A voltage sag index considering compatibility between equipment and supply

Reliability indices have been used for many years to quantify the effects of sustained interruptions on the electric power system. Criteria for representing and reporting the voltage performance are still under development. A proper voltage sag index would be useful for indicating the system performance experienced at different locations. This paper presents an application of fuzzy-logic techniques to quantify voltage sags disturbance levels. Retained voltage magnitude and sag duration are the inputs of the proposed system. The output is an index that indicates the relative severity of a voltage sag event. The proposed framework takes network vulnerability, equipment sensitivity, and uncertainties in measuring voltage sags into account, thereby providing meaningful information for both the utility and customers. Fuzzy sets membership functions and inference rules involved in the inference process are described and field data are used to illustrate the analytical results. Using the proposed method, site performance indicators can be obtained from the single event indices of all events recorded. The proposed method brings new analytical insights into the assessment of service performance.