Power Quality Disturbances on Smart Grids: Overview and Grid Measurement Configurations

Smart electrical grids today are increasingly integrating new technologies such as electric vehicles, smart metering, and demand side management. They aim to promote the use of renewable energy sources and better energy saving. The ever growing presence of power electronics interfaces, for example photovoltaic panels, batteries, or direct current loads in the power system makes it more vulnerable to power quality issues. The paper aims to create an overview of the existing power quality disturbances in traditional as well as smart grids. The other main objective of the paper is to discuss the techniques to measure and detect supraharmonic emissions in smart grids. The paper also describes the measurement parameters and configurations in smart grid platform in order to analyse the dynamic conditions. This platform is an advanced test facility designed and developed to facilitate the transition from traditional to smart grids. The paper studies the existing power quality disturbances and identified supraharmonic emissions as field of interest. It also presents the design and initial tests conducted on a measurement system for supraharmonics. The parameters and configurations to be performed during the measurements in the smart grid platform are also discussed.