Characterization of power quality disturbances using digital filtering techniques

The quality of service indicators in distribution networks represents a main concern in the power industry nowadays, and the power quality measurements (PQ) are an important part to obtain these indicators. When a PQ disturbance is detected and measured it has to be characterized to obtain the parametric data related with it; this way, it can be classified according to international standards. To make the characterization process it has been relevant the use of digital signal processing techniques like digital filtering and shifting functions. In this paper digital filters, cancelation filters and delay functions are proposed to characterize PQ disturbances. The results suggest that the developed algorithms can be easily implemented in field instruments due to their simplicity and low computational effort required for his operation. All he developments were made using National Instruments LabVIEW® and conventional PC architectures.