Overvoltages Register Equipment in Medium Voltage Networks

In this paper the parameters and characteristics taken into account for the design and development of an overvoltages register equipment in medium voltage networks are described. The phenomena of overvoltages and their effects on power systems are also evaluated. The register equipment is a device which detects overvoltages in medium voltage systems and classifies these signals according to their magnitude, time duration, rise time and oscillation frequency. Additionally, the equipment stores the date and time of occurrence of the event for further analysis. To process the signals from the network the equipment uses a non-invasive electric field sensor, a PIC microcontroller, which converts the analog signal to digital data and stores it in memory. Finally, a user-machine interface and data processing developed in LABVIEW is proposed. This low-cost and safety equipment can be an option to study the overvoltages phenomena in power systems.