Opportunities and Risks of a Power Quality Market - Viable business models not to be expected

Inhalt:
Current regulations define that grid operators have the obligation to maintain Power Quality, but this effort has not yet been offset by revenues. This challenge can be met by liberating the provision of Power Quality from the grid operators' responsibilities as a result of unbundling. In addition to the design of the market, the question arises whether unbundling the provision of power quality is ecologically, technically and economically viable. This viability cannot be assessed directly for a complete liberalization of all Power Quality parameters. Thus, the investigation is carried out using total harmonic distortion (THD) as an example. The results of the investigation clearly show that viable business models specialized in compensation of harmonics cannot be expected. This result is mainly due to relatively high investment costs for corresponding compensation systems but also to the low expected revenues. However, it clearly shows the technical and ecological potential of harmonic compensation. With a THD of 3.6 %, 3.2 % of the transmission losses are due to harmonics. As a result of increasing efforts to make the supply of electrical energy more efficient, more cost-effective and more environmentally compatible, grid losses caused by less than ideal Power Quality must also be made visible. Only then, on the basis of new regulations with a sufficiently high monetary incentive, can a precondition be created for a viable liberalized provision of Power Quality.