Power Quality Impacts during CFL to LED Transition

Increasing penetration of Light Emitting Diode (LED) lamps is happening due to replacement of existing Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) lighting technologies. As CFL to LED transition will not happen at one go due to the slower uptake from consumers, the mix of these two lighting technologies is likely to be experienced in domestic, commercial and industrial environments all over the world. CFL and LEDs both are non-linear devices and can cause power quality issues to the electricity network as compared with incandescent lamps. The aim of this paper is to investigate the power quality impacts introduced due to a mixture of CFL & LED lamps for voltages extending across New Zealand (NZ) and Australian standards (AUS). Experiments with a number of combinations of CFLs and LEDs of different power ratings have been performed. The combined effects on total harmonic distortion (THD), power factor (PF), displacement power factor (DPF), K-factor and the crest factor have been presented.