Advanced Energy Meters & Power Quality

Addressing concerns from the utility and end user’s perspective

BY DAVID BOVANKOVICH, E-Mon

The increasing sophistication of commercial and industrial devices and equipment continues to drive the critical need for clean, dependable, stable electric power. As such, power quality continues to gain traction as a “front burner” issue for both utilities and ratepayers, primarily commercial, industrial, and other volume energy consumers. Advanced energy meters that integrate both power quantity (consumption and demand) and power quality monitoring can offer a solution.

DEFINING POWER QUALITY
According to the National Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee (NJATC), power quality phenomena may be characterized as “the range of variations in amplitude, phase, wave shape, and/or frequency from the ideal or pure sine wave of voltage and current that results in the misoperation of equipment susceptible to such variations”.

The Canadian Electricity Association (CEA) states, “the term ‘power quality’ encompasses all aspects pertaining to the quality of power supply including the continuity of service and waveform distortions. Put simply, power quality is more commonly defined in terms of the degree to which the delivery of electric power affects the performance of electrically connected equipment and customer loads”.