"Make Sense of PQ Data"
Bringing together the Power Quality Expertise of the staff of the School of Electrical, Computer and Telecommunications Engineering (SECTE) at the University of Wollongong and highly respected industry consultants in the power quality field, in 2000 Power Quality Australia implemented the first large scale pro-active power quality survey undertaken in Australia. The aim of this project was to report and benchmark power quality levels across Australia and also to give utilities experience in survey methodology. In this first instance 11 utilities across Australia were involved in the project and 8 sites were chosen for monitoring from each utility by the University of Wollongong. Each of these sites was monitored for one week and a report generated.
Immediately following this initial survey, The Long Term National Power Quality Survey (LTNPQS) was initiated. It involves continuous measurement of voltage variation, unbalance, harmonics and sags and has evolved to include some 300 plus sites from across the Australian eastern seaboard with reports generated on a year by year basis. Both low voltage and medium voltage sites are monitored. Sites are chosen by the utilities themselves and the data collected is forwarded to the University of Wollongong for analysis and reporting. Unique and innovative methods for reporting power quality have been developed and the reports now include a comprehensive overview of the power quality performance of each site and also substantial benchmarking and trending analysis. More recently the report became compliance focused and to reflect this was renamed the Power Quality Compliance Audit (PQCA).
Power Quality Australia now offers consultancy services in all areas of power quality including monitoring and analysis, reporting techniques, management and investigations and problem solving.