Detection of Short-Term Voltage Disturbances and Harmonics Using μPMU-Based Variational Mode Extraction Method

Electric power quality (PQ) is one of the most critical factors effective on the reliability and energy efficiency of power systems. Power quality disturbances (PQDs), such as voltage sags and harmonics, can lead to power outages or interruption in service, and equipment damage, which is very expensive and time-consuming. Therefore, study, research, and investment are critical to evaluate and improve PQ. A wide-area monitoring system is required for PQDs detection to investigate the impact of these on the grid. In other words, the first step in detecting PQDs and taking corrective measures is PQ monitoring. This article has proposed using microphasor measurement units (mu PMUs) for detecting short-term voltage PQ phenomena and harmonics at the system level. In other words, the mu PMU is used as a PQ monitor, and their optimal location is obtained according to the different PQ indices. The advantage of using mu PMU measurements is the continuous determination of system phasor information and the observation of dynamic network changes online. The accurate monitoring and detection of system PQ phenomena are implemented by network visibility and sending this information via the link created by mu PMUs. On the other hand, this article has investigated the efficiency of the variational mode extraction (VME) method in analyzing and extracting measured signals by mu PMUs and to detect PQDs. The proposed method is evaluated on the standard IEEE 13-bus distribution test feeder. The simulation results show the accuracy, correctitude, and speed of the proposed method compared with other methods proposed in other papers.