Lp norm approaches for estimating voltage flicker

Abstract

It is important to accurately estimate instantaneous voltage flicker magnitudes and frequencies in order to correctly evaluate voltage fluctuations. Voltage flicker is a problem in electric power quality. Different approaches used to determine the magnitude of the voltage flicker have been presented: measurement methods generally use a flickermeter device. Simulation methods require a computer model of the disturbing load and the flickermeter. Calculation methods necessitate a simplified empirical formula. Estimation algorithms are based on the estimation of the voltage flicker components. In this paper, two models of voltage flicker are discussed: L-p estimation algorithms utilizing L-1.L-2 and L-infinity norms are used to estimate the voltage magnitudes of the flicker signals as well as the fundamental voltage magnitude. The main result is that it is possible to design an L-p estimator to identify flicker frequency and amplitude from time series measurements. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.