Implementation of power quality metrics on low cost smart metering platforms

The increasing interest on the quality of the energy supplied and generated in distribution networks is raising the need of distributed power quality (PQ) measurements. To allow such capabilities with cost effective metering solutions, this work wants to investigate the feasibility of using smart meters platforms, commonly used for energy billing, also for power quality monitoring. To this aim, an electronic board (based on STCOMET metrology device [1-2]), already used in many energy meters of different countries, has been selected as case study platform. Starting from the existing hardware and the available DSP metrics developed by manufacturer, additional PQ measurements have been integrated, taking into account the requirements of IEC 61000 -4-30 for PQ measurements [3]. The existing metrics and the newly developed ones have been experimentally verified, with the aim of verifying the feasibility of using the smart meter platform for developing a PQ instrument complying with IEC 61000-4-30 class S requirements, without modifying the hardware and without adding extension modules.