grids and power quality Modern systems use sensors called phasor measurement units (PMU) distributed throughout their network to monitor power quality and in some cases respond automatically to them. Using such smart grids features of rapid sensing and automated self healing of anomalies in the network promises to bring higher quality power and less downtime while simultaneously supporting power from intermittent power sources and distributed generation, which would if unchecked degrade power quality. Compression algorithm A power quality compression algorithm is an algorithm used in the analysis of power quality. To provide high quality electric power service, it is essential to monitor the quality of the electric signals also termed as power quality (PQ) at different locations along an electrical power network. Electrical utilities carefully monitor waveforms and currents at various network locations constantly, to understand what lead up to any unforeseen events such as a power outage and blackouts. This is particularly critical at sites where the environment and public safety are at risk (institutions such as hospitals, sewage treatment plants, mines, etc.). Challenges Engineers use many kinds of meters, that read and display electrical power waveforms and calculate parameters of the waveforms. They measure, for example: current and voltage RMS phase relationship between waveforms of a multi-phase signal power factor frequency total harmonic distortion (THD) active power (kW) reactive power (kVAr) apparent power (kVA) active energy (kWh) reactive energy (kVArh) apparent energy (kVAh) and many more In order to sufficiently monitor unforeseen events, Ribeiro et al. explains that it is not enough to display these parameters, but to also capture voltage waveform data at all times. This is impracticable due to the large amount of data involved, causing what is known the “bottle effect”. For instance, at a sampling rate of 32 samples per cycle, 1,920 samples are collected per second. For three-phase meters that measure both voltage and current waveforms, the data is 6–8 times as much. More practical solutions developed in recent years store data only when an event occurs (for example, when high levels of power system harmonics are detected) or alternatively to store the RMS value of the electrical signals. This data, however, is not always sufficient to determine the exact nature of problems. Raw data compression Nisenblat et al. proposes the idea of power quality compression algorithm (similar to lossy compression methods) that enables meters to continuously store the waveform of one or