POWER QUALITY & ENERGY DEFINITIONS:
During our measurement and analysis activities, we hope to identify power quality issues that are known to have a
significant impact on the overall energy consumption, electrical efficiency and facility maintenance costs of the total facility.
These issues are discussed in general during this introduction, and more specifically later in this document.

HARMONIC VOLTAGE & CURRENT DISTORTION:
Many modern item of plant include electronic controls that can and do generate distortion on the local network
which can result in sporadic problems with failed components and inaccurate metering.

SERVICE UTILIZATION / POWER FACTOR
The power factor of a facility, in effect, is a measure of the overall efficiency of a facility’s use of power. Quite simply, it is a measure of the ratio of kW (active power) to kVA (apparent power). kVA is the actual energy utilities provide to their customers. Many utilities charge some sort of penalty for poor power factor, defined in different regions of the country in significantly different ways and levels.

MOTOR PROTECTION:

Modern plants are usually equipped with VFD’s (Variable Frequency Drives) to control electric motors of all sizes. Motors are easily controlled and will operate more efficiently when controlled by VFDs. However, with the overall efficiency come issues affecting the operation and longevity of the motors. We can read in IEEE Std 112, Section 8, paragraph 8.3 that shaft currents and voltages are introduced into the motor. Those currents and voltages, i.e. energy has to be discharged. This happens either thru the deterioration of insulation and failure or thru ball bearing failure.

We at Filtronica, Inc. are trained to detect those issues, by measuring the currents and voltages and are glad to issue mitigating reports.