PQube is a registered trademark of Power Standards Lab for an electronic measuring instrument that records
power quality and
electric energy
Electrical energy is energy related to forces on electrically charged particles and the movement of electrically charged particles (often electrons in wires, but not always). This energy is supplied by the combination of electric current and electr ...
on the
electric power grid
An electrical grid is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. Electrical grids vary in size and can cover whole countries or continents. It consists of:Kaplan, S. M. (2009). Smart Grid. Electrical Power ...
.
Applications
PQube instruments are widely used to gather data for academic research,
and at
United States Department of Energy National Laboratories
The United States Department of Energy National Laboratories and Technology Centers is a system of facilities and laboratories overseen by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) for scientific and technological research. Sixteen of the sev ...
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 the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic ...
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 physical s ...
, so often these instruments are used in international academic and research environments.
PQubes are a key element in many
smart grid 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 developed by Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It features calculation or computation capabilities, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for App ...
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
{{Reflist
External links
Data from the PSL PQube
Power Standards Lab
Scientific instruments