An Overview of Practical Impact When Implementing Energy Savings Solutions on Quality of Electrical Power System

In the race to achieve sustainability goals, decarbonization, reduce CO2 emission and other environmental, social and governance (ESG)‘s requirements and compliances, many businesses turn to implementing energy savings solutions and installing renewable energies to meet the criteria. Although these steps are considered low hanging fruits which are relatively easy to implement to achieve substantial results, their impact on the quality of electrical power system is often overlooked. This ‘blind spot’ cannot be neglected because all those equipment consists of power electronics devices and switches that are used for control or convert power from ac-to-dc and vice-versa. This power conversion technology is known to have generated harmonics and pollute the electrical network. This paper expounds on the practical impact of implementing the common energy savings solutions, focusing on variable speed drives, power factor correction capacitor bank, and LED lightings, on the quality of electrical power system. This paper also presents the mitigation solutions to overcome their impact, and the common pitfalls of neglecting them.