Use a Planned Approach to Power Quality Improvement Projects to Maximize Results

     Power Quality is a serious issue that touches almost all industrial, commercial and residential customers in some way. Fluctuations in the quality of electric power costs United States manufacturing, commercial and service businesses an estimated $38.9 billion each year.

     We believe in continuous improvement...not dramatic and disruptive changes.  For this reason, the simple and unobtrusive installation of facility-wide surge suppression should be the first step in your quest for improved power quality.

     The reasons are simple: 

     We at Stedi-Power believe in correcting power quality problems using the  least-expensive, simplest, and most effective method possible.  It's possible to identify and correct all of the elements of power quality that are producing problems, but it is usually the most expensive option.  We believe that an incremental approach is, most times, the best method.

     Even seemingly innocent changes, such as lighting retrofits to more energy-efficient systems, can produce problems, or can be, themselves, even more susceptible to damage from transient activity than the items they replace.

     First, you need to understand the different components of power quality and realize that it is possible to fix one problem and create another.  Basically, the categories than can be addressed are power factor, noise, transient activity, harmonics, and availability.

POWER FACTOR

     Most people tend to fixate on power factor because that’s what the utilities want you to improve the most. Why? If you have a low power factor it costs your utility more to provide yo u the same amount of electricity than someone with a good power factor. Power factor improvements require intensive engineering and specification, and the most effective (cost efficient) methods produce transient voltages. That’s why we recommend that people address the protection aspect first. If you improve power factor first, you will need to address transient activity. If you improve transient protection first, you can address power factor at your leisure.

     Power Factor Correction requires highly detailed surveys and very careful calculations. Failure to consider other contributing factors, such as harmonics, can result in creating more serious, and dangerous conditions.
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT POWER FACTOR

NOISE

     Noise, or more specifically electrical noise, is a rapid succession of transients tracking up and down along the voltage waveform. The magnitude of these rapid transients is usually much less than that of an isolated transient. Noise often originates in electrical motors and motor control devices, electric arc furnaces, electric welders, relays, and remote atmospheric discharges such as lightning. Although less destructive than a large rapid transient, electrical noise can cause computers to malfunction and can interfere with the operation of communications equipment or other sensitive electronic equipment.

     Electrical or electromechanical devices that cause fast or large changes in voltage or current are common sources of noise. Radio frequency noise can come from walkie-talkies, wireless computer systems, and other radio based systems. Typical noise sources include lightning, power-line switchi ng, switching inductive loads, arcs, fluorescent lights, welding machines, inadequate separation of conductors of different levels, static discharge, harmonics, and ground loops. Noise can appear in both power and signal (control) lines.

     Noise is not generally seen as a primary problem, but instead is usually a result of other factors. The Stedi-Power system is designed to filter the most common form of noise in the frequencies most commonly seen in industrial and commercial environments.
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT NOISE

HARMONICS

     Distortion occurs when harmonic frequencies are added to the 60 Hertz (60Hz) voltage or current waveform, making the usually smooth wave appear jagged or distorted. Distortion can be caused by solid state devices such as rectifiers, adjustable speed controls, fluorescent lights, and even computers themselves. 

     At high levels, distortion can cause computers to malfunctions and cause motors, transformers, and wires to heat up excessively. Distortion is probably the most complicated and least understood of all power disturbances.
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT HARMONICS

TRANSIENT ACTIVITY

     Simply put, transients are quick impulses of high voltage. They result in the degradation of electrical and electronic equipment and reduce operating efficiencies of anything that uses or transmits electricity. They attack from numerous sources-- your utility, environmental means, accidents, ne ighboring facilities, and your own equipment. These high-frequency events degrade electrical insulation, produce electrical arcing and contact pitting, produce eddy-currents in iron core and electrical transmission components (resulting in hysteresis-losses), and generate electrical noise. They produce motor faults, computer failures, loss of data, and electronic noise.

     Most external sources are blamed on the local electrical utility but this isn’t really fair. Your utility produces some when load switching at substations, but lightning, accidents, and neighboring businesses produce far more. A lightning strike can induce a transient by simply striking near electrical lines. Most electrical lines are overhead and vulnerable to accidents involving trees, automobiles, and animals. If you share transformers with a neighboring business (many small businesses do) your neighbor’s internally generated transients can add to your external transient sources.

     Surges and transients are internally produced whenever large loads are switched on, switched off, loaded, or unloaded. Electronic power supplies and motor drives produce them, and they can be generated by independent power generation equipment. They can also be produced by static discharge.

     Transient Voltage Surge Suppression (TVSS) addresses most aspects of power quality. These devices will not have as great an effect on power factor as a specifically engineered solution, but specifically engineered solutions for power factor will have little impact on noise, transient activity, and availability. In other words, you get "the most bang for your buck" by installing surge suppressors (sometimes called "spike protectors" or spelled as "suppressers") in your facility. Unless specifically engineer ed and designed,  typical surge suppressors will have little effect damping the type high-frequency, electromagnetic impulse associated with eddy current (hysteresis losses) in iron-core devices and the mysterious computer failures that plague high-noise environments. Stedi-Power is much more than a surge suppressor. It is designed precisely to address the factors of transient activity, noise suppression, and lightning protection (which enhances availability).
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT TRANSIENT ACTIVITY

Stedi-Power, Inc
5044 B U Bowman Drive #102
Buford, Georgia 30518
PHONE: (678) 546-6780

Last Updated: 07 Jun 2004
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