Reconfigurable instrument for power quality monitoring in 3-phase power systems

From voltage and current signals it is possible to obtain relevant information regarding 3-phase power supply features like signal amplitude, frequency, harmonic contents, phase, among others. This information is useful to solve problems like power quality monitoring, diagnosis of electrical machines, electric systems protection, and control. This work presents preliminary results on the design of a reconfigurable tool for electric parameter monitoring in 3-phase power systems based on low-cost field programmable gate array technology, which implements different algorithms depending on the application. Obtained results from two study cases show the feasibility of utilizing the proposed instrument for monitoring power quality indexes in 3-phase power systems.