Power Quality Analysis
Power quality analysers and meters
Three phase power quality analysers are ideal for troubleshooting, logging, and creating detailed reports in conjunction with the easy-to-use Energy Analyse Plus or PowerLog-430-II software.
Find and solve power quality problems
As with any troubleshooting task, you need the right tools to get the job done. When it comes to power quality troubleshooting, finding and eliminating issues with dips and swells, harmonics, unbalance, and other power quality issues can be difficult. Capturing the data needed to troubleshoot is the first step in solving these power quality issues. Fluke power quality analysers and power quality meters will help you trace and identify voltage anomalies and harmonic distortion issues – even the ones that are the most difficult to find.
Troubleshooting to get answers
When your AC power system has a problem you need to find it without delay; Fluke’s three-phase power meters will quickly provide the answers you need to get things running smoothly. These three phase meters can be used for troubleshooting to help you find the answers now; or as benchmarking tools to discover the trend of your power quality over time. Simply connect and view the state of health of the power system either numerically or graphically, then log the data and share with co-workers or consultants through screenshots, graphs or reports. Fluke power quality meters can provide all the answers you need to effectively troubleshoot power quality issues rapidly.
There are a number of ways in which electric power can be of poor quality. Improper wiring, incorrect grounding, and unbalanced loads are just a few examples of conditions that can produce electrical noise through an electrical system and compromise power quality.
There is no such thing as perfect power quality in the real world. Service interruptions, equipment malfunction, and excess power consumption are all common symptoms of poor power quality.
To minimize the risk of lost production and damage to electrical equipment, power quality analysis is used to monitor a system for problems, find the cause, and initiate corrective action. After system data is collected in the field, a power quality engineer will look for unusual events and determine the proper power conditioning equipment or other steps needed to resolve the issue.
Ideal Power Conditions
It is important that power serving electrical loads is “clean,” meaning voltage and current waveforms are relatively in phase, free of distortion, and balanced between each other. Low quality power can increase utility bills and cause damage to critical power equipment, resulting in higher production costs and greater chance of downtime.
An “ideal” three-phase power system has the following characteristics:
The current is in phase with the voltage for each phase. Power Factor = 1.
The phase voltage and currents are exactly 120 degrees apart and all equal to each other. No unbalance.
The voltage and current sine waves are not distorted or interrupted in any way.
The source impedance is zero, so that events at the load don’t affect the source voltage.
The actual frequency is equal to the nominal frequency.
No power system is “ideal” in the real world, but understanding these characteristics can help identify non-ideal power characteristics of real systems. There is some acceptable range of deviation from “ideal” for each application, which can be defined as “acceptable power.”
In the United States, acceptable limits for service voltage and utilization voltage are defined in ANSI C84.1. Power quality monitoring is used to ensure that an electrical power system is operating within acceptable limits, and to capture waveform distortion and other anomalies that may cause power interruptions or other system phenomena.