PQube is a registered trademark of Power Standards Lab for an electronic measuring instrument that records

power quality Electric power quality is the degree to which the voltage, frequency, and waveform of a power supply system conform to established specifications. Good power quality can be defined as a steady supply voltage that stays within the prescribed range, ...

and

electric energy Electrical energy is the energy transferred as electric charges move between points with different electric potential, that is, as they move across a potential difference. As electric potential is lost or gained, work is done changing the energy o ...

on the

electric power grid An electrical grid (or electricity network) is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. Electrical grids consist of power stations, electrical substations to step voltage up or down, electric power tran ...

Applications

PQube instruments are widely used to gather data for academic research, and at United States Department of Energy National Laboratories and state energy regulators. U.S. federal government agencies use PQubes to detect power quality issues – for example, the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates civil aviation in t ...

tracks disturbances at radar control centers. Each PQube instrument is traceable to the

National Institute of Standards and Technology The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into Outline of p ...

, so often these instruments are used in international academic and research environments. PQubes are a key element in many

smart grid The smart grid is an enhancement of the 20th century electrical grid, using two-way communications and distributed so-called intelligent devices. Two-way flows of electricity and information could improve the delivery network. Research is main ...

projects, recording power disturbance and power flow data to examine efficiency and reliability effects.

Information on the Web

Approximately 50 PQubes, located in approximately 40 countries, have been designated by their owners as free public sources of information at http://map.pqube.com . The site is updated approximately every 2 minutes with worldwide power quality and energy recordings. Data from these PQubes can be used, for example, for developing and testing power quality algorithms. "Fukushima, Mexico and Slovenia: Free Electric Power Recordings for Researchers"
/ref> Available data include daily, weekly, and monthly files in GIF and

Microsoft Excel Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet editor developed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows, Windows, macOS, Android (operating system), Android, iOS and iPadOS. It features calculation or computation capabilities, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a ...

CSV format. Voltage and current oscillographs are recorded during every power disturbance and these worldwide locations, and are freely available. Data from each worldwide site is updated approximately once per minute.

References

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External links

Data from the PSL PQube
Power Standards Lab Scientific instruments