How is the Power Quality of European Countries?

How was that actual average in the mainland UK measured?

I think you somehow have to get more specific (or learn more about power distribution). I won't try to state much correctly here, but, in general:

* power supply at the source must be higher than at the site of use to account for things like voltage drop in the supply lines * the power at the generating site is typically (ime) not generated at 230 volts, but instead at a much higher voltage--furthermore, it is stepped up even higher before it is sent out over transmission lines towards the customer

* all equipment (are there any exceptions) with a rated voltage (like 115 v, common in the US, or 230 v) is intended to operate on a range of voltage, commonly 110 to 125 for 115 volt ratings.

* motors, as an example, work better with higher voltages--a motor rated at 115 volts will typically work "better" at 125 volts in that it will draw less current and run cooler

* it wouldn't surprise me if the target in the UK was 242 volts at the secondary terminals of the distribution transformer (the last one before the customer(s) (and there are typically several customers on any given transformer)--by the time the voltage gets into the customers' premises (with a typical load operating), maybe the first customer is getting 240 volts at his distribution panel--customers further down the (240 volt) line will each see lower and lower voltages--with luck, the last one on the line will see 230 volts at his distribution panelI don't think this is a reflection on power quality.

If you want to talk about power quality, I think you want to talk about things like interruptions to service, noise on the power lines, ...

Following on what Rhkramer says in his last sentence, statistics on interruptions are tabulated and published for all major US utilities (and may be for other nations - you'd need to search a little but they should be publicly available) due to regulatory requirements. Failure to meet certain minimum or maximum limits often lead to fines. These measures include CAIDI (Customer Average Interruption Duration Index), SAIDI (System Avg Interruption Duration Index) and several others. See the following:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAIDI

OK, I will check more.

Anyway, thank you for this suggestion.

I expect power quality tobe good. Small countries with an internal power grid, slowly coupled to other countries to share power, but with the ability to disconnect their country, would lead to a robust system. Now with the ECM, has this led to larger blocks? I suspect the old country based system persists, even as there is more and more widespread power distribution. The large solar projects in Spain might need a very high voltage link, or even a DC link. Are there many DC links in Europe>

I think it's a futile exercise actually. What a country says it its "standard" voltage supply has more to do with local politics and God knows politics has almost NOTHING to do with reality! In other words, there was a movement a few years ago across the EU to "harmonize" the voltage levels between countries. But in reality, nobody was going to go out and replace thousands upon thousands of transformers in order to accomplish this. All it really did was to make device manufacturers provide for a harmonized utilization voltage rating of their point of use equipment which allows for the common level everyone was trying to attain. So some countries were 380/220V, some were 415/240V, therefore they compromised on 400/230V as the "harmonized" standard. But that does not mean that if you walk up to an outlet in the UK with a meter, it is going to read 230V, it's much more likely to read (closer to*) 240V

* The "closer to" issue is my second point. In order to get a "real" average, you would have to get the average of the averages, a daunting task to be sure. That's because in every distribution system, there is an allowable tolerance, usually +- 5% at least, which will mean at any two points in a local distribution grid, you may be able to see a 10% delta. So to try to extend that to an entire country made up of thousands of local interconnected grids would take years of study.

By the way if you read that document I linked to above, you will see that they did exactly that. But I dare say they had a substantial cadre of people doing this research, I doubt one person could do it in a lifetime.

Where I live now, in Braşov, România, the voltage varies between 200 and 225 V. I used to live in another part of the town up until august where the voltage was around 235V because I was close to the distribution transformer. The standard voltage is 230/400V.

Thank you for your information!