Power quality: new challenges for tomorrow's electricity systems

The issue of power quality is largely absent from discussions on energy, including those related to multi-annual energy programming, where the focus remains on security of supply, admittedly of critical importance. Clearly, blackouts or power outages, such as those that crippled Paris' Montparnasse railway station and its surrounds in late July 2018, tend to make the headlines. And a deep dive into this subject rapidly leads to complex considerations on the physics of electricity and network codes that the non-specialist may find daunting. Nevertheless, the growing dependence of our economies on digital technology and the emergence of intermittent renewable energies in the electricity mix are creating new challenges, with the question of power quality being a prime example. (authors)