PQube- Energy and power quality monitor/analyzer

   Currently installed configuration on „Department of energy and power systems“  consists of:

·   PQube- base module

·   PS1- power supply module, necessary for 230 Vac power supply

·   XCT4- current module for current transformers with 1 Amp current secondary

·   ETH1-  Ethernet module

   The communication with PQube in project  „Emergent phenomena testbed simulator for improving SCADA performance in power system security management” is established over Web Server, access to the measured data is done through the website with a fixed IP address http://161.53.66.233.

   Communication and transferring of the measurements collected with PQube is also possible with FTP Server. This simple FTP is used for transferring files between computers (in our case portable computers bought from the project budget)  that are connected in a network.  FTP Server is currently active and running and any FTP client can be used.

“Smart” monitoring of consumption

   The “smart” monitoring of consumption is currently being developed on the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (Figure 16). For consumption measurement of FER currently are used two SENTRON 3200 multimeters that are embedded in the main low voltage distribution, conductive fields R03 and R05. The multimeters are represented in figure with MT P1 symbols. The control of two multimeters is achieved with PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) and current data is displayed on the 12” TOUCHscreen.

Figure 16 The ‘smart’ consumption measurement at FER

   The TOUCHscreen display is shown on figure below (Figure 17). The multimeters are equipped with an Ethernet module and multimeter data for active and reactive power are read with the Modbus OPC Server. Currently configuration is set to store data about active and reactive power in 15 minute intervals.

   The lack of current configuration lies in the fact that information about consumption on each line is unknown, only information about total consumption is available. The smart grid of the future should include detailed information about consumption on each line for better information about failures in the grid and for better response to them. For intelligent monitoring of consumption the following equipment is installed:

·         CX8090-1011 – Embedded PC for Ethernet with K-bus interface,

·         KL3043-0333 – 3-phase power measurement terminal, max. 500V AC 3 transformers with 333 mV AC,

·         KL9020 – Terminal bus extension, end terminal at KL9050,

·         KL9050 – Terminal bus extension, coupler terminal from KL9020 or KL9050,

·         KL9010 – Bus end terminal,

·         ADAPTER AC CLAMP ON FOR DMM.

The following split – core current transformers are also installed:

·         CTSA010-5A/1.67mA,

·         CTSA010-50A/16.67mA,

·         CTSA016-100A/33.33mA,

·         CTSA024-200A/66.67mA,

·         CTSA035-300A/100mA.

   The future smart monitoring of consumption will use the split-core current transformers that will be installed in all active cable drains of the LV grid and will be connected to the power – measurement KL3043 terminals that are an integral part of the PAC configuration. The proposed system is shown in the figure below (Figure 18).

Figure 18 The proposed consumption management system

Testing results

   Considering mentioned facts in the paragraphs above the proposed scheme of future system responsible for the monitoring of power quality is shown in figure below (Figure 19).

Figure 19 Proposed scheme of future system responsible for the monitoring of power quality [10]

   The future system for monitoring the power quality will consist of three fixed and six moveable measurement points. The fixed measurement points include installation of another two PQubes in a control cabinet at the main supply installations in the „Department of energy and power systems“ and will serve for three-phase measuring of consumption and the power quality. The moveable measurement points are planned for connecting specific single phase loads to a standard earthed socket.

   Furthermore additional data about energy quality with distributed renewable energy sources will be gathered from the hybrid system located on the top of the FER building C. All the data will be relayed to one central data gathering point. The server will manage the communication between all the measurement equipment and energy sources. The data gathered will be used as an input for the design of other modules in the testbed platform. The second part of this chapter was dedicated to the smart monitoring of consumption. The “smart” grid, electrical grid of the future, will be incomplete without progress in area of the monitoring of electricity consumption.

   The “smart” monitoring of consumption on FER is transitional stage between electricity meter and smart meter concept.

   The installation of proposed system will be the next step in realization of “smart grid” concept. With the enhanced monitoring of consumption, additional information of the grid will be provided, earlier responses to the failure will be enabled and the system will be more safe and reliable.