Quality electrical energy is important for longer equipment life, lower loss rates and a safer network.
Product quality and service quality: the importance of quality electrical energy
The quality of electrical energy plays an essential role in extending the lifespan of equipment, reducing losses and ensuring network security.
Hospitals and companies with sensitive equipment require a continuous and stable power supply. The definition of quality involves the combination of features that correspond to customer expectations regarding products and services. In the electrical system, this covers the power transmission and distribution, which involves several variables.
It is important to understand the difference and the complementarity between service quality and product quality. The product refers to the electrical energy generated, while the service covers all the delivery chain until the consumer.
The product must provide balanced sinusoidal voltages constant in amplitude and frequency (60 Hz in Brazil). The service is directly related to the continuity and uninterrupted supply of energy.
The standards establish limits to prevent violation of voltage reference values when they are outside the appropriate operating range (PRODIST (Brazil Distribution procedures) Module 8). Furthermore, ANEEL (Brazil National Electric Energy Agency) establishes limits for the duration and frequency of interruptions. When these limits are exceeded, concessionaires are responsible for compensating consumers.
What is energy service quality?
The standards establish the service time and continuity of supply in the case of service quality. The distribution of electrical energy faces more failures than generation and transmission due to its greater reach, amount of equipment and presence in more populated areas.
The quality of the service is evaluated considering the frequency and duration of electricity interruptions. These interruptions can be caused by problems such as vegetation in contact with the grid, animals, atmospheric discharges, winds, equipment failures, accidents, fires, vandalism, among others. It is necessary to take into account the particularities of each electrical system and respect the limits of these indicators.
The Module 8 of Prodist (Distribution procedures), that includes Quality of Electricity Supply in the National Electric System, establishes the procedures, rules, and sanctions applicable to power utilities that exceed these limits related to the product, service, and customer service.
And the quality of the product?
Product quality refers to the characteristics of the electrical energy itself, which must maintain acceptable levels of voltage, frequency, and wave amplitude. This happens because, due to natural events or during transportation, energy may vary due to transients or other disturbances, affecting the quality of the product itself and also causing problems for consumers.
The main types of disturbances in electrical energy quality are:
Transient (impulsive and oscillatory);
Short-Term Voltage Variations;
Long-Term Voltage Variations;
Imbalances;
Waveform Distortion (harmonics, voltage cut, noise, etc.);
Frequency variations.
Quality is directly linked to the various chain impacts, from the power generation, transmission and distribution to its arrival to consumers.
In 2021, HVEX and Energisa developed the fault indicator device Fault-X, a device that uses IoT technology to identify electrical grid failures through analysis of current value in situations of temporary and permanent faults. In addition, it provides alerts using the geolocation of the network failure, reducing diagnosis time and customer service.
As we can see, the quality of electrical energy is affected by several elements, with a direct impact on the way we receive this energy, such in terms of product as in terms of service. It is important to mention that we will cover more details about these mentioned events in future publications.
If you are interested in this subject, we can prepare more comprehensive material for you to download. So, don't forget to like, comment and share this article with those who are also interested in this topic!