Extending power quality monitoring to feeder level

This paper illustrates the benefits of feeder level power quality (PQ) monitoring that is made possible by the new feeder integrated electronic devices (IED), which offer PQ monitoring as an add-on feature. The paper shows that the current practice gives only a rough estimate of actual PQ as seen by customers on a feeder, and the feeder level monitoring is needed to achieve the ultimate goal of PQ monitoring psila to determine the PQ as seen by all the customers. Study involves conducting a series of simulations to help quantify the potential benefits of feeder level PQ monitoring with the focus on characterization of voltage variations on a feeder. The results indicate that the PQ data from monitors at a few locations on a feeder can indeed extend PQ monitoring to feeder level and enable the utility to estimate the voltage variations as seen by any customer on the feeder. Other benefits of feeder level PQ monitoring are illustrated in the paper as well.