Virtual Laboratory for the Evaluation of the PQ Events for Electromagnetic Compatibility Purposes

R. Trevio-Covarrubias, E. L. Moreno-Goytia, David Campos-Gaona, J. A. Rodrguez-Ceballos

rtc39@hotmail.com, elmg@ieee.org, davidcg@ieee.org, joel@ifm.umich.mx

Abstract.
This work presents the design and implementation of a virtual laboratory, VL, oriented to monitor and test the power quality of electrical networks on the context of an electromagnetic compatibility. Among the capabilities of the VL are: a) generating test signals such as voltage flicker, voltage sags, voltage swells, harmonics and inter-harmonics and b) the acquisition and registration of waveforms. The VL is implemented in LabVIEW and has the capacity to be remotely controlled via Internet. disturbances, such as voltage sags, voltage swells, harmonics and inter-harmonics [4-9]. Also, as a monitoring station, the VL collects historical data for further analysis and process, accordingly to the needs of the user. The VL is implemented using the LabVIEW computational platform and includes a data acquisition module from national instruments. Additionally the VL can be controlled remotely aiming to fulfill with the standard IEC61850 [10].

1. Introduction.
Virtual laboratories have increasing its acceptance during last decade in electrical and electronic laboratories applications around the world. This is because the practical and versatile way of operating the VLs, even remotely, and its simplicity to integrate virtually any intelligent electronic device, IED, such as electronic measurement equipment of different characteristics and communication schemes. In the particular case of the laboratories for power quality, various specialized equipment, communications and standards are needed nowadays most of this in concordance with the application of the smart grid concept over the electrical networks. In order to provide solutions and tools for research and experimentation in power quality facing the bulk incorporation of loads sensitive to electrical disturbances and the ever-increasing presence of renewable sources of energy and power electronics devices in the grid, this work focus in developing a VL with the capacity of: 1) to generate electrical disturbances useful for testing sensitive equipment such as loads, controls protections and other electronic devices in case of distortion in their input energizing current 2) To monitor and save historical data collection of electrical signals 3) To access, locally and remotely the functions of the VL [1-3]. Recommendations and the standards such as IEEE 519-1992, IEEE 1100-2005, IEEE 1459-2010, IEC61000-4-15, IEC-61000-4-7, e IEC 61000-4-30, address several events that alter the power quality. The virtual laboratory presented in this investigation focuses in the more relevant power quality

2. Concept and structure of the VL for quality of energy applications.

Fig. 1 shows the general structure of the VL for quality of energy measurements encompassing its main parts such as the server, the data acquisition system, the test equipment, and the remote connection [1, 2, 11].

Figure 1. Structure of a VL controlled remotely.

The applications of the VL are oriented to: The evaluation of equipment performance associate with quality of energy. Tests for control and protection strategies. Evaluation of strategies and techniques for electrical disturbances mitigation using electronic controllers. Effects and behavior analysis of devices, equipment, and loads subjected to electric disturbances. Evaluate novel measurement algorithms

Additionally, the VL in this work can be used in undergraduate courses.. The VL is implemented using VIs (virtual instruments) from LabVIEW which enclose programming routines that define an application. Each VI consists of three main parts: Front panel, which is a graphical interaction interface for the user. Block diagram, which contains the execution code of the program. Icon/connector, which are the means to interconnect a VI with other VIs

commanded to operate by pressing the enable button in the PC user interface. This VI has the capacity of logging three signals simultaneously.

Figure 3. Block diagram of the data acquisition VI

The interaction between the VLs and the systems under test is carried out by two modules. The NI 9263 module provides the VIs with 4 analog output channels, whereas the data acquisition module NI 9215 provides 4 input channels connected to a 16 bit 100kS/s ADC with an input range of 10 V [12].

Table 1 and table 2 show the main characteristics of the VL developed in this work
Table 1. Characteristics of the signal generator VI Parameters Frequency Voltage Flicker Sags Swells Undervoltages Overvoltalges Harmonics Inter-harmonics Range 1 a 3 60 Hz fundamental Freq 1-30 Hz, mag. 20 nominal 10% to 90% of rms. 1 cycle to 1 min 110%-120% of rms. 1 cycle to 1 min 80%-90% of rms. >1 min 110%-120% of rms. >1 min 3rd to 43th Fraction of fundamental frequency

3. Front Panel and block diagram of the VL

The VL consists of two fundamental sections: one for generating signals and the other for data acquisition and storage for further analysis. Fig. 2 shows a general block diagram of the threephase signal generator consisting of three independent instruments: 1) a voltage flicker generator; b) a second VI for voltage Sags/Swells generator; c) a harmonic/inter-harmonic/sub-harmonic generator.

The generation of inter-harmonic disturbances can be carried out between the fundamental frequency at 60 Hz up to 2.580 kHz. In the other hand, a sub-harmonic can be generated down below the fundamental frequency up to 1Hz. The main characteristics of the data acquisition VI are shown in table 2.
Table 2. Characteristics of the data acquisition VI Parameters VI adquisicin de datos Samples in the buffer 768 Sample Clock Rate 7.68kS/s Input Frequency Range 0-2.58kHz Remote Access Ethernet Acquisition Wide range of signals 13

Figure 2. Block diagram of the signal generator VI.

Section 1 of Fig 2, defines the signal parameters to be generated on one of the three virtual instruments. Section 2 defines the selection of the case structure, choosing the disturbances to be generated, either single phase or three-phase. If the parameters are introduced correctly, then section 3 shows on the PC a waveform of the generated signal while sending the disturbance simultaneously to the DAQ card, presented as section 4, here data logging is possible if section 5 is

3.1. Front panel and block diagram of the signal generator VI.
The front panel of the signal generator VI is shown in Fig. 4. This panel is composed by a beginning section and three instruments for disturbance generation: 1) voltage flicker; 2) voltage dips and 3) harmonic/inter-

harmonics generation. The beginning section is used to set the parameters of the disturbances to generate, such as the output analog channel of the signal and the maximum and minimum signal levels. Also the opening section displays information about the proper using of this VI.

signals takes place. Up to three signals can be sampled simultaneously; in addition the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is applied automatically on each sampling channel.

Figura 6. Front panel of the data acquisition VI.

Figure 4. Front panel of the signal generator VI.

The front panel of the data acquisition system shown in Fig. 6 contains a window used to display the sampled data, two digital controllers for number of intervals and iterations control, a data logging button and a switch to enable the spectrum analysis of the sampled signals. The block diagram of the VL is shown in Fig. 7. Here, the Labview DAQ Asistant is used for implementing the data acquisition and generation of the VL. The VI named Write to Measurement File is used to save the sampled signals using text-based data formatting (lvm file type). The filter used in the VL gets rid of the external high frequency noise added to the sampled signal.

The block diagram of the signal generator is shown in Fig. 5. Its core is based in a while-loop and a case structure that switches from cases accordingly to the type of disturbance to generate. Case 0 is a voltage flicker, case 1 is voltage sag, and case 2 is the harmonic/inter-harmonic generation.

Figure 5. Block diagram of the signal generator VI.

Figure 7. Block diagram of the data acquisition VI.

3.2. Front panel and block diagram of the data acquisition VI.
The data acquisition system is shown in Fig. 6, where the signal sampling and data logging of electrical

4. Calibration process of the VL.

In order to asset the proper functioning of the VL a case of study is carried out using the signal generator VI to generate a fluctuation, the data acquisition VI to

read the generated signal and the Oscilloscope TDS3034B to compare the generated signal on the DAQ NI USB-6251 card and the sampled signal of the VI against its own measurements. The test signal is at 60Hz (Fig. 8) with a 20% fluctuation every 3 cycles (0.05s). Such signal is expressed as:
( )

) * , (

)-+ ( )
Figure 9.Voltage fluctuation generated.

Table 3 shows the numerical sampled data given by the oscilloscope from the test signal. The oscilloscope settings for this test where a 0.5V/div and 0.01s/div.
Table 3. Comparison between the generated and the measured signal. Parameters Amplitude Flicker Frequency Phase Period VI Fluctuacin 1V 1.2/0.8 V 60 Hz 0 16.66 ms Oscilloscope 0.99 V 1.19/0.79V 59.99 Hz 0 16.67 ms

Finally, the generated signal is sampled by the data acquisition VI and stored for a given period of time. Table 4 shows the stored data on the text file. The sampling frequency was set to 7.68 kM/s giving an approximate of 128 samples per cycle (tj = V(j/(7.68103)), j N [1, 128]) of the sine waveform.
Table 4. Historic data from the sampled waveform Figure 8. Virtual voltage fluctuation. No. of sample 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Time (s) 0 0.00013 0.00026 0.000391 0.000521 0.000651 0.000781 0.000911 0.001042 0.001172 Magnitude (V) -0.177173 -0.23265 -0.292592 -0.348069 -0.405141 -0.459025 -0.513865 -0.567748 -0.615574 -0.666906

Fig. 9 shows the oscilloscopes sampling of the test signal, showing the rectangular changes on the voltage at 10 Hz frequency. Two different voltage changes are produced on each period of the test signal. Taking the oscilloscopes measurement as a reference, it can be noticed that the virtual signal shows a diversion of 1% against the magnitude of the signal sampled by the oscilloscope.

Table 4 only enlists only a segment of the sine-wave data stream. Fig. 10 shows three cycles of the generated signal, where phase A is the test signal affected by the 20% voltage fluctuation.

Fig. 13 shows the spectra of phase C and Fig. 14 shows the phasor diagram of the voltage signal.

Figure 10. Reconstructed sinusoidal waveform.

Analyzing the data sampled by the data acquisition VI it can be seen that the instrument precision is acceptable when compared with the measured in the oscilloscope. The results of the calibration tests of the VL are: The VI generated a phase voltage fluctuation of 20%, the cycle frequency was 30Hz, this is, the signal changed between the maximum and the minimum value 60 times. When comparing the virtually generated signal with the oscilloscope measurement a diversion of 1% is found, this is acceptable for practical uses. Concerning the data acquisition VI, when sampling in continuous mode, this is, on each iteration the sampling buffer reads 128 samples meaning a sampling frequency of 7.68 kM/s, then the data logging of frequencies up to 3KHz is enough for the analysis and reconstruction of sampled signals.

Figure 12. 5 harmonic voltage waveform

th

Figure 13. Spectrum of the 6V 60Hz three phase signal th affected by the 5 harmonic on phase C.

5. Generation of test signals.

In this section different perturbations are generated by the signal generator VI and sampled by the data acquisition VI in order to test the capacities of the VL. Fig. 11 shows a 3V 60Hz three-phase voltage signal affected by a 45% 3rd harmonic on phase B, this is, ( ) ( ) (2)
Figure 14. Phasor diagram of the 6V 60Hz three phase th signal affected by the 5 harmonic on phase C.

Fig. 12 shows a 6V 60Hz three phase voltage signal affected by a 15% 5th harmonic on phase C, this is ( ) ( ). (3)

6. Conclusions
Virtual Laboratories, as the one presented in this work, provide a number of valuable tools for the design,

construction and testing of novel technological solutions for improving current measurement systems and helping to pave the way for the next-to-come electrical grids or Smart-Grids The evaluation of the quality of the power in electrical environments with high electromagnetic compatibility requirements becomes more relevant everyday as a bulk of pollutant power electronics-based controllers equipment are installed in electrical networks worldwide altogether with an sky-high number of intelligent electronics devices (IED), sensitive electronic equipment, telecommunications devices and intermittent power supply from renewable sources. Local solutions for common problems can be provided to a remote challenge, and virtual laboratory may be a channel for the interconnectivity and interactivity implicit in finding global solutions.

[9].

[10]. [11].

[12].

instrumentation, for power supply systems and equipment connected thereto, IEC Standards, 2002 IEC, IEC-61000-4-30: Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) - Part 4-30: Testing and measurement techniques - Power quality measurement methods, IEC Standards, 2008. IEC, IEC.61850: Communication networks and systems in substations, Parts 1, 2, 3, 5, 90-1, IEC Standards, 2003-2010. Rodrigo Rodrguez Rubio. Medidor Virtual de Parpadeo Basado en la Normalizacin Europea Modificada con la Transformada de Hilbert, Insituto Tecnolgico de Morelia, 2006. MSc Thesis (in spanish). National Instruments. M Series User Manuals NI 622x, NI 625x and NI 628x devices. 2008.

7. References
[1]. Johnston, William E. Agarwal. Debora. The Virtual Laboratory: Using Networks to enable Widely Distributed Co-laboratory Science, Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, 1995. [2]. Roger C. Dugan/ Mark F. McGranaghan. Electrical Power Systems Quality, Second Edition, Mc Graw Hill, 2004. [3]. IEC 61000-1-1, TECHNICAL REPORT Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), Part 1: General Section 1: Application and interpretation of fundamental definitions and terms. 1992. [4]. IEEE Industry Application Society, IEEE Standards IEEE Std 519-1993: IEEE Recommended Practices and Requirements for Harmonic Control in Electrical Power Systems, IEEE Standards 1993 [5]. IEEE Industry Application Society, IEEE Emerald Book; IEEE Std 1100-2005: IEEE Recommended Practice for Powering and Grounding Electronic Equipment, IEEE Standards, 2006 [6]. IEEE Standard Definitions for the Measurement of Electric Power Quantities Under Sinusoidal, Nonsinusoidal, Balanced, or Unbalanced Conditions. [7]. IEC, IEC-61000-4-15: Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) Part 4-15: Testing and measurement techniques Flickermeter Functional and design specifications, IEC Standards, 2003. [8]. IEC, IEC-61000-4-7: Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) - Part 4-7: Testing and measurement techniques - General guide on harmonics and interharmonics measurements and