Integral Energy Power Quality & Reliability Centre
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Research & Development Projects

The Centre has many areas of research in the areas of power quality and reliability including:
  • Power quality surveying methodology
  • Power quality data analysis and reporting
  • Flicker propagation and transfer
  • Harmonic allocation to distribution and transmission Systems
  • Reliability improvement for MV feeders
  • Simplifying reliability reporting tools
  • Identifying state-of-art reliability practices
  • Standards interpretation and development
  • Effect of photovoltaic inverter systems on distribution systems
  • Power quality datamining
  • Voltage unbalance on transmission networks
  • Load control ripple signal amplification and mitigation
  • Power quality instrumentation operation and standards
  • Equipment immunity to PQ disturbances
  • Achievable sag characteristics and limits for distribution systems
  • Cost of sags to customers
  • Distributed generation
  • Improving/creating computer models of equipment such as wind turbines and induction motors
  • Database structure for power quality data
Centre staff are also active on various standards and industry committees and working groups.

Vic Gosbell is Chairperson of Standards Australia EL-034-03 Harmonics and low frequency disturbances and a member of the following:
  • CIGRE Australian Panel C4 System Technical Performance International CIGRE-CIRED Working Group C4.103 Emission Limits for Disturbing Installations
  • International IEC Working Group 8 Description of the electromagnetic environment associated with the disturbances present on electricity supply networks
  • ENA Reliability and Power Quality Group, Team 4, Power Quality
  • Standards Australia EL-034 Power Quality
Vic Smith is on the Cigre Australian Panel C6 - Distributed generation in distribution systems

Research by Individual

Postgraduate Research Projects

Project title: Unsupervised and Supervised Learning Strategies of Data Mining in Power Quality Data Analysis
Outcomes: The power quality monitoring data has been classified using data mining based on clustering techniques which can provide the engineers with a rapid, visually oriented method of evaluating the underlying operational information contained within the clusters. By clustering the power quality monitoring data into meaningful segments., the engineers will be able to realistically interpret such large amounts of data. The Minimum Message length (MML) inductive inference is used for clustering and snob is the software based on MML criteria is used for clustering the data.

Project Title: Management of Voltage Unbalance in Interconnected Sub-transmission Networks
Outcomes: A generalised three-phase/unbalanced load flow program has been developed in the phase domain in order to model a network in detail, incorporating asymmetry in both the system (specifically transmission lines) and loads. This can be employed to critically analyse the problem of voltage unbalance.
Further expected outcomes are a methodology for systematic ranking of contributors to voltage unbalance at specific node of the network, principles for allocating the voltage unbalance to various nodes of a network and state estimation techniques in relation to voltage unbalance.

Project title: Flicker Transfer in Power Systems
Outcomes: The main research objective is to develop flicker transfer analysis methods for radial and mesh power systems considering the influence of induction motor loads on flicker propagation and attenuation. The work involves modelling of induction motors in order to incorporate their dynamic response to voltage fluctuations, in establishing the flicker transfer coefficient. Laboratory work is being carried to support the theoretical work.
A systematic method has been developed for radial systems using small signal modelling of induction motors exploring the frequency dependency of flicker attenuation and a similar method in frequency domain is being developed for mesh systems.