Voltage disturbances is a critical power quality issue today perhaps second only to earthing (grounding) & wiring in frequency of occurrence and devastating effects.
Costing industries and businesses over hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
Cost Per Dip for different sectors in euro (from case studied laboratory)
Particularly hit are continuous manufacturing and high tech concerns. Where a minute interruption can cause production to stop raw material wasted and many hours of restart operations.
Its symptoms include intermittent lock-ups, resets, corrupt data, premature equipment failure, overheating of components, malfunctioning and nuisance tripping of circuit breakers, contactors, etc.
Results are production (time & materials) losses, reduced equipment life, overheating of transformers, fuses blowing and electronic components failing.
Ultimately leading to increased production costs, reduced efficiency and quality.
Voltage disturbances cover a wide range of issues. Root Mean Square (RMS) distortions and steady-state variations for example, voltage sags (dips), swells, transients (oscillatory and impulsive) and all sorts of interruptions.
Others are under/overvoltages, harmonic distortions, voltage fluctuations (flickers), voltage unbalance or imbalance. With voltage sags (dips) topping the list of culprits.
Although, harmonics and transients are voltage disturbances, we shall however discuss them separately in subsequent articles.
We shall x-ray their respective waveforms, characteristics, signatures, causes, sources, their effects and finally how to mitigate or eliminate them by deploying appropriate power conditioners subsequently.
The good news is that solutions are within reach and affordable. At FullSpectrum Energy, we understand voltage disturbances and uniquely positioned to proffering cost effective mitigating techniques that works.
Saving you energy costs, eliminating wastes, reducing downtime and enhancing reliability & productivity.
Contact us
Victor Oyedu, FNSE, FNIEEE, CPQ.
Power Quality and Energy Management Specialist.
Publisher at Afrienergyonline.com &
CEO, FullSpectrum Energy Solutions Limited, Nigeria
