On 24th September, IEEE Power and Energy Chapter presented the webinar “Power Quality with Large Penetration of Power Electronics-Based Devices”  by Dr Grazia Todeschini.

A power quality disturbance consists in a deviation from the ideal voltage or current waveform, magnitude or frequency. The first power quality problems can be traced back to the invention of electric power, and they have been mitigated with the development of appropriate standards and evolution of design practices. In the last decade there has been a renewed interest in this topic, due to the changing nature of electric loads and generating sources, which cause new power quality concerns. For example, the installation of a large number of PV panels on the distribution system contributes to increasing voltage levels, which may cause damage or malfunctioning to already existing equipment or to protective devices.

The first part of this seminar provided an introduction to power quality concerns, by reviewing definitions, standards, sources of power quality problems, and available mitigating solutions. In the second part, Dr. Grazia Todeschini  gave an overview of ongoing research projects in this area. The main topics addressed were: modelling of power electronics converters for harmonic assessment, harmonic mitigation, deep learning applied to power quality analytics, power quality in dc microgrids and power quality assessment for tidal energy projects.