An Alternative Strategy to Improve the Flicker Severity Measurement

Abstract

The IEC 61000-4-15 standard defines a flickermeter that is universally accepted as the meter used for the objective measurement of a disturbing light flicker. The accurate results provided by the IEC flickermeter under uniform fluctuations stand in contrast with its unpredictable behavior under real conditions when voltage fluctuations are not uniform over time. Under nonuniform fluctuations, the IEC flickermeter can indicate wrong values, and this could explain the absence of users’ complaints at sites where high flicker levels were measured. This work presents a new strategy for flicker measurement that overcomes the deficiencies presented in the IEC flickermeter, properly relating flicker severity values and temporal evolution of the fluctuation. The manuscript describes in detail the functional and design specifications of the new strategy, as well as the results obtained during the validation process in which the IEC flickermeter and the new strategy were subjected to input signals with different temporal fluctuation patterns. The manuscript also presents a comparison between the response of the two strategies to real voltage signals, which are complex and nonuniform in nature. The results confirm the differences between both strategies, despite both meet the same requirements established by the standard.