Energy Quality: A Definition

In literature, variations and distortions, and interruptions of voltages (or voltage waveforms) and currents (or current waveforms) have been considered in the framework of power quality (or voltage quality). With the massive penetration of renewable energy into power systems, variations including fluctuations and intermittences of output powers of these renewable sources are of great concerns. It is evidenced that with the high penetration of renewable energy, variations of renewable energy have increased the costs of UK's balancing markets by 39% in this spring and summer (NGESO, 2020). Therefore, there are needs to introduce a technical framework, namely, 'energy quality' to (a) define the quality of power waveforms; (b) propose measures/indices to characterize the variations (fluctuations and intermittences) of powers and power flows; (c) present methods to improve energy quality. Finally, research directions of energy quality are highlighted to encourage more R&D as well as international collaborations in terms of standards and grid code developments.