Power Quality Metering / Monitoring Solutions

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Why is Power Quality Monitoring Essential?

Power Quality Monitoring has several advantages, like enhancing performance and quality. A PQM System will gather, examine, and interpret raw energy measurement data into useful information. A typical monitoring system measures voltage and electric current, but the ground quality might also be measured if dispersed loads or harmonics are found. There are a number of various reasons to use power quality monitoring. It helps manufacturing plants in energy management, preventative maintenance, quality control and thus saving money in the long run. Today, many end users have telecommunications or computer equipment that does not utilize PQM. This makes them susceptible to power quality problems. If you understand the implications of power fluctuations then you will realize the importance of power quality monitoring.

It is projected that power outages account for up to 40 percent of all business downtime. To monitor their power, modern power plants use digital error recorders, smart relays, voltage recorders, in-plant power monitors, and specific purpose power quality equipment. Consumers of power, such as buildings and factories use power quality meters from manufacturers such as MachineSense to prevent equipment damage and fire.

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Best Selling 3 Phase Portable Power Quality Meters

How Our Power Quality Monitoring Device Works?

1. Vibration Analyzer
2. MachineSense Power Toroid
3. MachineSense Power Analyzer
4. MachineSense Data Hub
5. Router
6. Cloud-Based Servers
7. MachineSense CrystalBallTM Predictive Software
8. Actionable Maintenance Advice

MachineSenseTM Power Analyzer toroids are placed directly on incoming power lines to automatically monitor power conditions and detect power anomalies. The sensor data transmits through a self-contained data hub directly to your router and onto cloud-based servers running powerful analytic software. Results are then transmitted from the server to either a desktop or user friendly app where you will view power conditions with helpful advice to correct power anomalies.

Power Analyzer Meter Installation Manuals

Download Datasheet Quick Start Guide Installation Guide

How is Power Quality Determined?

Individual Waveform Capture ' Allowing engineers and executives to track slowly changing variation in electrical waveforms to root out the cause of mechanical failures well before they happen which can be isolated, recorded and graphically displayed while using the Acuvim IIW.

• Harmonic Distortion
• Sag & Swell Monitoring
• Frequency Variations
• Power Factor

Harmonic Distortion

Power Quality Monitoring provides an analysis of non-linear loads connected to the distribution system, all of which affect electrical frequencies and cause problems such as misfiring, over-heating and voltage spikes. Individual harmonic measurement can be read on all of the MachineSense power quality meters.

Sag & Swell Monitoring

Voltage Sags and Swells are a decrease and increase in voltage over a brief time. Voltage sags are the most typical events that lead to affect the quality of energy and are usually the most pricey. They affect gear which range from PLCs, relays, controllers and everything else. When the sag happens, the power source within the device overcompensates which when the sag is reduced enough can harm the internal circuits of the device causing malfunctions.

Though these are generally blamed on the utility company, the reality is that these are usually caused inside the site or building and includes grounding, bonding, and other problems or from powering different equipment through the same power supply.

Frequency Variations

The deviation of the frequency at which electric current is supplied may confuse logic systems and affect the operating speed of machinery. These deviations in frequency can be effectively monitored using any MachineSense Power Quality Meter.

Power Factor

The ratio of the real power flowing to the load that it can be used for; this 0-1 figure is a most accurate depiction of how viable the electricity supplied is. Low power factor ( usually called 'dirty power' ) affects devices and causes inefficiencies in their functioning. All of the MachineSense power quality meters allow users to keep track of this ratio and users can track the historical power factor.

Recommended Implementation

An effective Power Quality Audit using MachineSense power quality monitoring systems can be achieved using MachineSense Power Quality Meters as a permanently installed power quality meter for proactive and comprehensive power quality measurement. The meter can be read remotely via our proprietary cloud-based software and app.

Features & Benefits of Power Harmonics Analyzer

1. Affordable, low investment and easy to install on existing equipment
2. Easy to understand diagnostic advice via text or messages and handheld or desktop dashboards, no manual data analysis
3. Dedicated power supply, no need to change sensor batteries
4. 24/7/365 constant automatic monitoring, no manual measurements
5. Accurate reporting of potential machine and component failures, to reduce unscheduled machine downtime
6. Real time and historic electrical power consumption data

Power Quality Analysis & Application of Power Analyzer Meter

1. Why is power quality analysis important?

Electrical power runs almost every machinery in the world. As clean unadulterated food is important for the healthy lifestyle of human beings, machines need clean power for longevity and uninterrupted operations. Therefore, high-quality power is absolutely required for the successful operation of the factories and the buildings. IEEE standard defines the international standard for clean power by limiting the maximum limits allowed for over/under voltage/current conditions, Sag/Swell, poor grounding/earthing, level of different current and voltage harmonics, etc. Power distribution companies maintain this standard while feeding to the transformers at the input to the factories and the buildings. However, power distribution inside the factory or the building may not comply with IEEE standards since within the factories/buildings power quality degrades due to uneven tapping of single-phase load from 3-phase lines, DC loads like LEDs, UPS, Mobile/Laptop charges, etc. Poor quality is not only responsible for immature death/downtime of the machines/controllers, it also threatens basic fire safety issues since power surges or imbalance may lead to the burning of the wires. In addition, harmonic contents of the power are normally wasted and thus contribute to energy inefficiencies.

2. What are some of the best applications of power quality meters?

Power Quality Meters have wide range of applications - most notable among them are:

• Check the compliance with IEEE power standards to make sure Power fed to the factories/buildings/machines are clean.
• Additional algorithms available to monitor predictive health of the Motors, Heaters, Drives 24x7 continuously in the cloud and in the edge system.
• Compare energy usages between different machines within a factory.
• Calculate the utilization and productivity of the machines.
• Measure energy usage per unit of productivity.
• Estimate the actual cost of electricity by an accurate cost model of energy usage that depends on time of the day, time of the year, etc.
• Capture surge or small duration electrical event in detail using the event capture mechanism.

3. How does a power quality meter work?

Power Quality analyzer has one hardware and 4 software components.

• Its hardware captures the voltage and current data of a machine or electrical line. Its hardware supports up to 6.6 kV and 0-A range.
• Voltage, Current and Power Factor data then fed to sensor system software ( Software-1) which extracts all the useful information ( metadata) of power quality ( harmonics, over-voltage, RMS, etc.) in real-time and with a sampling rate required for the application
• Then power quality metadata is ingested into an analytic module ( Software-2) which does analytical modeling for power quality. All the metadata and analytic results are continually stored into a database system ( Software-3) which stores the data for 6 months. In MachineSense system, Software 2 and 3 can be deployed both locally within the factory ( edge cloud) as well as in the public cloud ( MachineSense offers a fully-featured SaaS for that).
• Final results of analytics, metadata and database can be displayed/accessed using two different visualization software systems ( Software-4). One type of visualization known as data monitor is for plant engineers /maintenance crew. This version of visualization is fully automated. Another type of visualization is for expert electrical engineers which allows the engineers to play with data and algorithms in an open platform.

4. What are the different power quality issues that electricians/building managers should be aware of and be concerned about?

IEEE - defines the power quality issues that have to be monitored in any Industrial or commercial operation. This includes approximately 37 different kinds of issues but overwhelmingly only a handful of them occur frequently in any manufacturing or building set-up.  Most common occurring issues in power quality are:

• Current harmonics: Source of harmonics in current lines can be a number of device installation in the distribution line.  Current Harmonics are generated when

1. a non-linear load like a DC load ( battery charger, LED) are connected to the line
2. Current imbalance also generate harmonics
3. AC drives, UPS throws up a lot of harmonics back to the line. Harmonics are unwanted current frequencies and the heat up the motor coils. Thus, if compressors, HVAC, fans are failing frequently, it is a sure sign that harmonics in the line have exceeded alarmingly. The safety limit of total current harmonic distortion (THD) is around 5-7%.

• Poor grounding/earthing: The transmission line is also a good antenna. In order for electronics ( like router, laptop charger, printer) to work well in a factory, office or home, unwanted radio frequencies ( in the era of WiFi, 4G/5G, there are tons of them ) that are absorbed in all the lines and polluting the electronics signal as noise must be pushed back to ground or earth. Lightening also throws out some of the strong RF bursts into the lines. All of this must be safely passed to earth via earthing wire.  But earthing of most buildings is very poor and hardly anyone keeps track of cleaning and maintaining them. Especially if earthing is in a river valley which is dominated by alluvial clay and receives rain, the earthing chemical inside the ground will be washed out very quickly within months.
• Surge:  Voltage or current surge is also common in any factory/building. Surge can destroy the controllers and electronics of machines.  The source of the current surge is inrush current.  When adjacent heavy machinery is switched on or off, all of a sudden a big load is increased or decreased momentarily. This adds to milli-second duration surge in voltage or current that can be seen by machines on the same line. This can also happen if an adjacent factory is switching on/off a big load. 
• Voltage and Current imbalance: Voltage and current imbalance in a three-phase AC line can be very dangerous to machines as well as for fire safety. Unbalanced current will be passing through a neutral wire and as a result of high neutral current, the wire can burn and can be a source of the fire. In India, studies conducted by MachineSense shows most of the fire is caused by this.  This kind of imbalance happens because of uneven tapping of single-phase from 3 phase currents.

5. What are the safety concerns for poor power quality?

Poor power quality may lead to a fire in many ways and is responsible for 85% of the fire in the buildings.

• In India and many Asian countries that have a neutral wire, the most common source of electrical fire is the flow of very high neutral current. High neutral current is a result of current imbalance and harmonics. A neutral wire is vulnerable to fire because by standard this wire is thinner ( supposed to carry lower currents) and does not have circuit breakers
• Motor coil burns due to high harmonics
• If there is poor grounding/earthing, any kind of lightning surge can lead to a fire.

6. What kind of equipment will get damaged due to poor power quality?

All kinds of equipment barring old-style Tungsten lamps are prone to damage due to power quality.

1. Any machine that uses a Motor ( 65% machines use a motor at least) like Pump, Compressors, Fans ' will face premature death due to burning of the coil from harmonics
2. Any heavy machine depending on large or small magnet like MRI, CT Scan also gets damaged from Harmonics and imbalance
3. Robotics depend a lot on actuators and solenoids - they also get burned quickly
4. Servers get a reduced life-span because their fans don't work properly
5. Air Conditioning equipment like chiller, HVAC are highly power quality sensitive.

7. What standards to follow to mitigate current harmonics and other power quality issues?

There are several power quality standards but IEEE is the most commonly followed standard worldwide. IEEE - is the latest which has superseded -. For more details, please check 

https://standards.ieee.org/standard/-.html

8. Why Power Quality Problems are increasing over the last couple of years?

The following developments in the power sector played a tremendous role on power quality:

1. Energy Improvement/Efficiency Measures generating more Harmonics in the lines than before ( https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/).  Energy-saving measures like a replacement to LED, AC drives are a major source of harmonics pollution in the line.
2. Growth of microgrids & renewable energy sources (like solar) adding bad quality power in the grids (https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/). Solar plants and its inverters are one of the largest sources of harmonic pollution.
3. Rise of battery for mobile chargers, electrical vehicle chargers and inverters led to further rise in the non-linear loads which add a lot of harmonics (https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=)

Total loss of United States GDP due to 1,2,3 are more than $45.7B a year (https://energycollection.us/Energy-Reliability/Cost-Power-Disturbances.pdf). However, the problem of power quality is very often ignored since it is not monitored. Most of the time end-users get aware of it only when they see frequent breakdowns of the machines or fire coming out of the wires. Waiting for such a long time to know the building has poor power quality is dangerous for the safety of the inhabitants of the buildings as well as utility machines.

The solution to Power Quality problems that have resulted from 1,2,3 are well recorded and recommended in ISA ( International Society of Automation: https://www.isa.org/about-isa/ ). However, to provide ISA compliant clean power to every building and plant, that are already suffering from poor power quality (1-3), one needs a system that:

1. Collects the power quality data (such as voltage & current imbalance) from every important point of the distribution ( which is powering very important and costly machines like HVAC or Compressors, after the incoming transformer, etc. )
2. Analyzes the data statistically ( since power quality data will change with the days - weekdays vs weekend, day vs night, office time vs vacation time)  and a power quality expert, who is well versed with solution engineering and can design appropriate UPS, harmonic filter, etc. required to meet ISA standard for power quality.

The commercial challenge for 1 includes cost-effective hardware and cloud platform ( IoT or Cyber-Physical System ) that is affordable by building and plant management.  That problem has been solved by MachineSense LLC by using state of the art System on Chips ( SoC), single-board computer like Raspberry Pi and Open Sourced software.

However, the commercial challenge for 2 is far more difficult and critical. As shown in the paper (https://cdn.selinc.com/assets/Literature/Publications/Technical%20Papers/_TodaysEngineeringShortage_JP__Web.pdf?v=-), the US now produces only 500 engineers ( reduced from )  annually who are capable of such power diagnosis. There are hardly 50,000 power engineers active in the US. It is impossible for 50,000 engineers to address the power quality issues of 13M US buildings ( office, hospitals, plants, etc. )  even if all data to solve the problems are available. 

9. How MachineSense Power Quality Analyzers are addressing the rising issues of poor power quality?

Power Quality Analyzers had a wide range of applications - most notable among them are:

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1. Check the compliance with IEEE power standards to make sure power fed to the factories/buildings/machines are clean
2. Additional algorithms available to monitor predictive health of the Motors, Heaters, Drives 24x7 continuously in the cloud and in the edge system. 
3. Compare energy usages between different machines within a factory 
4.  Calculate the utilization and productivity of the machines  
5. Measure  energy usage per unit of productivity 
6. Estimate the actual cost of electricity by an accurate cost model of energy usage that depends on the time of the day, time of the year, etc. 
7. Capture surge or small duration electrical event in detail using the event capture mechanism.

The use of highly energy-dependent machinery is very common in commercial and industrial settings. Keeping the machinery running at optimum efficiency'with an eye on operating costs'is a constant concern for plant managers and technicians.

One factor that can have important consequences for maintaining the optimal performance from machinery is power quality. Power quality is an often overlooked component of troubleshooting or routine maintenance.

Low power quality costs money, both in terms of higher energy costs as well as the toll it takes on equipment. When energy is being poorly utilized it results in excess power usage and can lead utilities to impose financial penalties for poor power factor or high peak demands. Low power quality also increases the cost of maintenance and repair. The increased risk of equipment failure or damage due to poor power quality also adds cost of replacing equipment, diagnosis and labor.

Better understanding the nature of electricity, the effect it can have on equipment, and how to identify problems with power quality is an important step towards maximizing plant efficiency, preventing disruptions to manufacturing, and containing costs.

About Electricity

When a piece of equipment is plugged in, it is, in effect, connected to a generating facility, transmission and distribution lines, a meter, and the internal wiring of the plant in which the equipment is located. It is a very complicated system which provides ample opportunity for the quality of power to be compromised due to variations in weather, generation, demand and other factors.

Ideally, the AC voltage generated and supplied by the utility perfectly matches the amplitude and frequency as established by national standards and has an impedance of zero ohms at all frequencies. In the real world, though, no power source is ideal. Power disturbances can involve voltage, current, or frequency and typically manifest as dips, swells, harmonic distortion, unbalance, flicker, and transients.

Though power disturbances can originate anywhere along the route from generation to usage, the fact is that over 80% of power quality issues come from within the end user's facility. Though lightning strikes, accidents, and weather conditions can cause problems with power quality from outside the facility, the odds are significantly higher that any issues are caused by improper wiring and grounding, overloaded circuits, harmonics or just the simple act of starting up and shutting down large pieces of machinery.

What Is Power Quality?

Power quality describes the relationship between the electrical power and the connected equipment. If every piece of equipment reliably functions under normal operating conditions, we assume the power is clean. Once equipment starts to malfunction or prematurely fail under standard conditions, poor power quality may be the culprit. As facilities expand production capabilities or adapt to new technologies, there can be changes to the overall power requirements. Every new installation or upgrade also increases the likelihood of a power problem (bad ground, loose connection, unbalancing a load, introducing harmonics') A power quality issue can be described as any deviation from a nominal voltage source. Although the power utility company is generally the first to be suspected, most power quality issues actually originate from within a facility.

Power quality determines the suitability of electrical power to drive motors, machines and other end user devices. Poor power quality affects the ability of these devices to operate properly which may cause malfunctions, premature failure or may cause them to not work at all. The general terms given to describe some of the variables in electrical service include nominal voltage fluctuation, unbalanced loads, transient voltages and currents, and harmonic distortion in the waveforms for AC power.

Particularly important to power quality is the synchronization of the voltage frequency and phase which allows electrical systems to function in their intended manner without significant loss of performance. With traditional 'linear' loads, the wave shape of the steady-state current follows the wave shape of the applied voltage. This means the load will neither distort the shape of the voltage sine wave, nor cause non-sinusoidal currents to flow in the circuit.

On the other hand, the impedance of 'non-linear' loads changes with the applied voltage so that the current drawn by the non-linear load will not be sinusoidal even when it is connected to a sinusoidal voltage. These non-sinusoidal currents contain harmonic currents that create voltage distortion.

AC power systems which have excessive harmonics can result in a number of power quality issues such as reduced electric motor horsepower output, overheated transformers, very high neutral conductor currents in three-phase systems, and electromagnetic noise which can interfere with sensitive electrical equipment.

Not long ago, non-linear loads were usually found in heavy industrial applications only. The harmonics they generated were generally localized. This no longer holds true. Increasingly, we find electrical loads controlled by non-linear components. For example, new power conversion technologies such as the Switch-Mode Power Supply (SMPS) can be found in virtually every electronic device making them a substantial portion of the total load in most commercial buildings. The highly non-linear loads are rich in harmonics and all the potential problems associated with them.

Understanding the causes and effects of poor power quality is the first step towards identifying and improving the condition.

Assessing Power Quality

There are a number of tools and techniques available to assess power quality. Oscilloscopes, for example, allow observation of the waveform of AC voltage. Anything other than a clean sine wave could be an indication of trouble.

Another way to assess power quality, this time without sophisticated equipment, is to use two voltmeters' one an averaging type and the other a true-RMS type'and compare their readings. Averaging meters are designed to work only with sine waves and will not register proper readings if not a sine wave. True-RMS meters will work with all waveforms. A power system with good quality power should generate equal voltage readings between the two meters. The greater the difference between the two meters, the greater it's harmonic content and the lower the power quality.

Though these methods can give technicians some indication of the quality of their power, for real qualitative analysis there is no substitute for an instrument designed specifically to assess power quality.

Power quality meters/analyzers are the class of instruments designed to identify issues with power quality. They work by very quickly sampling the AC voltage at many different points along the waveform shape, digitizing those points of information, and using a microprocessor to perform a numerical analysis to arrive at harmonic frequency magnitudes. With the ability to monitor current as well, power quality analyzers can also calculate/display common power values. Most power quality analyzers simultaneously monitor multiple phases to quickly get the whole picture of the system.

Power quality meters/analyzers often have a large digital display and are capable of displaying multiple measurements and graphically representing waveforms. The amount of information these meters present, as well as the manner in which the information is displayed is very useful in the hands of a skilled technician since different types of nonlinear loads tend to generate different spectrum 'signatures' which help identify the source of the problem.

Like any class of instruments, there is a considerable range of features found within the class. Some types of measurement features found in power quality meters include:

Total harmonic distortion

Total harmonic distortion, or THD is a common measurement of the level of harmonic distortion present in power systems. THD is defined as the ratio of total harmonics to the value at fundamental frequency and is caused by any non-linear equipment or electronics. Distortion factor is a closely related term, sometimes used as a synonym. %DF is the THD in reference to the total RMS signal, which is never greater than 100%. Hamonics can wreak havoc on the entire electrical system as the higher frequencies create additional voltage and/or current. Unplanned circuit tripping and dangerous heat are the most common traits of harmonics.

Power factor

Power factor is the ratio of the real power flowing to the load and the apparent power that is supplied to the circuit. The power factor can range in value from 0 to 1. In an electric power system, a load with a low power factor draws more current than a load with a high power factor for the same amount of useful power transferred. The higher currents increase the energy lost in the distribution system, and require larger wires and other equipment. Electrical utilities will usually charge a higher cost to industrial or commercial customers where there is a low power factor due to the cost of wasted energy and equipment requirements.

Balance

Three-phase electric power is commonly used for generation, transmission, and distribution of electric power. It is also commonly used to power large motors and heavy loads. The appeal of three-phase systems stems from them being more efficient and requiring less conductor material.

A three-phase system uses three conductors each which carry an alternating current of the same frequency and voltage amplitude relative to a common reference but with a phase difference of one third the period. This phase delay gives constant power transfer to a balanced linear load.

In general, it is practical to distribute the loads as evenly as possible across each of the three phases. In practice, however, systems rarely have perfectly balanced loads, currents, voltages and impedances in all three phases. Generally, the difference between the highest and the lowest voltages should not exceed 4%. Imbalances greater than this may lead the components, especially motors, to overheat and motor controllers to shut down. In addition, many solid-state motor controllers and inverters include components that are especially sensitive to voltage imbalances.

Unbalanced loads are also inefficient for the entire electrical system. The supply of electricity must be enough to provide the power required by the highest loaded phase. An unbalanced load leaves unused capacity which costs money and may lead to fines from the electrical utility.

Phase angle

In AC electrical circuits, the relationship between a voltage and a current sine wave within the same circuit is very important. When capacitors or inductors are included in the circuit, the current and voltage do not peak at the same time. The distance the waveform has shifted from a certain reference point along the horizontal zero axis is expressed in degrees and referred to as the phase shift or phase angle. Many analyzers can also display the phasor diagram to graphically show the relationship between the voltages and corresponding current measurements.

A large phase angle is a sign of inefficiency and lowers the power factor.

Energy cost calculations

Poor power quality can lead to wasted energy. A power factor less than 1 means energy is being wasted. How much does it actually cost to inefficiently run a facility? Certain meters have the ability to monetarily quantify these energy losses.

Things to consider when selecting a power quality meter:

• Total Power of your system. Single phase? Three phase? Is there any solar involved?
• What Voltage Events do you need to capture? (Transients, Dips & swells, harmonics, flicker)
• What needs to be displayed graphically? (Phasor diagram, harmonics, waveform capture)
• Other calculations or parameters? (Monetize the energy loss, Crest factor, Transformer K factor, power inverter efficiency)
• Are there specific logging or connectivity requirements?
• Does you meter need to meet any particular standard? IEC -4-30 Class, for example?

If you have any questions regarding power quality meters, please don't hesitate to speak with one of our engineers by e-mailing us at or calling 1-800-884-.

The company is the world’s best Three-Phase Power Quality Analyzer Wholesaler supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.