Power Quality

Power Quality basically refers to the quality of the electrical environment in which a consumer’s equipment will have to operate. In essence, the term Power Quality relates to the quality of the voltage at the consumer’s premises.

Effects of Power Quality

More than ever, industry and commerce rely upon IT systems for process control and effective communications. Allied to this is the need for a clean power source in order that such sensitive equipment can operate reliably and without interruption.

Often the culpability of problems caused by power quality issues is misplaced. For example, software crashes and data corruption are often blamed on poor software. The reality of it is that very often these types of failures are caused by transient voltage events such as high frequency spikes. Sensitive equipment connected directly to the supply is especially susceptible to the effects of transients but even load connected through a UPS can suffer transient issues.

The financial implications in industry and commerce of power quality problems are potentially very large due to prolonged periods of production down time or data loss, which in the financial industry can be catastrophic.

Planned Analysis

The adage ‘prevention is better than cure’ has never had more meaning than when applied to power quality. As the effects of poor power quality are not normally apparent until a major incident has occurred, preventative power quality analysis is rarely carried out. It is entirely possible that some of the major problems caused by power quality could have been avoided if power quality analysis had been carried out as power quality issues tend to be ongoing rather than one-off incidents.

How we can help?

As part of our power quality consultancy service, SES offer a full analysis, design and installation package for power quality solutions; covering a whole range of power quality issues such as transient suppression, harmonic filtration and voltage conditioning. With over 20 years of experience in identifying and rectifying power quality issues SES will ensure that the integrity and suitability of your electrical supply. Power quality is a much used and poorly understood term. It is generally accepted that, in broad terms, it relates to certain deficiencies in the quality of the voltage supplied to a load that compromise the operation of the equipment connected thereto. What is less well understood is the variety of power quality issues and how each type affects different loads in different ways.

Some of the more common power quality issues can be summarised as follows: –

  • Voltage dips / swells
  • Voltage transients
  • Voltage unbalance
  • Voltage flicker
  • Harmonics / Power Factor
  • Inrush Currents