6 - BNE32603 POWER QUALITY - Chapter 5

BNE 32603 POWER
QUALITY
Chapter 5: Power Quality

Disturbances and Monitoring
“ W I T H W I S D O M W E E X P L O R E ”
Common disturbances on equipment
Symptoms Causes
• Power outages Voltage dips & swells
• Tripping circuit breakers and ASDs Transients
Noise interference
• High utility bills
Harmonic distortion
• Flickering lights Under / over voltage or current
• Equipment running noisy and hot
• Premature equipment failure
• Poor performance & unexpected shutdowns
• Lost data in electronics
• Voltage unbalance
Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

“ W I T H W I S D O M W E E X P L O R E ” 2
Causes of disturbances
• Internal causes: Approximately 80% of

electrical disturbances originate within a
business facility.
• External causes: About 20% of power quality

problems originate with the utility
transmission and distribution system.

PQ Inside building
Typical facility
problems:
• Loose connections
• Arcing connections
• Overloaded circuits
and transformers
• Unbalanced loads
• Harmonics caused by
modern electronics
• Illegal neutral to
ground bonds
• Ground loops
• Undersized or
shared neutrals

PQ generation & transmission
Typical utility problems

• Fuses opening
• Protective relays and circuit breakers
operating
• Power factor correction switching
• Grid switching
• “Reclosers”
• Equipment arcing or failure
• Downed lines (outage)
• Excessive demand (undervoltage,
“brownout”)

Sensitive to PQ Disturbances
Examples:
• computer networking
• telecommunication facilities
• semiconductor and electronics manufacturing facilities
• biotechnology and pharmaceutical laboratories
• financial data-processing centers.

Benefits of Disturbance Analysis
• Prevent similar disturbances

• Reduce downtime
• Competence and speed when dealing with customer
complaints
• Monitor performance of protection devices.
• Improve maintenance

PQ Monitoring - Introduction
• Power quality monitoring is the process of gathering, analyzing, and

interpreting raw measurement data into useful information.
• The process of gathering data is usually carried out by continuous

measurement of voltage and current over an extended period.
• The process of analysis and interpretation has been traditionally

performed manually, but recent advances in signal processing and
artificial intelligence fields have made it possible to design and
implement intelligent systems to automatically analyze and interpret
raw data into useful information with minimum human intervention.

What is needed for PQ Monitoring?
•PQ Monitors must detect and Plus they must …

record the 7 types of PQ problems
• Be easy to use
–Transients • Be Suitable for continuously monitoring
–Interruptions indoors and outdoors
–Sag/Under Voltage • Interface with standard PQ analysis
–Swell/Over Voltage Software
–Waveform Distortion • Be fast enough to capture high speed
–Voltage Fluctuations events that produce equipment
problems
–Frequency Variations
• Have enough storage to save the
waveforms you need
• Have PQ analysis tools that produce
usable, actionable recommendations

Benefits of PQ Monitoring
• Knowledge about real Power Quality levels and trends (meet

the regulators needs)
• Planning data for investments
• Monitor emissions from industrial customers etc.
• Optimise and monitor contracts with supplier or consumer.
• Supports optimisation of electric network
• Monitor performance of protection devices.

Benefits of Continuous PQ Monitoring
• Power Quality monitoring provides a continuous
“Health Check” of a facility’s power system for
example:
o Harmonic interaction between loads and
power conditioning equipment spotted
o High Inrush currents from equipment startup
detected
o Transients from load switching are seen
• It provides data to see, diagnose and avert looming
problems – “like squeaky brakes on a car”
o Trends can be detected
o Equipment maintenance programs can be
established
• It acts like a “Black Box” on an airplane to tell you
what, when, and where a Power Quality event
occurred … to prevent it from reoccurring
Continuous PQ Monitoring Detects, Records, and Leads to the

Prevention of PQ Problems
Common objective of PQ Monitoring
1. Monitoring to characterize system performance need

• to understand its system performance and then match that system
performance with the needs of customers
2. Monitoring to characterize specific problems performing
• short-term monitoring at specific customer sites or at difficult loads.
3. Monitoring as part of an enhanced power
• quality service-A provider and customer can together achieve this
goal by modifying the power system or by installing equipment
within the customer’s Premises
4. Monitoring as part of predictive or just-in-time
• maintenance-Equipment maintenance can be quickly ordered to
avoid catastrophic failure.

Common objective of PQ Monitoring
Monitoring as part of a facility site survey
1. Nature of the problems (data loss, nuisance trips, component failures,

control system malfunctions, etc.)
2. Characteristics of the sensitive equipment experiencing problems
(equipment design information or at least application guide information)
3. The times at which problems occur
4. Coincident problems or known operations (e.g., capacitor switching)that occur at
the same time
5. Possible sources of power quality variations within the facility (motor starting,
capacitor switching, power electronic equipment operation, arcing equipment, etc.)
6. Existing power conditioning equipment being used
7. Electrical system data (one-line diagrams, transformer sizes and impedances, load
information, capacitor information, cable data, etc.)

Types of instruments used for PQ Monitoring
A number of different instruments may be used for measuring PQ

problems:
• Wiring and grounding test devices

• Multimeters
• Oscilloscopes
• Disturbance analyzers
• Harmonic analyzers and spectrum analyzers
• Combination disturbance and harmonic analyzers
• Flicker meters
• Energy monitors

Important factors considered when
choosing the instrument
• Number of channels (voltage and/or current)
• Temperature specifications of the instrument
• Ruggedness of the instrument
• Input voltage range (e.g., 0 to 600 V)
• Power requirements
• Ability to measure three-phase voltages
• Input isolation (isolation between input channels and from each
input to ground)
• Ability to measure currents
• Housing of the instrument (portable, rack-mount, etc.)
• Ease of use (user interface, graphics capability, etc.)
• Documentation
• Communication capability (modem, network interface)
• Analysis software

Wiring & Grounding
• Many power quality variations that occur within customer facilities are
related to wiring and grounding problems.
• Many power quality problems are solved by simply tightening a loose

connection or replacing a corroded conductor.
• The National Electrical Code® (NEC®)* and other important standards

provide the minimum standards for wiring and grounding. It is often
necessary to go beyond the requirements of these standards to achieve
a system that also minimizes the impact of power quality variations
(harmonics, transients, noise) on connected equipment.

Reasons for Grounding
Personnel safety.
• Personnel safety is the primary reason that all equipment must have a
safety equipment ground.
• This is designed to prevent the possibility of high touch voltages when
there is a fault in a piece of equipment.
• The touch voltage is the voltage between any two conducting surfaces
that can be simultaneously touched by an individual. The earth may be
one of these surfaces.
High touch voltage created by improper grounding

Reasons for Grounding
Grounding to assure protective device operation.
• A ground fault return path to the point where the power source neutral
conductor is grounded is an essential safety feature.
• The NEC and some local wiring codes permit electrically continuous
conduit and wiring device enclosures to serve as this ground return path.
• An insulation failure or other fault that allows a phase wire to make
contact with an enclosure will find a low-impedance path back to the
power source neutral. The resulting overcurrent will cause the circuit
breaker or fuse to disconnect the faulted circuit promptly.

Typical Wiring and Grounding Problems
1. Problems with conductors and connectors

One of the first things to be done during a site survey is to inspect the
service entrance, main panel, and major subpanels for problems with
conductors or connections. A bad connection (faulty, loose, or resistive) will
result in heating, possible arcing, and burning of insulation.
Problems with Conductors and

Connectors
2. Missing safety ground

If the safety ground is missing, a fault in the equipment from the phase
conductor to the enclosure results in line potential on the exposed surfaces
of the equipment. No breakers will trip, and a hazardous situation
results
3. Multiple neutral-to-ground connections
Unless there is a separately derived system, the only neutral-to-ground
bond should be at the service entrance. The neutral and ground should
be kept separate at all panel boards and junction boxes. Downline neutral-
to-ground bonds result in parallel paths for the load return current
where one of the paths becomes the ground circuit. This can cause
misoperation of protective devices. Also, during a fault condition, the
fault current will split between the ground and the neutral, which
could prevent proper operation of protective devices (a serious safety
concern).

4. Ungrounded equipment
Isolated grounds are sometimes used due to the perceived notion of obtaining
a “clean” ground and for sensitive equipment. The proper procedure for using
an isolated ground must be followed. Procedures that involve having an illegal
insulating bushing in the power source conduit and replacing the prescribed
equipment grounding conductor with one to an “isolated dedicated computer
ground” are dangerous, violate code and are unlikely to solve noise problems.
5. Additional ground rods
Ground rods should be part of a facility grounding system and connected where
all the building grounding electrodes (building steel, metal water pipe, etc.) are
bonded together. Multiple ground rods can be bused together at the service
entrance to reduce the overall ground resistance. One very important power
quality problem with additional ground rods is that they create additional paths
for lightning stroke currents to flow. This creates a possible transient voltage
problem for equipment and a possible overload problem for the conductors.

Solutions to Wiring and Grounding Problems
1. Proper grounding practices
Basic elements of a properly grounded electrical system

2. Ground electrode (rod)

The ground rod provides the electrical connection from the power system
ground to earth. 3 basic components of resistance in a ground rod:
■ Electrode resistance. Resistance due to the physical connection of
the grounding wire to the grounding rod.
■ Rod-earth contact resistance. Resistance due to the interface
between the soil and the rod. This resistance is inversely proportional
to the surface area of the grounding rod (i.e., more area of contact
means lower resistance).
■ Ground resistance. Resistance due to the resistivity of the soil in
the vicinity of the grounding rod. The soil resistivity varies over a
wide range, depending on the soil type and moisture content.
The resistance of the ground-rod connection is important because it

influences transient voltage levels during switching events and lightning
transients.

3. Service entrance connections

The primary components of a properly grounded system are found at
the service entrance. The neutral point of the supply power system is
connected to the grounded conductor (neutral wire) at this point. This
is also the one location in the system (except in the case of a separately
derived system) where the grounded conductor is connected to the ground
conductor (green wire) via the bonding jumper. The ground conductor
is also connected to the building grounding electrode via the grounding-
electrode conductor at the service entrance. For most effective grounding, the
grounding-electrode conductor should be exothermically welded at both ends.
Throughout the system, a safety ground must be maintained to ensure that all
exposed conductors that may be touched are kept at an equal potential. This
safety ground also provides a ground fault return path to the point where the
power source neutral conductor is grounded.

4. Isolated ground
The noise performance of the supply to sensitive loads can sometimes
be improved by providing an isolated ground to the load. This is done
using isolated ground receptacles, which are orange in color. If an isolated
ground receptacle is being used downline from the panel board,
the isolated ground conductor is not connected to the conduit or enclosure
in the panel board, but only to the ground conductor of the supply
feeder. The conduit is the safety ground in this case and is connected to the
enclosure. A separate conductor can also be used for the safety ground in
addition to the conduit.

5. More on grounding for sensitive equipment

The following practices are appropriate for any installation with equipment
that may be sensitive to noise or disturbances introduced due to
coupling in the ground system:
■ Whenever possible, use individual branch circuits to power sensitive
equipment. Individual branch circuits provide good isolation for
high-frequency transients and noise.
■ Conduit should never be the sole source of grounding for sensitive
equipment (even though it may be legal). Currents flowing on the
conduit can cause interference with communications and electronics.
■ Green-wire grounds should be the same size as the current-carrying
conductors, and the individual circuit conduit should be bonded at
both ends.

Instrument for PQ Monitoring
Oscilloscope
• An oscilloscope is valuable when performing real-time tests. Looking at the voltage and
current waveforms can provide much information about what is happening, even without
performing detailed harmonic analysis on the waveforms. One can get the magnitudes of
the voltages and currents, look for obvious distortion, and detect any major variations in
the signals.
• There are numerous makes and models of oscilloscopes to choose from. A digital
oscilloscope with data storage is valuable because the waveform can be saved and
analyzed. Oscilloscopes in this category often also have waveform analysis capability
(energy calculation, spectrum analysis). In addition, the digital oscilloscopes can usually be
obtained with communications so that waveform data can be uploaded to a personal
computer for additional analysis with a software package.
• The latest developments in oscilloscopes are hand-held instruments with the capability to
display waveforms as well as performing some signal processing. These are quite useful for
power quality investigations because they are very portable and can be operated like a volt
ohm meter (VOM), but yield much more information. These are ideal for initial plant
surveys. This particular instrument also has the capability to analyze harmonics and
permits connection with personal computers for further data analysis and inclusion into
reports as illustrated.

General-purpose spectrum analyzers
• Instruments in this category are designed to perform spectrum analysis on
waveforms for a wide variety of applications. They are general signal analysis
instruments. The advantage of these instruments is that they have very powerful
capabilities for a reasonable price since they are designed for a broader market
than just power system applications. The disadvantage is that they are not
designed specifically for sampling power frequency waveforms and, therefore,
must be used carefully to assure accurate harmonic analysis. There are a wide
variety of instruments in this category.
Special-purpose power system harmonic analyzers

• Besides the general-purpose spectrum analyzers just described, there are also a
number of instruments and devices that have been designed specifically for
power system harmonic analysis. These are based on the FFT with sampling rates
specifically designed for determining harmonic components in power signals.
They can generally be left in the field and include communications capability for
remote monitoring.

Simple meters.
• It may sometimes be necessary to make a quick check of harmonic
levels at a problem location. A simple, portable meter for this purpose
is ideal. There are now several hand-held instruments of this type on
the market. Each instrument has advantages and disadvantages in its
operation and design. These devices generally use microprocessor-
based circuitry to perform the necessary calculations to determine
individual harmonics up to the 50th harmonic, as well as the rms, the
THD, and the telephone influence factor (TIF). Some of these devices
can calculate harmonic powers (magnitudes and angles) and can
upload stored waveforms and calculated data to a personal computer.

Application examples
1. “A bad reaction at the chemical plant”

– Voltage unbalance
– Voltage distortion and harmonics
– Power system resonance
– Transients
2. “ Wasted power at the wastewater plant”
– Energy consumption
– Power factor

Proactive maintenance and testing at a chemical plant uncover a problematic

legacy
• During a PdM procedure, a technician finds hot across-the-line pump

motors using a Thermal Imager
• The feeders for the motors supplied both motor starters and newer drives
The plant has been phasing out the older electromagnetic starters
• No new motors or loads had been added

• Maintenance tech uses a PQ Analyzer on the motor terminals and

sees unbalance is within limits.
• Tech measures voltage distortion and notes that 5th harmonic is high.
Voltage distortion is 14 %.
• He determines an old PF correction cap had been switched in by
mistake.
The capacitor had been installed when all of the motors used soft
starts.
The capacitor caused resonance at approximately the 5th harmonic.
Capacitor removed, problem solved!


Lessons
• Electrical issues than can cause motor overheating:
– Voltage unbalance
– Overcurrent
– Current unbalance (e.g. single phasing)
– Voltage distortion
• Combining across-the-line motors and motor drives on the same
feeders can cause distorted voltage
• Capacitors can turn harmless harmonic current into a problem

1. “Wasted power at a wastewater plant?”
Situation:
• The plant was adding new pumps, conveyors and controls

• Can the existing system handle the new loads?
• What is the present load on the system?
• Electricians performed a 30-day load study
Analysis:
• Electricians connected the Power Logger
• Set it to record average power every 15 minutes
• Recorded for 30 days

1. “Wasted power at a wastewater plant?”
Analysis:
• After the pump installation, the utility called. Plant Power factor had dropped
below 95 %.
• Plant electricians used the Power Clamp Meter and read 93 % power factor!
SO:
Electricians performed a 1-week energy study
They confirmed that the PF drop coincided with the operation of the new pumps


6 - BNE32603 POWER QUALITY - Chapter 5

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

6 - BNE32603 POWER QUALITY - Chapter 5

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

BNE 32603 POWER

Chapter 5: Power Quality

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

• Internal causes: Approximately 80% of

• External causes: About 20% of power quality

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

Typical utility problems

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

• semiconductor and electronics manufacturing facilities

• biotechnology and pharmaceutical laboratories

• financial data-processing centers.

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

• Prevent similar disturbances

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

• Power quality monitoring is the process of gathering, analyzing, and

• The process of gathering data is usually carried out by continuous

• The process of analysis and interpretation has been traditionally

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

•PQ Monitors must detect and Plus they must …

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

• Knowledge about real Power Quality levels and trends (meet

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

Continuous PQ Monitoring Detects, Records, and Leads to the

1. Monitoring to characterize system performance need

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

Monitoring as part of a facility site survey

1. Nature of the problems (data loss, nuisance trips, component failures,

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

A number of different instruments may be used for measuring PQ

• Wiring and grounding test devices

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

• Many power quality problems are solved by simply tightening a loose

• The National Electrical Code® (NEC®)* and other important standards

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

High touch voltage created by improper grounding

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

1. Problems with conductors and connectors

Problems with Conductors and

2. Missing safety ground

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

1. Proper grounding practices

Basic elements of a properly grounded electrical system

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

2. Ground electrode (rod)

The resistance of the ground-rod connection is important because it

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

3. Service entrance connections

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

5. More on grounding for sensitive equipment

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

Special-purpose power system harmonic analyzers

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

1. “A bad reaction at the chemical plant”

Dr. Farahiyah Mustafa, farahiyah@uthm.edu.my

1. “A bad reaction at the chemical plant”

Proactive maintenance and testing at a chemical plant uncover a problematic