Consequences of poor power quality for grid operators

Modern installations are more sensitive to power quality (PQ) aspects because an increasing number of electronic devices are used nowadays. However, most of these devices produce distortions in the power system itself because of their nonlinear operating characteristics. At present, the scope of the available PQ standard for the customer's installation is limited. It does not indicate extensively all PQ requirements at the customer's point of connections. When more customers negatively influence the PQ of the grid, various network components can get affected. Hence, the grid operators can have direct or indirect extra costs related to various PQ phenomena such as: power system harmonics, voltage dips and flicker. Estimating the financial consequences of poor PQ for the grid operators is a difficult task as not many analysis and practical studies are carried out yet. In this paper, a theoretical framework is given to estimate various technical and financial impacts for different network components because of PQ problems.