Recent advancements in monitoring the quality of the supply

The basic architecture of the latest instruments designed to monitor the quality of the electric supply has not changed significantly from the past generations of instruments. However, the processing power, flexibility, and usability has changed significantly with advancements in the hardware, firmware, and software utilized in such systems. This has been driven by the demands of the market, standardization of measurement techniques and communication protocols, specialized large-scale integrated circuits, and improvements in software methodology. All of these advancements have been incorporated for a fraction of the cost of the previous generation of instruments. The latest generation of power quality monitors typically have multiple processor architectures including digital signal processors, communicate over high-speed Ethernet links, and use a simple web browser for the visualization of information from remote locations. With the increased susceptibility and economic dependence on information technology and other sensitive equipment for increased productivity and profit; less power-quality-knowledgeable users are requiring simple answers from increasingly larger volumes of complex, interdependent data.