Voltage distortion influence on current signatures in nonlinear loads

This paper outlines the effects that voltage distortion has on current waveforms when the voltage supplies nonlinear loads. This is a serious problem when a power quality disturbance dictionary has to be built because some nonlinear loads show different current waveforms when they are supplied by distorted voltage. The paper develops a method and a database organization to represent voltage distortion sensitive loads. This method uses a programmed three-phase arbitrary waveform generator in order to obtain the distortion dependent current consumption. The roadmap obtained is organised using a relational database and the proposed entity-relationship model is presented. This is a step towards the target of automating the process of collecting disturbance data in order to build a power quality disturbance dictionary.