RURAL POWER PROFILES

Rural power quality is a study of the compatibility between the utilit y electrical supply characteristics and consumer electronic and electr ical equipment performance characteristics. Very little published lite rature is available about the magnitude and duration of voltage distur bances that are occurring at rural farm sites. Incompatibility, the in teraction between these electrical characteristics, can result in equi pment performance degradation (e.g., motors and light bulbs burning ou t frequently, digital equipment performing erratically or not at all, etc.), a costly issue for rural society. Power profiles, a graph of th e voltage anomalies occurring at a farm site and the duration a voltag e anomaly resided outside defined threshold levels, provides a visual indication of the power quality at a farm site. Based on detailed powe r quality monitoring surveys, this paper presents the power profiles o f four different types of common farm operations to reveal the unique characteristics and variance in their power quality and identify what electronic and electrical equipment is affected by the on-site electri cal environment. Based on surveyed voltage disturbance characteristics , the origins and causes of onsite and utility disturbances are presen ted and discussed in some detail in the paper. The power profiles of t he various types of farm operations will provide a basis for mitigatin g actions by utilities and their rural industrial customers by enhanci ng their ability to identify the possible origins of power supply dist urbances affecting the performance of electronic and electrical equipm ent. The power profiles presented in this paper also provide a guide f or rural power line monitoring site surveys of the possible voltage di sturbances characteristics that can occur at a specific farm site.