A distributed system for electric power quality measurement

Abstract

The problem of evaluating power-quality is becoming an impelling need due to the proliferation of disturbing loads in the electric power systems. Unfortunately, the identification of the sources disturbing the system cannot generally be achieved by means of measurements in a single metering section of the electric network. This paper proposes a distributed measuring system to monitor a number of power-quality indices on every load connected to the same point of common coupling, to transmit the measured values to a master device that processes them in order to locate the sources of unbalance and harmonic distortion and to quantify the effects of such disturbances on power quality. The results of some experimental work performed on a low-voltage network are also reported.