Power quality monitoring

Electrical power system has started its journey around the last decade of nineteenth century. The term 'Power Quality' however, has become a matter of concern from the 80s of 20th century due to rapid growth of power electronics and computer controlled loads. In today's power system, Power Quality is a matter of great concern to the researchers as well as utility engineers because of the fact that poor power quality may be the reason for unwanted load interruption, inefficient operation and also damage to the electrical and control equipment. The term Power quality is in use mostly to indicate the quality of voltage and current waveforms. Maintaining the desired Power Quality has become a matter of utmost importance particularly after the introduction of deregulation in power system. Deregulation has resulted in the Restructuring of power system whereby the vertically integrated power system has been divided into independent Gencos, Transcos and Discos. Major charges have taken place in the operation and responsibility sharing of power systems and the service based approach of power system operation has been changed to price based operation.