Upgrading smart meters as key components of integated power quality monitoring system

Power quality is one of the important challenges for the smart distribution grids. It is not possible to know the state of power quality in the network without appropriate measurements or monitoring. As an answer to need for power quality monitoring in smart distribution grids, this paper further develops the Integrated Power Quality Monitoring System (IPQMS). IPQMS integrates power quality data from all the measurement devices available in the smart distribution grids: power quality monitors, portable power quality analyzers, smart meters, protection relays, fault locators etc. Smart meters are the key sensors in smart distribution grids and should be used as indicators of power quality disturbances in IPQMS. The complementary use of power quality monitors and smart meters in IPQMS should enable the analysis of the propagation of power quality disturbances throughout the distribution network. Current state-of-the-art smart meters have certain capabilities regarding the monitoring of some power quality parameters. The necessary upgrades to the state-of-the-art smart meters regarding their power quality monitoring capabilities are discussed in this paper in the context of their role in IPQMS. This paper elaborates in detail one new concept of operation and process algorithms for IPQMS, with special emphasis on smart meters. This paper also presents experimental results of integrated power quality monitoring using power quality monitors, state-of-the-art smart meters and protection relays. The presented experimental results prove that with integrated power quality monitoring, distribution system operators can get a complete information about power quality in their networks.