Characterization methods and typical levels of variations in rms voltage at the time scale between 1 second and 10  minutes

• Published in: Electric power systems research 2020-07, Vol.184, p.106322, Article 106322
• Main Authors: Bollen, Math, de Castro, Aurora Gil, Rönnberg, Sarah
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Electric potential; Electric Power Engineering; Electricity distribution; Electricity distribution grids; Elkraftteknik; Power quality; Power-quality monitoring; Rapid voltage changes; Simulation; Supply voltage variations; Time; Time series; Voltage
• ISSN: 0378-7796; 1873-2046; 1873-2046
• DOI: 10.1016/j.epsr.2020.106322

•Additional voltage quality indices covering the time scale between 1 s and 10 min, including single-window indices and single-site indices.•Statistics on voltage variations in the sub-10-minute time scale: from measurements at 57 locations around the world it is concluded that the voltage typically varies by 0.5–5 V within a 10-min window.•Identifying the need for further studies on this largely unexplored time scale.•A new contribution defining the borderlands between power-quality variations and power-quality events. Voltage magnitude deviation from its nominal value varies over a range of time scales. This paper concentrates on the range between 1 s and 10 min as part of the long-term aim of obtaining a complete picture of voltage magnitude variations at time scales below ten minutes. Time series of voltage with 1-s time resolution are obtained at 57 locations around the world. The main contributions of the paper are: the definition of additional indices in the sub-10-minute time scale from the 1-s rms voltages; statistics on the values of these indices for different locations; identifying the need for further research through a set of recommendations to the research community. It is shown, among others, that for the available data set, the voltage typically varies between 0.5 V and 5 V within a 10-min window; a range exceeding 1 or 2 V is common; a range exceeding 5 V is uncommon. The need for the indices proposed in this paper is justified as equipment connected to the grid is changing and to help managing and for storing the huge amount of data resulting from power-quality measurements at many sites during several years.