Voltage Calculation in Discrete Time Domain

One-cycle window

where N is the number of samples per cycle

vi is the sampled voltage
k is the instant when rms voltage is estimated (Here rms
voltage is post estimated; rms voltage is calculated with
the previous N instantaneous voltage samples)

Half-cycle window
Dotted line: Half cycle algorithm
Solid line: One cycle algorithm

Fig. Influence of rms algorithm on the sag

duration

The half-cycle algorithm is more sensitive to changes in

the voltage and has a faster response to detect an
event. However, it shows oscillations when there is a
second order harmonic component in the voltage signal.
 Analysis of voltage sag
The voltage sag energy, EVS, can be interpreted as the energy (or lack of it) in the voltage
sag event.
Consider a constant-impedance load with active power consumption P0 at nominal voltage
Vnom. When the voltage drops to V during a sag, the active power consumption by the load
drops to the following:

Reduction in delivered power, ΔP:

Integration over the duration T of the voltage sag

gives the expression for the energy not delivered:

Using the definition of voltage sag energy

Thus, the voltage sag energy is the energy not delivered to an impedance load, expressed
in per-unit with the rated power of the load as a base.
For voltage sags involving more than one phase, the voltage
sag energy is defined as the sum of the voltage sag energy
in the individual phases.
 Exercise
Ex. 1 Find voltage sag energy for a voltage sag with a magnitude of 0.75 pu of nominal
voltage and four cycles duration (0.0667 s, for a 60-Hz system) .

T = duration
V = retained voltage of the sag

Ex. 2 Find voltage sag energy for a three phase voltage sag if all phases are 0.1 pu with a
1.5-cycle duration.

EVS =(1-0.1^2)*1.5/60 *3 ph -=74.25 ms.

Ex. 3 Find voltage swell energy for a voltage swell with a retained voltage of 123% and a
duration of 230 ms.

Voltage swell energy

 Analysis of voltage sag
Voltage Sag Lost Energy Index (VSLEI)
This index gives the lost energy during a sag event as

where V is the phase voltage in per unit of nominal

voltage during a sag event and T sag duration in ms.
(The power of voltage, 3.14 is derived using
For a 3-ph sag event, curve fitting method to the CBEMA curve)
 Exercise
Ex. Calculate VSLEI for some hypothetical voltage sags.
 Analysis of voltage flicker
• Voltage flicker is a problem of human perception
• Unlike most other PQ phenomena, voltage flicker seldom causes process interruptions or equipment
damage.
• The main cause of voltage flicker is the arc loads like arc furnace, arc welder and arc lamp.
• The IEC standard 61000-3-7 recommends a three-step procedure for evaluating acceptance of fluctuating
loads.
The first step is an "automatic acceptance" procedure that permits acceptance of a potential customer
without the need of any detailed analysis. This criterion puts limit on the allowable ratio of load power
variation (S) to the available short circuit power SSC as a function of the fluctuating rate. Table below
shows the criteria for medium-voltage connections (1 kW < MV < 35 kV).

Fluctuating loads connected directly to a high-voltage supply (35 kV < HV < 230 kV) can be accepted
without further study provided the ratio Smax/Ssc < 0.1 % where Smax is the maximum load power.
The consequence of these flicker standards is to encourage connection of potentially disturbing loads to
higher voltage supplies.
For large arc furnaces there is a limit to the extent that the connection point selection can solve all the
problems. Reactive voltage controllers may then be required to correct the voltage within the specified
limits.