Engineering Handbook

1C.1Power Quality Introduction

ENGINEERING
Standards and Technical Support Department
Date: 25 Jul 96
Engineering Handbook
Table of Contents
1C.1Power Quality Introduction
Date: 25 Jul 96 1C.1 Page ii of ii
E 1996 by PacifiCorp. All rights reserved
Engineering Handbook
Volume 1General
1C.1Power Quality Introduction
Part CPower Quality
25 Jul 96
1C.1 Page 1 of 4
1C.1Power Quality Introduction
1 Scope
This document presents PacifiCorps views regarding the importance of power quality and volt-
age regulation, and introduces PacifiCorps power quality standards.
2 Quality of Delivered Power
An important part of PacifiCorps mission is to provide and maintain a high quality of electric
service to its customers. The quality of the power delivered to a customer is an important part of
that service quality. These power quality standards address:
1. Regulation of the delivered voltage
2. Quality of the delivered power determined by the cleanness of the sinusoidal voltage and
current waveforms at the point of delivery
3 Importance of Voltage Regulation and Power Quality
PacifiCorp views good voltage regulation and power quality as essential to the efficient and reli-
able operation of their customers sensitive electronic loads. Power disturbances such as tran-
sients and harmonics can destroy or shorten the life of sensitive equipment resulting in expensive
downtime and lost revenue. Some types of equipment and their use in a customers facility can
adversely affect the current and voltage on the distribution system so that sensitive equipment
connected to the same circuit or equipment of a nearby customer does not function as it was de-
signed. Sensitive utility equipment is vulnerable as well. For example, a dip in voltage caused by
a customer starting a motor can cause an adjacent piece of microprocessor-controlled equipment
to misoperate or shut down.
4 The Need for Standards and Guidelines
These power quality standards establish operational characteristics, tolerances, and limits which,
when met, will allow facilities containing power sensitive and power disturbing loads to operate
on PacifiCorps distribution system with a minimum of interference to utility equipment or cus-
tomer loads. PacifiCorps customers, outside contractors and consultants, and its own engineer-
ing and operations personnel can use these standards to properly design, install, maintain, and
operate facilities containing power disturbing loads or sensitive equipment requiring a high de-
gree of power quality. They will know what voltage range is required to operate equipment effec-
tively. The standards are important in determining the degree of power quality of any electrical
distribution system, whether utility feeder or facility circuit.
5 The Power Quality Standards
Specifically, these standards provide information and specifications on voltage level, regulation,
and quality that PacifiCorp intends to maintain and deliver to its customers. Standard 1C.4.1,
Engineering Handbook
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1C.1Power Quality Introduction
Part CPower Quality
25 Jul 96 1C.1 Page 2 of 4
Harmonic Distortion, sets limits on current distortion caused by equipment or loads that will be
allowed by customers connected to PacifiCorps distribution system. The limits place some re-
straint on customers whose operation of equipment adversely affects the operation of another
customers equipment. The standards are listed and briefly described in Table 1.
Table 1 Power Quality Standards and Their Descriptions
Power Quality Standards Descriptions
Voltage levels and ranges (1C.2) Normal voltage levels, overvoltage, undervoltage
Voltage balance (1C.3) Phasephase variation in voltages; affects system
operation efficiency
Harmonic distortion (1C.4) Voltage and current waveform distortion
Voltage fluctuation and flicker (1C.5) Sags and dips
Voltage disturbances (1C.6) Swells or rises, impulses or transients, high-fre-
quency conducted noise
Stray voltage (1C.7) Inducted voltage, step and touch potential
Voltage frequency (1C.8) Variation in power frequency
Finding and solving power quality prob-
lems (1C.9)
Corrective measures
Close adherence to these standards by the electrical community will provide an acceptable level
of power quality for both the power provider and the power user.
Achieving this acceptable level of power quality can be obtained through a cooperative effort
among the power users, equipment manufacturers, and PacifiCorp; the result will be longer ser-
vice life for equipment and lower cost for electric service. For example, in using this neighbor-
hood approach to quality power, the voltage harmonics on a circuit can be kept at a level that can
be accepted by all. This will result in a near sinusoidal waveform on the circuit, which will allow
all connected load equipment to operate properly. Prevention is much better than finding a cure.
In achieving a suitable level of power quality, the costs of implementing a solution using state-of-
art engineering technology must of course be weighed against practical application and desired
results.
6 Document Development and Technical Resources
This document and the standards listed in Table 1 were developed by the Power Quality (PQ)
standards team. The team was given the charge to develop and document standards for power
quality to be used by PacifiCorp. The PQ team consists of the following:
Athay, Mark Customer Operations Engineering
Baldwin, Lynda Strategic Accounts
Day, Dennis Strategic Account Services
Hansen, Dennis Standards and Technical Support (team leader)
Engineering Handbook
Volume 1General
1C.1Power Quality Introduction
Part CPower Quality
25 Jul 96
1C.1 Page 3 of 4
Harris, Paul Customer Operations Engineering
Johnson, Nunnally Distribution Engineering
Luck, LaMar Distribution Engineering
Osborn, Mark Retail Marketing
Tomasini, Frank Customer Operations Engineering
7 Issuing Department
The Standards Services department of PacifiCorp Engineering is responsible for issuing this
document. Comments and suggestions are welcome. Additional copies may be obtained from:
Address: 201 South Main, Suite 2000
Salt Lake City, Utah 84140-0020
telephone: (801) 220-2034
fax: (801) 220-2258
8 Approvals and Authorization
The persons listed below approved this document. Their signed management approval records
are on file in Standards Services. Publication and use of this document is authorized by the
director of Standards and Technical Support. The signature of the manager of Standards Services
below indicates that all required approvals and authorization have been received.
C. Paul Dalpiaz, director
Standards and Technical Support
Darrell T. Gerrard, director
Transmission and Distribution Engineering
Blaine Stewart, assistant vice president
Customer Operations
Approvals and authorization received:
Merrill L. Brimhall, manager
Standards Services
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