What is power quality?
How reliably can your systems
operate their loads? That is
the essence of power quality.
Power disturbances can involve
voltage, current, or frequency
and typically manifest as dips,
swells, harmonic distortion,
unbalance, flicker, and tran-
sients. These problems can orig-
inate in your own power
system
or from the utility. Defined in
terms of magnitude and dura-
tion, power disturbances can
last microseconds, or involve
outages of hours or more.
Power quality overview
The costs of poor power quality
The increasing cost of electrical
energy is driving industries to use
energy as efficiently as possible. Fluke
power and energy measuring tools are
a vital component in gaining control
of those costs. The traditional way of
reducing energy usage is monitoring
and targeting (M & T); Monitoring and
targeting determines when and where
energy is being used, and by doing so
discovers whether or not that energy
is being used effectively. Examples
of this include comparing building
occupancy with energy profiles.
Simple things like ensuring lighting
and heating systems are not being op-
erated when a building is unoccupied
can create significant savings. Other
examples of energy waste include the
powering of machinery and plants
when no production is taking place,
and leaving equipment in standby
mode for extended periods of time.
The power and energy logging capa-
bilities in Fluke Power Quality tools
enable the user to monitor and target
energy usage to identify these savings
opportunities.
Another way of determining whether
or not electrical equipment is operat-
ing efficiently is to identify potential
power quality issues. Poor power qual-
ity is expensive. First and foremost, it
pushes up your energy costs both from
excess power usage, and in penalties
your utility may assess for poor power
factor or high peak demands.
Poor power quality also takes a toll
on equipment, increasing the cost of
maintenance and repairs. Premature
equipment failures or damage caused
by power problems result not only in
the expense of replacing the equip-
ment itself, but also in associated
labor costs for diagnosis and repair.
When equipment is not operating
due to unscheduled downtime, pro-
ductivity drops and process consisten-
cy suffers or fails, which in turn leads
to product waste. Fluke’s Power Quality
tools provide the means to discover
the source and magnitude of power
quality issues allowing savings oppor-
tunities to be identified and capital-
ized upon. Taking these capabilities
one step further, the Fluke 430 Series
II Power Quality and Energy Analyz-
ers will quantify the actual fiscal cost
of wasted energy due to poor power
quality, ultimately saving money in
terms of your energy bill and the
effects of unplanned downtime.
How do you know you have
power quality problems?
You’ll easily recognize the symptoms:
flickering lights, power outages,
nuisance tripping of breakers, PLCs
and variable speed drives. Equipment
such as motors and transformers will
run hot or noisy. Some problems are
more subtle such as poor computer
performance, causing lock-ups and
data loss.
All of these problems
drive up your utility bills and drive
down efficiency.
Where do power quality
problems originate?
You might not realize that more than
80 percent of all power quality prob-
lems originate within your facility.
Large equipment starting-up or
shutting down, improper wiring and
grounding, and overloaded circuits
or harmonics are just a few of the
culprits. Less than 20 percent of power
problems originate with the utility
transmission and distribution system.
Lightning strikes, equipment failure,
accidents, and weather conditions
all adversely affect the utility. Neigh-
boring businesses, and normal
operation of utility equipment can
also affect the quality of power deliv-
ered to your facility.
Take a pro-active approach
You have the power to improve power
quality. Your frontline of defense is
regular and frequent inspection of your
facility with good maintenance prac-
tices, using the right inspection equip-
ment. That’s where Fluke can help.
Shop for Fluke products online at:
1.877.766.5412
www.MyFlukeStore.com
To Next Page
Loading...
Need help?
General
