Harmonic Levels and Television Events

This paper investigates the impact on the harmonic levels of changes in television viewing patterns in Australia. Harmonic levels during special sporting events which attracted large television viewing audiences were recorded at several sites and compared to levels at other times. The enormous increase in television audience levels (compared to typical levels at that time of the night) during the 2006 World Cup soccer match resulted in a modest increase in harmonic voltage levels. The surprisingly low impact may be attributable to the number of television receivers which are continually in operation or standby mode. No conclusive trends were observed in harmonic voltages during the 2004, 2005 and 2006 Melbourne cup races. There was a reduction in harmonic voltages at one site during 2004 and 2005 races. However this trend was not repeated in 2006. The influence of network capacitors on harmonic levels was considered. Lessons learned from these observations could potentially improve our understanding of the impact of customer equipment and customer behaviour on harmonic levels and assist in managing waveform distortion now and in the future.