Many engineers and technicians may believe that power quality issues are only of concern to power utility companies. They are wrong. Nowadays, power quality issues affect so many industries, perhaps some more than others. For example, large power companies such as mines and smelters may have greater concern in certain respects while those in the electronic field may have other concerns, but, fundamentally, the issues are all related to the same source of problems.
How many of us are aware of what is happening on the power transmission, distribution, and reticulation networks. Many inconspicuous occurrences may be taking place on these networks right now. With the ever-increasing expansion of renewable energy systems, probably the most important power quality phenomena that is happening constantly and oblivious to operators and maintenance crews, is harmonic distortion which affect the voltage and current quality of these networks.
As in many other countries, PV systems with microgrids has become an unavoidable occurrence. This, in turn, bring along several new challenges for utility companies. With the ever-increasing expansion of renewable energy systems, the most important power quality challenges that is brought about, is the harmonic distortion which affect the voltage and current quality.
At one point, the country’s main utility company raised concerns about the fast expansion of renewable energy, but the concerns they raised were so far off the mark that it became laughable. None of the issues raised in this newsletter were of any priority from the articles in newspapers.
We are all aware that there is a wide variety of inverter models available on the market with new ones added constantly. Consequently, the harmonics delivered to the main power grid will thus vary according to inverter types and their control strategies. Utility companies must therefore have the knowledge, skills, and instrumentation to investigate the impact of these components that accompany the distributed generation. The question is: do they have that? Probably not, else we would not see the disturbances that are emerging on the networks.
The technical consequences of distributed generation are dependent on the size of the system and its location in relation to the main power generation grid. These influences are reverse power flow, overvoltage along distribution feeders, voltage / current harmonics, phase unbalances, power losses, voltage control disturbances, low power factor, and electromagnetic interference problems.
Now that electric power wheeling has been implemented, this is where electric energy is transported from a distributed generating plant to remote location through the transmission lines, these problems could be exacerbated.
To overcome these effects, grid measurements, data analysis, and system modelling are needed for different parameters of grid and electricity generated by the renewable energy suppliers to find solutions and to make this resource more reliable.
Power quality parameters such as inrush current, power factor, total harmonic disturbance (THD), and frequency fluctuation should be recorded and studied regularly.
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