Contribution to the Teaching of Electric Power Quality Through Practical and Extension Activities

The importance of power electronics (PE) in society is indisputable, providing comfort and productivity with energy efficiency and the use of alternative power sources. However, with the benefits of PE, there are also challenges to maintaining the quality of electrical energy, affected by the intermittency of renewable sources, the presence of harmonic distortions, fluctuations, and voltage imbalances, among other adverse effects. Thus, teaching concepts about power quality is essential for the training of future electrical engineers, making them able to identify and correct problems that may interfere with the correct functioning of electroelectronic equipment. In this sense, the purpose of this work is to share the actions that have been carried out in the electrical engineering course to complement the teaching on power quality in such a way that they can be used by other educational institutions. Extension activities involving industries and companies in the region are presented, in which power quality data are collected for later analysis and the return of results by students. In addition, a didactic workbench is proposed to carry out experimental activities, where the student can install and observe through a power analyzer the influence of different types of load on voltage and current waveforms and on quality indicators. In this way, students are provided with comprehensive and applied training in this area, seeking to connect theoretical knowledge to real-world situations.