Power Quality Disturbance Tracking Based on a Proprietary FPGA Sensor with GPS Synchronization

The study of power quality (PQ) has gained relevance over the years due to the increase in non-linear loads connected to the grid. Therefore, it is important to study the propagation of power quality disturbances (PQDs) to determine the propagation points in the grid, and their source of generation. Some papers in the state of the art perform the analysis of punctual measurements of a limited number of PQDs, some of them using high-cost commercial equipment. The proposed method is based upon a developed proprietary system, composed of a data logger FPGA with GPS, that allows the performance of synchronized measurements merged with the full parameterized PQD model, allowing the detection and tracking of disturbances propagating through the grid using wavelet transform (WT), fast Fourier transform (FFT), Hilbert–Huang transform (HHT), genetic algorithms (GAs), and particle swarm optimization (PSO). Measurements have been performed in an industrial installation, detecting the propagation of three PQDs: impulsive transients propagated at two locations in the grid, voltage fluctuation, and harmonic content propagated to all the locations. The results obtained show that the low-cost system and the developed methodology allow the detection of several PQDs, and track their propagation within a grid with 100% accuracy.

New compact multiband inverted-L frequency reconfigurable antenna for cognitive radio applications

This paper presents, new compact and multiband frequency reconfigurable antenna for cognitive radio applications. A UWB sensing and reconfigurable communicating antennas are contained at the same substrate, where the UWB sensing antenna is an elliptical printed monopole antenna operates on frequency band from (2.65-22.112) GHz which can cover the UWB frequency band from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz, while the communicating antenna is an inverted-L frequency reconfigurable antenna operates on three bands of 1.49 GHz, 5.58 GHz, and 5.6 GHz under (S11 ≤ -10 dB) with a fractional bandwidth of 5.872%, 6.02%, and 6.05% respectively. The proposed antenna used to operate in two modes one for cognitive radio applications to cover WLAN applications at 5.5 GHz and 5.6 GHz and the second mode for wireless Ethernet, GPS synchronization, and Internet of Things that Matter (IoTtM) at 1.49 GHz. The frequency reconfigurability is obtained by using only a single RF switch (PIN diode) for changing the operating frequency. The antenna overall dimensions are 72 x 36 x 1.6 mm³ printed on an FR-4 epoxy substrate of 4.3 relative-permittivity, loss tangent tan (δ) = 0.002 and 50 Ω micro stripline feed. The obtained simulated gain is ranging from 1.35 to 4.132 dBi. The S11 and isolation (S12) between the two antennas are under -20 dB and -17 dB respectively at the resonant frequencies.