Power quality trends in energy Australia distribution network

Power distribution utilities need to be aware of the general variation of power quality (PQ) disturbances across their network, where the regulators are increasingly asking them to conduct ldquoquality controlrdquo surveys on the selected parts of their network to establish the level of PQ and overall compliance with national standards. As a result utilities are developing their own PQ monitoring projects to help maintain the PQ levels within the limits specified by standards. The long term PQ monitoring and analysis is to help utilities to identify problematic PQ disturbance trends and take preventative measures in planning improvement. This paper suggests a methodology for analysing PQ monitoring data to give useful insights on PQ disturbance trends in utility networks. Actual field data from a PQ monitoring campaign conducted by Energy Australia has been used to establish the method and the analysis has shown that the sites having similar categories in terms of network type have a strong positive linear relationship for voltage sag and harmonic trends.