POWER QUALITY MONITORING IN AUSTRALASIA

摘要

Electricity regulators are insisting that utilities havetheir power quality levels assessed by routine long termmonitoring, requiring fixed monitors at selected sitesable to record the full range of disturbances andsending a large volume of data back to a centraldatabase. This has not been done before and requiresthe development of new methodologies. The paperbrings together the relevant experience of Australianand New Zealand CIGRE members.Utilities were survey with a questionnaire having 6major sections designed to address the followingissues:-1. Is monitoring done for reactive (customer) orproactive (statistical surveying) reasons?2. Site selection methodology: Where in the networkare the monitored sites? How are they selected?3. What is the environment of the connection point –physically and electrically?4. What are the characteristics of monitors in use?5. How is the instrument is used?6. What is the reporting methodology used by therespondent?The respondents can be classified as followsDistribution companies: 3Transmission companies: 4Universities: 2Tabulated response summaries have been used tocompare the responses under the headings'Distribution' and 'Transmission'.Based on the responses received, it is clear that routinemonitoring is at an early stage in Australia. A universityconducted survey involving nine distributors is a pilotstudy which the industry may follow.There is a lack of standard approach to monitoring,making benchmarking difficult. This must make itdifficult for the development of national power qualitypractices and is a concern.A wide range of instruments is used. There areopportunities for instrument manufacturers to develop aflexible instrument to meet routine monitoringrequirement.There appears to be very little thought given todatabase structure and reporting for PQ monitoringresults at this stage. There is a risk that companies willmove independently and develop systems which cannotproduce data in a common format, even if practices areotherwise uniform.Very little information is given to customers exceptsometimes following a customer complaint. A widerpublication of power quality levels can have a goodeducational value for both customers and equipmentsuppliers.