Electrical Power System Problems and Solutions

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Electrical Power System Problems and Solutions

In this post some usual Electrical Power System Problems and Solutions.

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Problem: Momentary Interruption

Momentary-interruptions

Description: Very short planned or accidental power loss

Duration: 0.5 cycles to 3 sec

Cause: Switching Operations attempting to isolate electrical problem and maintain power to your area

Effects:

  • Equipment trips off
  • Programming is lost
  • Disk drive crashes

Solution:

UPS or standby power supply(SPS) for critical loads

Problem: Temporary Interruption/Long-term outage

temporary-interruption

Description: Planned or accidental total loss of power in a localized area of the service area

Duration: Temporary (3 sec- 1min), Long-term (over 1 min)

Causes:

  • Equipment failure
  • Contractors digging into underground conductor wires
  • Vehicle hitting pole
  • Storms

Effect: System shuts down

Solution: Uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for critical loads

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Problem: Sag/Swell

sag-or-swell

Description: Brief reductions or increases in voltage

Duration: 0.5 cycles to 1 minute.
Sags or swell longer than 1 minute are called under voltages or over voltages

Cause:

  • Major equipment startup or shut-down
  • Short circuits (faults)
  • Undersized electrical wiring

Effect:

  • Memory loss
  • Data errors
  • Dim or bright lights
  • shrinking display screens
  • Equipment shutdown

Solution:

  • Relocate equipment to different electrical circuit within facility
  • Power conditioners or UPS Systems for Critical Loads

Problem: Surge

surge

Description: Sudden change in voltage up to several thousand volts (also called impulse, spike,or transient)

Duration: < 1msec

Causes:

  • Lightning
  • Turning major equipment on or off
  • Utility switching

Effect:

  • Processing Errors
  • Data loss
  • Burned circuit boards

Solution: Install surge suppressor at main panel (best when used in combination with branch circuit surge suppressor)

Problem: Noise/Harmonic Distortion

noise-harmonic-distortion

Description: Continuous distortion of normal voltage

Duration: Steady State

Cause:

  • Electromagnetic interference from appliances, machines, radio, and TV broadcasts
  • Harmonic distortion from nonlinear loads (computers, lights)

Effect:

  • Continuous distortion of normal voltage
  • Random data errors

Solution:

  • Use a noise filter designed for application (sometimes incorporated with surge suppressors)
  • Power conditioner

Read Also: Lightning Arrester|ESE Lightning Arrester & Conventional Iightning Arrester

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