Revision of European Standard EN 50160 on power quality: Reasons and solutions

The paper describes the process of revision of European Standard EN 50160 on voltage characteristics of electricity supplied by public distribution networks, with a consequent evaluation of the Italian situation. The revision was initiated after the decision of the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER) to participate to the standardization activities collaborating with the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC). Several important issues are addressed and clarified in the new edition of the standard and possible improvements to be introduced in future revisions of the document are considered. In Italy an extensive research work was started in 2004 within the Research Project on the Italian Electrical System and is still on-going in particular with a series of measurement campaigns and monitoring of MV and HV networks.