Assessment of power quality performance in distribution networks: Part I – Measurement campaign and initial analysis

Power quality (PQ) is a raising concern in distribution grids of modern industrialized countries. The PQ monitoring activities of distribution system operators (DSO) and consequently the amount of PQ measurement data increases continuously. To keep the routine assessment of PQ levels efficient, new and automated tools for validating, analysing and visualizing these data are required. The paper illustrates the challenges of processing long-term PQ monitoring campaigns by using measurement data at 8 different sites in public low voltage (LV) networks for more than one year (64 weeks). The paper is divided into two parts. The first part describes the measurement campaign, the pre-processing of the data and an easy and flexible way for routine compliance assessment. The second part is dedicated to the comparison of two different global PQ indices for assessing an average site performance as basis for e.g. benchmarking purposes.