Power Quality Monitoring and Load Analysis

Are your equipment failures due to bad power?

With the electric industry undergoing the change to renewable and green energy, more and more attention is being focused on reliability and power quality. Power providers and users alike are concerned about reliable power, interruptions and disturbances or extended outages.

There are several electrical disturbances that commonly affect industrial processes. Some of these electrical disturbances include:

• Voltage Sags
• Capacitor Switching
• Electical Surges
• Harmonics
• Electromagnetic Interference (EMI)

Equipment and machinery can be damaged or even fail when subjected to power anomalies. One or two seconds of outage or a surge can bring your business down for days.

A critical step in ensuring reliability in electrical componenets is monitoring power quality and doing a load analysis. A load analysis typically finds out how many watts each electrical component consumes over time. Monitoring power quality and load analysis can help identify the cause of power system disturbances and even help identify problem conditions before they cause power interruptions or power disturbances.

Is your bad power due to poor electrical grounding and wiring?

Utility-supplied electricity is not always the cause of all power-related interruptions. In fact, studies indicate that as much as 80% of all power quality problems can be attributed to inadequate building wiring or incorrect electrical grounding to interactions between electrical loads within the premises.

If your building is more than 15 years old, it may not be designed to meet the demands of today's high power equipment. The electrical systems supporting your company’s key functions may be overloading the wiring and causing power quality problems and failures that can harm valuable data and equipment.

While the primary function of electrical grounding is to provide safety for equipment and personnel, proper electrical grounding also provides a path for lightning mitigation and surge mitigation and establishes an equipotential or zero-voltage reference point for the electrical system. In addition, a grounding system is designed to ensure the proper and efficient operation of sensitive electronic equipment.

How much load can your electrical panels handle?
What is the electrical load capacity of your system?

As stated in the National Electrical Code NEC article 220.87: You should always do a 30 day load analysis and demand study before you add more equipment to electrical panels. A proper electrical load study or load analysis will tell you the electrical system capacity and electrical panels capacity so as to be sure that it isn’t overloaded.

A proper load analysis or electrical load study will:

• Help you avoid overloading the system
• Serve as a planning tool for adding future equipement to the system

Our electrical load study monitors and records electrical usage compared to the capacity of the electrical system and includes:

• Onsite electrical measurements of watts, volts, amps and the power factor
• A detailed look at the electrical usage over the elecrical system
• Data which shows the electrical usage and the reserve capacity available
• A written review and report detailing the findings and recommendations

We can help protect your sensitive electrical equipment and data from damage.

The engineers at E&S Grounding Solutions provide specialized power quality audits which will not only identify power quality issues, but will also help you determine your specific power quality needs. We can put together a power quality recommendation and design a power quality solution that meets your needs and budget. E&S Grounding Solutions Power Quality Monitoring and Load Analysis service include testing:

• Uninterruptible Power Systems (UPS)
• Electromagnetic interference (EMI)
• Power Conditioners / Voltage Regulators
• Inverters and Frequency Converters
• Generators
• Data / Communication Line Protectors 100 Base T to Analog
• Proper Grounding and Wiring Analysis
• Shielding Sensitive Equipment
• EMI / RFI Filters