Characteristics of power quality disturbances in Australia: voltage harmonics

Management of harmonic voltage levels can impose significant economic impacts for both electricity suppliers and customers. For the case where harmonic voltage levels are high, economic costs include damage to equipment and associated loss of production due to high voltage harmonic levels as well as the costs associated with mitigation of harmonic currents, for example, harmonic filters. In the alternate scenario, ie. the case where harmonic voltage levels are acceptable, considerable expense may be incurred mitigating harmonic currents unnecessarily due to lack of knowledge of harmonic levels and/or network capabilities. As such, there is considerable potential for industry to make large economic gains if harmonic voltage levels can be better understood. Using data collected as part of an ongoing long-term power quality monitoring project, this paper details the characteristics of voltage harmonic behaviour on Australia electricity distribution networks