Syllabus

Module 1 (6 hours)
Power quality phenomenon - Sources and effects of power quality problems, Need for concern of
Power quality, types of power quality disturbances –Transients – classification and origin, Short
duration voltage variation – interruption, sag, swell, Long duration voltage variation, voltage
unbalance, waveform distortion - notching, harmonics and voltage flicker

Need for concern of Power quality

Power Quality (PQ) has become an interesting issue in the power industry since the 1980s. It has
increasingly affected both electric power end-users and electric distribution utilities all over the world. The
recent growth of interest in power quality can be explained by these four major reasons:

▪ Power quality is a measure of the electrical network or grid to provide “clean” and stable power The
power flow should have a pure sinusoidal wave form and it should remain within specified voltage
and frequency tolerances
▪ In today’s electrical networks, deviations from these ideal conditions are frequent due to increasing
non-linear and other loads disturbing the grid Modern load equipment with microprocessor-based
controls and power electronic devices are more sensitive to power quality changes than its
conventional counterparts.
▪ The consequences of insufficient power quality can inflict serious losses on business and economy.
In the worst-case scenario, it may pose a threat to human life in mission critical applications and
highly sensitive environments, such as hospitals.
▪ Electricity consumers are becoming better informed about power quality issues such as voltage
fluctuations, interruptions and switching transients. In addition, many governments have revised
their policies in order to regulate electric utilities pushing them to improve power quality within the
set standards and limits.

▪ Emphasis on overall power system efficiency has resulted in growing applications of high-efficiency
devices, adjustable-speed motor drives and shunt capacitors for power factor correction and
reduction of losses. Consequently, increased harmonic levels on electrical power systems have
threatened the operability, reliability and safety of the system.

▪ Many things are now interconnected in the electrical network such as distributed generation (DG)
– particularly solar and wind, and the so-called integrated processes. Both have a number of
significant power quality issues that must be addressed as part of the interconnection assessment.

▪ Good power quality saves money and energy. Direct savings to consumers come from lower energy
cost and reactive power tariffs. Indirect savings are gained by avoiding circumstances such as
damage and premature aging of equipment, loss of production or loss of data and work. Power
quality can affect the overall company performance, which is a fact easily overlooked by the
management.

▪ Without the proper power, an electrical device may malfunction, fail prematurely, or not operate at
all. There are many causes that can lead to different types of poor power quality.
▪ Voltage sags and surges
▪ Momentary power interruptions
▪ Extended power interruptions
 ▪ Harmonic distortion
▪ Ground loops
▪ High-speed transients
▪ Electrical noise
▪ Lightning damage or lack of preparedness
▪ The concern for power quality is expected to increase, especially now that it has direct economic
impacts to equipment suppliers, utilities and the end-users

DEFINE POWER QUALITY

• Any power problem manifested in voltage, current, or frequency deviations that results in
failure or misoperation of customer equipment.
• Power quality is defined as the ability of a system to Deliver electric power service of
sufficiently high quality so that the end-use equipment will operate within their design
specifications.
It should be of sufficient reliability so that the operator of end-use equipment will be getting
continuous supply
• Various sources use the term "power quality" with different meaning. It is used synonymously with
"supply reliability," "service quality," "voltage quality," "current quality," "quality of supply," and
"quality of consumption."

explain the CAUSES OF DISTURBANCES IN POWER SYSTEMS

Figure illustrates the impact of current harmonics generated by a nonlinear load on a typical power system
write a short note on

MAJOR REASONS FOR ORIGINS OF THE POWER QUALITY PROBLEM

Sources of power quality divided into 4 categories:

1. unpredictable events, 2. electric utility, 3. customer, and 4. manufacturer.

UNPREDICTABLE EVENTS.

• Both electric utilities and end users agree that more than 60% of power quality problems are
generated by natural and unpredictable events .
• Some of these include faults, lightning surge propagation, resonance, ferroresonance, and
geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) due to solar flares .These events are considered to be
utility related problems.

THE ELECTRIC UTILITY.There are three main sources of poor power quality related to utilities:

The point ofsupply generation.

Although synchronous machines generate nearly perfect sinusoidal voltages (harmonic content less than
3%), there are power quality problems originating at generating plants which are mainly due to maintenance
activity, planning, capacity and expansion constraints, scheduling, events leading to forced outages, and load
transferring from one substation to another

The transmission system

Typical power quality problems originating in the transmission system are

• galloping (under high-wind conditions resulting in supply interruptions and/or random voltage
variations),
• lightning (resulting in a spike or transient overvoltage),
• insulator flashover,
• voltage dips (due to faults), interruptions (due to planned outages by utility),
• transient overvoltages (generated by capacitor and/or inductor switching, and lightning),
• transformer energizing (resulting in inrush currents that are rich in harmonic components),
• improper operation of voltage regulation devices (which can lead to long-duration voltage
variations),
• slow voltage variations (due to a long-term variation of the load caused by the continuous switching
of devices and load),
• flexible AC transmission system (FACTS) devices and high-voltage DC (HVDC) system],
• corona , power line carrier signals , broadband power line (BPL) communications , and
electromagnetic fields (EMFs)

The distribution system.

Typical power quality problems originating in the distribution system are voltage dips, spikes, and
interruptions, transientovervoltages, transformer energizing, improper operation of voltage regulation
devices, slow voltage variations, power line carrier signals,and EMFs.
THE CUSTOMER.

Customer loads generate a considerable portion of power quality problems in today's power systems. Some
end-user related problems are

• harmonics (generated by nonlinear loads such as power electronic devices and equipment,
• renewable energy sources, FACTS devices, adjustable-speed drives, uninterruptible power supplies
(UPS),
• fax machines, laser printers, computers, and
• fluorescent lights
• poor power factor (due to highly inductive loads such as induction motors and air-conditioning
units),
• flicker (generated by arc furnaces ),
• transients (mostly generated inside a facility due to device switching, electrostatic discharge, and
arcing),
• improper grounding (causing most reported customer problems),
• frequency variations (when secondary and backup power sources, such as diesel engine and turbine
generators, are used),
• misapplication of technology, wiring regulations, and other relevant standards.

MANUFACTURING REGULATIONS.

There are two main sources of poor power quality related to manufacturing regulations:

Standards.

The lack of standards for testing, certification, sale, purchase, installation, and use of electronic equipment
and appliances is a major cause of power quality problems.

Equipment sensitivity.

• The proliferation of "sensitive" electronic equipment and appliances is one of the main reasons for
the increase of power quality problems.
• The design characteristics of these devices, including computer-based equipment, have increased the
incompatibility of a wide variety of these devices with the electrical environment .

Power quality therefore must necessarily be tackled from three fronts, namely:

The utility must design, maintain, and operate the power system while minimizing power
quality problems;

The end user must employ proper wiring, system grounding practices, and state-of-the-art
electronic devices; and

The manufacturer must design electronic devices that keep electrical environmental
disturbances to a minimum and that are immune to anomalies of the power supply line.
Draw and explain VOLTAGE MAGNITUDE CLASSIFICATION OF PQ EVENTS

The voltage magnitude is split into three regions:

➢ interruption: voltage magnitude is zero,

➢ undervoltage: voltage magnitude is below its nominal value, and
➢ overvoltage: voltage magnitude is above its nominal value.

The duration of these events is split into four regions:very short, short, long, and very long.

Power quality phenomenon

List out MAJOR CLASSIFICATION OF POWER QUALITY ISSUES

Power quality can be defined as any power problem manifested in voltage, current, or frequency deviations
that results in failure or misoperation of customer equipment.

1. TRANSIENTS

• Power system transients are undesirable, fast- and short-duration events that produce distortions.
Their characteristics and waveforms depend on the mechanism of generation and the network
parameters (e.g., resistance, inductance, and capacitance) at the point of interest.
• "Surge" is often considered synonymous with transient.
• Transients can be classified with their many characteristic components such as amplitude, duration,
rise time, frequency of ringing polarity, energy delivery capability, amplitude spectral density, and
frequency of occurrence.

• Transients are usually classified into two categories: impulsive and oscillatory

AN IMPULSIVE TRANSIENTis a sudden frequency change in the steady-state condition of voltage,

current, or both that is unidirectional in polarity
 • The most common cause of impulsive transients is a lightning current surge. Impulsive transients
can excite the natural frequency of the system.

•
• AN OSCILLATORY TRANSIENTis a sudden frequency change in the steady-state condition of
voltage, current, or both that includes both positive and negative polarity values.
• Oscillatory transients occur for different reasons in power systems such as appliance switching,
capacitor bank switching (Fig. 1.4), fast- acting overcurrent protective devices, and ferroresonance

Sources /Causes of Transients

1. Lightning Strikes
2. Switching activities
· Opening and closing of disconnects on energized lines
· Capacitor bank switching
· Reclosing operations
· Tap changing on transformers
3. Loose connections in the distribution system that results to arcing
4. Accidents, human error, animals and bad weather conditions
5. Neighboring facilities
 Effects of Transients
Electronic Equipment
➢ Equipment will malfunction and produces corrupted results
➢ Improper specification and installation of TVSS can aggravate the failures
➢ Efficiency of electronic devices will be reduced

Motors
➢ Transients will make motors run at higher temperatures
➢ Result in micro-jogging leading to motor vibration, excessive heat and noise
➢ Degrades the insulation of the motor winding resulting to equipment failure.
➢ Increases the motor’s losses (hysteresis) and its operating temperature

Lights
➢ Fluorescent bulb and ballast failure
➢ Appearance of black rings at the fluorescent tube ends (indicator of transients)
➢ Premature filament damage leading to failure of the incandescent light.

Electrical Equipment
➢ Transients degrade the contacting surfaces of circuit breakers and switches
➢ Nuisance tripping of breakers due to false activation to a non-existent current demand
➢ Reduce transformer efficiency because of increased hysteresis losses

2. LONG DURATION VARIATIONS

• A variation is considered to be long duration when the limits are exceeded for more than one
minute.
• Long duration variations can be classified into
1. overvoltage,
2. under voltage and
3. sustained interruptions.
Overvoltage
• Overvoltage is defined as an increase in the rms vltage to 1.1-1.2 pu for more than 1 minute

•
• Causes
1. load switching (e.g., switching off a large load or energizing a capacitor bank).
2. overvoltages generated by an insulation fault,
3. ferroresonance,
4. faults with the alternator regulator,
5. tap changer transformer,
6. overcompensation;
 7. lightning overvoltages;
8. switchingovervoltages produced by rapid modifications in the network structure such
as opening of protective devices or the switching on of capacitive circuits.

Effects
• Over voltage tends to stress the insulation of the electrical equipment’s and likely to cause damage
to them when it frequently occurs.
• Over voltage caused by surges can result in spark over and flash over between phase and ground at
the weakest point in the network, breakdown of gaseous/solid/ liquid insulation, failure of
transformers and rotating machines.
• overvoltage can lead to problems such as overheating, malfunction, premature failure, shut down
and shorter operating life.
• a printed circuit board can be expected to have a shorter life when operated above its rated voltage
for long periods of time

Under voltage
• The undervoltage condition occurs when the rms voltage decreases to 0.8-0.9 pu for more than
1 minute.

•
Causes
• Under voltages are the results of
1. switching events that are the opposite of the events that cause overvoltages.
2. A load switching on or a capacitor bank switching off can cause an under voltage until
voltage regulation equipment on the system can bring the voltage back to within
tolerances.
3. Closing and Opening of Circuit Breakers
4. Due to Fault in power system, Due to Motor Starting
5. Due to Transformer Energizing
6. Equipment Failure
7. Bad Weather and Pollution (Lightning strikes, Flash over, etc.)
8. Construction Activity(damage to underground • Cables

EFFECT
• Undervoltage can expose electrical devices to problems such as overheating, malfunction, premature
failure and shut down, especially for motors (i.e. refrigerators, dryers and air conditioners).
• motors run hotter than normal and fail prematurely, dim incandescent lighting and batteries fail to
recharge properly.
• Non optimal power transfer, the source waste power
• Lower torque in motors
• Less current in linear loads
• Rise in current in active regulated loads (to maintain power)
• Transformers and motors working below optimal magnetic flux
Sustained Interruption.
• When the supply voltage becomes zero for a period of time in excess of 1 min, the long-duration
voltage variation is considered a sustained interruption.
• According to the IEC definition, the duration of sustained interruption is more than 3 minutes; but
based on the IEEE definition the duration is more than 1 minute. The number and duration of long
interruptions are very important characteristics in measuring the ability of a power system to deliver
service to customers.

CAUSES
• The most important causes of sustained interruptions are
1. Sustained interruptions are usually caused by permanent faults due to storms, trees striking lines or
poles, utility or customer equipment failure in the power system or miscoordination of protection
devices.
2. fault occurrence in a part of power systems with no redundancy or with the redundant part out of
operation,
3. an incorrect intervention of a protective relay leading to a component outage, or
4. scheduled (or planned) interruption in a low- voltage network with no redundancy.
EFFECT
complete shutdown of the customer facility

3. SHORT DURATION VARIATIONS

• When the rms value of voltage deviates for duration less than 1 minute, it is termed as short
duration voltage variation.
• Each type of variation can be designated as instantaneous,momentary, or temporary, depending
on its duration
• 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).

Voltage sag
• Voltage sag (also called a“dip”) is defined as a decrease in voltage magnitude below 90% of
nominal, but not a complete interruption.
• The typical duration is from 3 to 10 cycles, 50 to 167 milliseconds.
• Typical end-use equipment sensitive to voltage sags are: computers, programmable logic
controllers, controller power supplies, motor starter contactors, control relays and adjustable
speed drives.

Figure 1.2 Voltage Sag Waveform

 • Voltage sag is a short duration decrease in voltage values.
• Voltage sags longer than two minutes are classified as under voltages.

Causes
• short circuits (faults) on the electric power system,
• motor starting,
• customer load additions, and
• large load additions in the utility service area
• Lightning,Wind,Trees falling onto power lines
• Construction workers digging into buried cables
• Equipment failures
• Traffic accidents.

Effect
• Sags can cause computers and other sensitive equipment to malfunction or simply shut off.
• Under voltage conditions can damage certain types of electrical equipment.

Voltage swells

• A voltage swell is the converse to the sag.

• A swell is a short duration increase inrms line voltage values of 110 to 180 percent of the nominal
line-voltage for duration of 0.5 cycles to 1Minute.
• If swells reach too high a peak, they can damage electrical equipment.
• The utility's voltage regulating equipment may not react quickly enough to prevent all swells or sags.
Sourcesof voltage swells are line faults and incorrect tap settings in tap changers in substations.

Figure1.3 Voltage Swell Waveform

Causes
• Voltageswells and overvoltage’s are commonly caused by large load changes and power line
switching.
• Voltage swells can also be caused by the deenergization of a very large load
• , the energization of a large capacitor bank can also cause a voltage swell,

Effects

• It may cause breakdown of components on the power supplies of the equipment, though the effect
may be a gradual, accumulative effect.
• It can cause control problems and hardware failure in the equipment, due to overheating that could
eventually result to shutdown.
• Also, electronics and other sensitive equipment are prone to damage due to voltage swell.
•
Interruptions
• Interruptions occur when voltage levels drop to zero.
• Interruptions are classified as momentary, temporary, or long-term.
• Momentary interruptions occur when service is interrupted, but then is automatically restored in less
than two seconds.
• Temporary interruptions occur when service is interrupted for more than two seconds, but is
automatically restored in less than 2 minutes.
• Long-term interruptions last longer than two minutes and may require field work to restore service.
• In some cases, momentary outages may go unnoticed or cause no apparent problems. However, even
momentary outages can last long enough to shut down computers and disrupt the operation of
sensitive electrical equipment.

Figure1.4 Interruptions Waveform

Causes
• The extent of interruption will depend on the reclosing capability of the protective device.
• For example, instantaneous reclosing will limit the interruption caused by a temporary fault to less
than 30 cycles.
• On the other hand, time delayed reclosing of the protective device may cause a momentary or
temporary interruption.
Effect
Interruptions may cause the following (but not limited to):
Ø Stoppage of sensitive equipment (i.e. computers, PLC, ASD)
Ø Unnecessary tripping of protective devices
Ø Loss of data
Ø Malfunction of data processing equipment.

5. VOLTAGE IMBALANCE
• When voltages of a three-phase system are notidentical in magnitude and/or the phase
differencesbetween them are not exactly 120 degrees, voltageimbalance occurs
• There are two ways to calculate the degree of imbalance:
1. divide the maximum deviation from the averageof three-phase voltages by the average of
three- phase voltages,
2. compute the ratio of the negative- (or zero-) sequence component to the positive-sequence
component
 Causes
1. unbalanced single-phase loading in a three-phase system,
2. overhead transmission lines that are not transposed,
3. blown fuses in one phase of a three-phase capaci- tor bank, and
4. Unbalanced loading of power factor correction capacitors [such as a blown fuse in one phase]
5. Uneven distribution of single-phase loads
6. The load is unbalanced even though it is connected in three phases
7. Incorrect transformer tapping
8. The utility can be the source of unbalanced voltages due to malfunctioning equipment, including
blown capacitor fuses, open-delta regulators, and open-delta transformers.

Effects
• A severe imbalance might dramatically decrease the equipment life cycles, considerably speed up
the replacement cycle of equipment, and significantly increase system operation and maintenance
costs.
• Furthermore, for a 3 phase 4 wire system, voltage imbalance leads to bigger neutral wire current and cause
relay malfunction.,
• Extra power loss
• Safety deficiency
• Motor failure
• Life cycle decrease
• Relay malfunction
• Inaccurate Measurement
• Transformer failure

6. 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

a.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.

•
HARMONICS

• Harmonics are sinusoidal voltages or currents with frequencies that are integer multiples of the
power system (fundamental) frequency (usually, f - 50 or 60 Hz).
• For example, the frequency of the hth harmonic is (hf).
• A sinusoidal voltage or current function that is dependent on time t may be represented by the
following expressions:
Voltage function, v(t) = V sin(ωt)
Current function, i(t) = I sin(ωt ± Ø)
• For the periodic nonsinusoidal harmonic waveform shown in Figure the simplified Fourier
expression states:

(SIN OR COS)

v(t) = VDC + V1 sin(ωt) + V2 sin(2ωt) + V3 sin(3ωt) + … + Vn sin(nωt) + Vn+1 sin ((n+1)ωt) + …

•
Sources
• Main sources of harmon- ics in power systems are industrial nonlinear loads such as power
electronic equipment, for example, drives, rectifiers, inverters,
• loads generating Arcing devices , for example, arc furnaces, welding machines,
• lighting, and residential loads with switch-mode power supplies such as television sets, computers
and fluorescent and energy-saving lamps.
• Power electronic equipment VFDs, electronically commutated (EC) motors, rectifiers, computers,
LED lights, EV chargers, etc.)

effects of harmonics
1. maloperation of control devices,
2. additional losses in capacitors, transformers, and rotating machines,
3. additional noise from motors and other apparatus,
4. telephone interference, and
5. causing parallel and series resonance frequencies (due to the power factor correction
capacitor and cable capacitance),
• Recommended solutions to reduce and control har- monics are applications of high-pulse
rectification, passive, active, and hybrid filters, and custom power devices such as active-power line
conditioners (APLCs) and unified power quality conditioners (UPQCs

ELECTRIC NOISE.

• Electric noise is defined as unwanted electrical signals with broadband spectral content lower
than 200 kHz superimposed on the power system voltage or current in phase conductors, or
found on neutral conductors or signal lines.
• Noise, or interference, can be defined as undesirable electrical signals, which distort or interfere
with an original (or desired) signal.

•
• Noise could be transient (temporary) or constant. Unpredictable transient noise is caused, for
example, by lightning. Constant noise can be due to the predictable 50 or 60 Hz AC 'hum' from
power circuits or harmonic multiples of power frequency close to the data communications cable.
This unpredictability makes the design of a data communications system quite challenging.
• Noise can be generated from within the system itself (internal noise) or from an outside source
(external noise). Examples of these types of noise are:

Internal noise

1. Thermal noise (due to electron movement within the electrical circuits)

2. Imperfections (in the electrical design).
External noise

1. Natural origins (electrostatic interference and electrical storms)

2. Electromagnetic interference (EMI) - from currents in cables
3. Radio frequency interference (RFI) - from radio systems radiating signals
4. Cross talk (from other cables separated by a small distance).

• From a general point of view, there must be three contributing factors before an electrical noise
problem can exist. These are:

1. A source of electrical noise

2. A mechanism coupling the source to the affected circuit
3. A circuit conveying the sensitive communication signals.

• Typical sources of noise are devices, which produce quick changes (spikes) in voltage or current or
harmonics, such as:

1. Large electrical motors being switched on

2. Fluorescent lighting tubes
3. Solid-state converters or drive systems
4. Lightning strikes
5. High-voltage surges due to electrical faults
6. Welding equipment.

Effects

• Computer malfunctions such as shutdowns, computer locks, download gaps, network problems,
data drops, internet errors, etc
• Power quality issues such as equipment failure, resets, voltage drops, etc
• Inaccurate readings in measuring instruments
• Video quality issues such as display bars and stripes, distorted pictures, etc
• Audio: sound with hamming and buzzing noises
• AC drive burnouts and errors
• Errors in precision instruments

INTERHARMONICS.
• The frequency of interharmonics are not integer multiples of the fundamental frequency.
• Interharmonics appear as discrete fre- quencies or as a band spectrum.
• Main sources of interharmonic waveforms are static frequency con- verters, cycloconverters,
induction motors, arcing devices, and computers.

•
Sources
• rapid non-periodic changes in current and voltage caused by loads operating in a transient state
• static converter switching not synchronized to the power system frequency (asynchronous
switching).
• Arcing Loads include arc furnaces and welding machines
• Induction Motors have slots in their stator and rotor iron that can produce interharmonics when
their magnetic circuits saturate.
• Electronic Frequency Converters use a dc link to convert one frequency to another.
• Voltage Sourced Converters (VSCs) are used for a variety of applications including modern wind
generator dc to ac conversion, static compensators (STATCOM) and HVDC applications

Effects
• Interharmonic currents cause interharmonic distortion of the voltage depending on
magnitudes of the current components and the supply system impedance at that frequency.
• The greater the range of the current components frequencies,the greater is the risk of the
occurrence of unwanted resonant phenomena, which can increase the volt age distortion and
cause overloading or disturbances in the operation of customers' equipment and installations.
• Among the most common, direct, effects of interharmonics are:

a) Thermal effects

b) Low-frequency oscillations in mechanical systems

c) Disturbances in fluorescent lamps and electronic equipment operation.

d) Interference with control and protection signals in power supply lines. (This is now the main
harmful effect of the interharmonics)

e) Overloading passive parallel filters for high order harmonics

f) Telecommunication interference

NOTCHING.
• Voltage Notching is a periodic voltage disturbance caused by the normal operation of power
electronic devices when current is commutated from one phase to another.
• The following figure shows an example of voltage notching from a three-phase converter that
produces continuous dc current
• . The notches occur when the current commutates from one phase to another. During this
period, there is a momentary short circuit between two phases, pulling the voltage as close to
zero as permitted by system impedances.
• Notching is repetitive and can be characterized by its frequency spectrum
• The frequency of this spectrum is quite high. Usually it is not possible to measure it with
equipment normally used for harmonic analysis.
• Notches can impose extra stress on the insulation of ransformers, generators, and sensitive
measuring equipment.
• Notching can be characterized by the following properties:
1. Notch depth: average depth of the line voltage notch from the sinusoidal waveform at the funda-
mental frequency;
 2. Notch width: the duration of the commutation process; 9 Notch area: the product of notch depth
and width; and
3. Notch position: where the notch occurs on the sinusoidal waveform.

Sources

Voltage Notching is primarily caused by three-phase rectifiers or converters that generate continuous
DC current. As mentioned, the voltage notches happen when the current commutates from one phase
to another.

Effects
• Voltage Notches introduce harmonic and non-harmonic frequencies that are much higher than
those found in higher voltage systems.
• Usually, these frequencies are in the radio frequency range, that cause negative operational
effects, such as signal interference introduced into logic and communication circuits.
• the voltage notching effect may overload electromagnetic interference filters, and other similar
high-frequency sensitive capacitive circuits.

7. VOLTAGE FLUCTUATION AND FLICKER

• Voltage fluctuations are systemic variations of the voltage envelope or random voltage changes,
the magnitude of which does not normally exceed specified voltage ranges (e.g., 0.9 to 1.1 pu
• Voltage fluctuations are divided into two categories:
1. step-voltage changes, regular or irregular in time, and
2. cyclic or random voltage changes produced by variations in the load impedances.
• Voltage fluctuations degrade the performance of the equipment and cause instability of the internal
voltages and currents of electronic equipment. However, voltage fluctuations less than 10% do not
affect electronic equipment.

• Flicker has been described as "continuous and rapid variations in the load current magnitude which
causes voltage variations."
• The term flicker is derived from the impact of the voltage fluctuation on lamps such that they are
perceived to flicker by the human eye.
• This may be caused by an arc furnace, one of the most common causes of the voltage fluctuations
in utility transmission and distribution systems.
Causes

Equipment or devices that exhibit continuous, rapid load current variations (mainly in the reactive
component) can cause voltage fluctuations and light flicker. Normally, these loads have a high rate of
change of power with respect to the short-circuit capacity at the point of common coupling. Examples
of these loads include:
• Electric arc furnaces
• Static frequency converters
• Cycloconverters
• Rolling mill drives
• Main winders
• Large motors (starting)
• small power loads such as welders, power regulators, boilers, cranes and elevators, to name a
few, may cause voltage fluctuation and flicker depending on the electrical system where they are
connected.
• Capacitor switching, transformer on-load tap changers (OLTC), step voltage regulators and
other devices that alter the inductive component of the source impedance.
• Variations in generation capacity, particularly intermittent types (e.g. wind turbines).
• Low frequency voltage interharmonics.
• Furthermore, loose connections may also result to voltage fluctuations and flicker. Lightly
loaded loose connections may cause flickers for longer periods as compared to heavily loaded ones
that quickly burn out.

Effects

• Flicker is considered the most significant effect of voltage fluctuation because it can affect the
production environment by causing personnel fatigue and lower work concentration levels.
• In addition, voltage fluctuations may subject electrical and electronic equipment to detrimental
effects that may disrupt production processes with considerable financial costs.
• Other effects of voltage fluctuation include the following:
• Nuisance tripping due to misoperation of relays and contactors.
• Unwanted triggering of UPS units to switch to battery mode.
• Problems with some sensitive electronic equipment, which require a constant voltage (i.e.
medical laboratories).
 8. Power Frequency Variations
• Power frequency variations are defined as the deviation of the power system fundamental frequency from it
specified nominal value (50 or 60 Hz).
• Sources:Due to faults on the bulk power transmission system, a large block of load being disconnected, or a
large source of generation going off-line.
• The supply frequency is a function of the rotational speed of the generators used to produce the electrical
energy.
• At any instant, the frequency depends on the balance between the load and the capacity of the available
generation.

Source

• A frequency variation occurs if a generator becomes un-synchronous with the power system, causing an
inconsistency that is manifested in the form of a variation
• Due to faults on the bulk power transmission system, a large block of load being disconnected, or a large
source of generation going off-line.

What are POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCES OF POOR POWER QUALITY

1. Equipment failure or malfunctioning.

2. Unexpected power supply failures (breakers tripping, fuses blowing).

3. Equipment overheating (transformers, induction motors etc.) leading to their lifetime reduction.

4. Increase of system losses.

5. Damage to sensitive equipment (Computers, control systems equipments etc).

6. Communication Interference in case of electronics devices.

7. Increases the need of oversize installations to cope with additional electrical stress, which leads to
consequential increase of installation and running costs.

8. Poor power factor that leads to penalty or increases need and cost of installation of power factor
correction equipments.