This is of great concern, since the waveforms are becoming more and more non-sinusoidal. Harmonic distortion is a problem because any deviation from a sinusoidal waveform in a power system is a degradation in power quality. Many pieces of equipment used today have some contributing factor in causing harmonic distortion on the power line. It is important to determine the source of the harmonic distortion in order to determine how to reduce or control it. The most common sources of harmonic distortion are non-linear loads.
Harmonic distortion consists of all the integer numbered frequencies of the fundamental.
180 Hz, and so on. The three types of harmonics are current, voltage, and triplen. Current harmonics tend to decrease in amplitude further from their source, whereas voltage harmonics tend to propagate through a power line system. The Nicolet PowerPro or MultiPro transient recorders digitize incoming waveforms fast enough to record transients accurately. Nicolet's dual-threshold trigger permits very reliable detection of transients while rejecting background noise as triggers.