Power Quality Analyzers

Power quality, often underestimated, is the backbone of modern life, ensuring the consistent performance of everything from household appliances to critical infrastructure. It safeguards equipment, reduces energy costs and improves productivity for businesses, while shielding communication systems from disruptions and data loss.

To maintain reliable operation of electrical systems, power quality analyzers are mission-critical tools. By meticulously measuring and monitoring power quality, they provide data-driven insights and eliminate guesswork. They aid in troubleshooting issues such as voltage dips, surges, harmonics, and transients to optimise equipment performance, reduce energy costs, and strengthen system reliability.

Key Applications and Benefits of PQAs in Industrial Scenarios

Given the unique challenges of industrial environments power quality analyzers (PQAs) are vital for maintaining reliable and efficient operations. This is especially true in environments with complex electrical systems, high loads and sensitive devices.

PQAs serve the following main purposes:

Monitoring and Troubleshooting

PQAs can report a range of issues, including voltage dips, surges, harmonics, transients and frequency variations, to name just a few. By analyzing power quality data, engineers can determine the underlying causes of equipment failures, downtime, and energy loss.

Compliance and Regulatory Adherence

Numerous industries adhere to strict power quality standards and regulations, like IEC 61000-4-30, IEEE 519, IEEE 1159, and EN 50160. PQAs play a key role in ensuring compliance with these requirements. As a result, they help avoid costly fines and penalties associated with non-compliance.

Special Industrial Applications

However, PQAs are not limited to a single application area, but can be used in diverse sectors above and beyond their traditional purpose. In manufacturing, for example, monitoring power quality helps ensure product quality, prevent equipment failures, and reduce energy costs. Reliable operation in data centers depends on maintaining high power quality, with analyzers helping to prevent data loss, downtime and equipment damage. Utilities use PQAs to monitor the quality of power delivered to customers and identify and address issues that may affect service reliability.

Predictive Maintenance

By analyzing power quality data, power systems engineers can identify emerging problems before they cause equipment failures, reducing downtime and maintenance costs.

Key Parameters for Power Quality

Power quality refers to the characteristics of the electrical power supply that affect the performance of equipment and systems. The following lists contains the key parameters and the most important standards in relation to power quality.

Parameters

Voltage
Current
Frequency
Power
Harmonics
THD
Symmetrical components
Power factor
Voltage dips, swells, and interruptions

Standards

IEC 61000-4-30
EN 50160
IEEE 519, IEEE 1159
National limits (grid codes)

Typical Power Quality Monitoring System Architecture

PQA Pillar page schematic

Voltage and Current Sensors: Measure voltage and current levels in the system, providing raw data for analysis.

Power Quality Analyzers: Permanently installed in substations across the grid, acquire voltage and current signals and compute RMS values, power, harmonics, and other measured quantities.

Network: Connects power quality analyzers in the field with the central server. The communication with instruments is either near real-time for instantaneous values or periodic to download most recent historical data from the analyzers.

Central Server: Collects time series of all quantities and stores them into a database. Performs statistical analysis of the history of selected quantities, resulting in standardized power quality reports. The central server can also monitor the status of all power quality analyzers in the field.

Operator Console(s): Desktop or web application that runs on the PCs of the responsible people within the organization. Enables the visualization of all data stored on the server in a number of views such as tables and graphs, depending on selected quantities, time intervals, individual analyzers, etc.

Choosing the Right PQA

Selecting the optimal PQA requires a careful evaluation of several key factors, including size, flexibility, measurement range, sampling rate, channels, accuracy, features, compliance, and cost. For on-site use, a portable analyzer is ideal, while an industrial and flexible device may be suitable for stationary use. Ensure the analyzer can measure the expected voltage, current, and frequency ranges, and has a sufficiently high sampling rate for capturing rapid transients. The number of channels needed depends on the required simultaneous measurements. Accuracy should meet application standards. In addition, features such as harmonic analysis, transient analysis, and power factor measurement may be essential. Consider data logging capabilities, communication interfaces, and compliance with relevant standards. Finally, evaluate your budget to prioritize features that are mandatory for your specific needs.

Examples of PQA Hardware

www.averna.comhs-fshubfsAverna_April2021ImagesPQA-MultiSystem

PQA-FLEX

PQA-MULTISYSTEM

PQA-PORTABLE

The Bottom Line

Power Quality Analyzers (PQAs) are essential tools for measuring and safeguarding the performance of electrical systems. Carefully considering factors such as size, flexibility, measurement range, sampling rate, channels, accuracy, features, compliance, and cost is crucial for selecting the right PQA to meet specific needs and ensure optimal power quality management. By monitoring and troubleshooting power quality issues, PQAs help reduce equipment failures, downtime, and energy costs. Adherence to regulatory standards is facilitated, and predictive maintenance strategies can be implemented to optimize system performance.