Redefined Power Quality Indices for Stationary and Nonstationary Power Quality Disturbances

Abstract

The recommended power quality (PQ) indices in electric power systems are defined based on the discrete Fourier transform (DFT). DFT is mostly evaluated applying fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithm which requires signals to be periodic in nature. Hence, it evaluates PQ indices accurately for stationary PQ disturbances only. However, in case of nonstationary PQ disturbances signal is aperiodic and FFT results in erroneous assessment due to spectral leakage phenomena. Furthermore, FFT cannot provide time information of the PQ indices as computation is performed in frequency domain only. Which is significant shortcoming of the FFT when dealing with time-varying PQ disturbances to extract dynamic signature of the signal. Thereby, this paper presents a framework of redefining PQ indices for stationary and nonstationary PQ disturbances employing time-frequency distribution (TFD) method. Among all TFDs, reduced interference distribution (RID) represents the most suitable properties for analyzing time-varying PQ disturbances. Hence, in this work, it is employed to reformulate PQ indices typically used in electric power systems. The results of two synthetic examples considering stationary and nonstationary PQ disturbances imply that the RID-based redefined PQ indices are closer to the actual values. Also, they provide more accurate results than the existing transient PQ indices and traditional FFT-based method.