This is the introductory course on Power Quality Issues and Impacts.

Quality of power is the burning issue now a days in power system networks through out the world. Power quality issues are their in the power system because of increased use of non linear loads. Also there are number of renewable energy sources penetrated in the existing power system network which are also responsible for affecting the power quality.

There can be completely different definitions for power quality, depending on one’s frame of reference. For example, a utility may define power quality as reliability and show statistics demonstrating that its system is 99.98 percent reliable. Criteria established by regulatory agencies are usually in this vein. A manufacturer of load equipment may define power quality as those characteristics of the power supply that enable the equipment to work properly. These characteristics can be very different for different criteria. Power quality is ultimately a consumer driven issue, and the end user’s point of reference takes precedence. Therefore, the following definition of a power quality problem is : Any power problem manifested in voltage, current, or frequency deviations that results in failure or maloperation of customer equipment.

Health of power transmitted from utilities to various consumers like industrial / commercial / domestic is measured by its quality. Major power quality disturbance which affects the power quality is voltage distortion and voltage distortion is caused by hharmonis and voltage sags.

In this course various power quality issues are explained as per IEEE standard. Need of power quality and its impacts is explained and also the effects of poor power quality are discussed in this course. Depending on various surveys, the most occurred power quality problems are discussed with their causes and effects.