Substation power quality performance monitoring and the Internet

Understanding the performance of the power system is becoming increasingly important. This performance information must be available in a form that customers can use to evaluate the impacts on their processes and to evaluate the economics of power quality improvement alternatives. The performance information should also be shared throughout the utility so that problem areas can be identified and solutions implemented. Technologies to continuously monitor performance are available and the Internet provides a convenient method for sharing the information with all interested parties United Illuminating has implemented a monitoring system that tracks the performance at all distribution substations. The information is available at all times via the corporate intranet so that disturbances and long term power quality issues can be conveniently evaluated and so that information to be shared with customers can be provided easily by customer service personnel This paper describes the power quality monitoring system and the information sharing technology. Important benefits of the system that have been realized by United Illuminating are described, including power quality and reliability, prioritizing system improvements, and identifying problem conditions.