Assessing the economics of power quality

Abstract

Power Quality is now considered as a characteristic of the electrical supply which should be more closely defined and regulated. However there is a tradeoff between the benefits from improved power quality and the costs of achieving it, with the cost benefit analysis required quite difficult to formulate. In many cases it is the cost of the consequences of poor power quality which are set against the cost of improving the network, whereas the correct approach is to compare the costs of options to mitigate the consequences against the cost of accepting the consequence. In the paper a complete framework for the economic analysis of Power Quality will be presented and discussed with application to current policy issues, such as the modification proposals to EN 50160.