Review of power quality monitoring systems

Power quality is gaining a lot of interest lately by researchers and engineers as electricity is a vital part of our daily life. The aim of this paper is to survey some of the recent existing systems, techniques and methods that are being used to monitor power quality. The survey focuses mainly on power quality monitoring systems which are composed of various tools, software, communication links etc. that work together as one coherent system. Another goal is to develop an understanding about the quality management in the area of power industry. Some of the methods and techniques that are presented discuss about power quality meter placement techniques. Finding the best locations to place the power quality monitors in the electrical grid is done by developing algorithms and approaches to find the appropriate number of monitors and the appropriate locations to place them in order to reduce the cost of the PQM system and increase its efficiency. The paper discusses the basic idea of each method or system in order to have an understanding about its importance and role. Then, a simple comparison is made between the techniques in terms of their advantages and disadvantages. After that, international industry practices and guidelines for power quality monitoring and management are discussed. Lastly, some examples for the efforts that are made in the area of power quality improvement are discussed.