Power Quality Survey
Poor power quality affects the reliable operation of electronic equipment often resulting in the loss of productivity. In fact, it has been estimated that the total cost to US businesses of this lost productivity is a staggering $15-30 billion per year.
FAI is uniquely qualified to identify power quality problems and mediate/resolve issues. We specialize in performing non intrusive on-site power quality studies that will not interrupt your facilities operation.
Case Study : Nationwide Electronics Retailer
A local franchise of a major nationwide electronics retailer was experiencing unexplainable outages of HVAC and POS Equipment. The Electrical Contactor believed that the cause of the outages was dirty power from the utility. Using specialized equipment, FAI was able to determine that the source of the problems was not power quality but power quantity. When the store was designed, high demand electronics like plasma televisions were somewhat rare, therefore, the store only featured a few on display. Given their demand today, stores are displaying a larger variety of these electronics which draw more power and create more heat. The end result was that FAI discovered that the electric load exceeded the rated capacity of the utility transformer.
Here is a plot of the Voltage, Current, and kVA for phase C of a three phase Main Distribution Panel. At first glance it appears that the problem may just be sags in the voltage. While there were some voltage sags, the real story is in the kVA graph. On almost every day of the survey period, the single phase kVA exceeded 80 and since the load was balanced the actual daily peak load was exceeding 240 kVA. With a nameplate rating of 225 kVA, the transformer feeding this MDP was fully loaded or even overloaded for several hours on almost every day of the study. While it is not unusual for a transformer to occasionally be near or above its rated capacity, it is very unusual for one in our climate to be fully loaded in December. If this transformer was at capacity in December, it must have been overloaded in July and August, which was the time of year that the majority of the power problems were reported.
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