Monitoring Power Quality beyond EN 50160 and IEC 61000-4-30

By A Broshi

Power Quality monitoring has become a standard task in electrical network management.

The standards currently in place provide minimum requirements, since they want to create a level playing field that allows analyzers from different manufacturers to give the same results. It is good idea in concept, but it also acts as double edged sword. Manufacturers design their product to comply with these standards but typically do not provide data and measurements that would allow power quality analysis to go beyond current capabilities. To follow the guidelines set out by various standards and record faults or disturbances, today’s meters rely solely on event-based triggers. While this method provides engineers with some information regarding an event, it does not allow for full analysis of all power parameters leading up to an event, during an event or how the overall network recovers after an event. Further, due to limitations in memory storage, it is likely that even the data captured by such recording method(s) will not capture all of the ‘true’ power and energy parameters. In a majority of cases, these limitations prevent power quality phenomena from being truly solved and prevent solutions that will eliminate future recurrence.

This paper will highlight genuine case studies of Power Quality troubleshooting that was not capable of solving the Power Quality problem with measurements simply taken to comply with standards. It will further show that by providing engineers with data beyond the standards, an unprecedented number of Power Quality events can not only be captured, but are definitively solved.