Power quality contracts in a competitive electric utility industry

Who will be responsible for the quality of being delivered in the deregulated utility industry? The characteristics and sensitivity of end use equipment within customer facilities ultimately define power quality requirements. Improving the energy efficiency and productivity of industrial and commercial facilities can sometimes result in the use of technology that either causes power quality problems or is sensitive to power quality variations. Historically, utilities have only become involved in power quality problems that they caused to their customers. In the deregulated industry, the concepts of utilities and their customers are blurred. What are the power quality requirements at the interface between the transmission company and the distribution company? What is the base level of power quality that must be supplied by the distribution company to the end use customers? What kinds of enhanced power quality services can the energy service company offer to the end use customers? The answers to all of these questions must be developed in terms of the contracts between the different entities resulting from the utility industry deregulation. This paper describes some of the requirements for these contracts and ways of measuring performance to evaluate compliance with the contracts