Power Standards Lab - Utility Power Quality Standards

Tutorial

New! Utility Power Quality Standards

Companies that deliver electric power -- "utility companies", in American English -- have recognized over the last decade or so that their customers need to know what kind of power they can expect. What are utility power quality standards? Information about utility power standards.

Here are some examples of published "power quality policies" (my words). If you know of others, please send me an e-mail at [email protected].

Pacificorp (Utah, U.S.A.)
A reasonably informative set of documents, clearly based on IEEE standards. No guarantees; has been published since 1996. From the technical language, I would guess that these are aimed at engineers, not typical industrial/commercial customers. (Reviewed by Alex McEachern 1/2004; suggested by Dennis Hansen.)

Office of the Regulator General (Victoria, Australia)
This is a mixture of IEC and IEEE requirements. Although there is some "best endeavors" language here, this set of standards clearly contemplates some serious efforts by the electricity distributor to maintain power quality. Includes an interesting, but toothless, requirement for power quality monitoring. (Reviewed by Alex McEachern 1/2004; suggested by Ian McMichael.)

Need copies of one of these standards? Please contact us, and we will be glad to help.