Most of the time, electrical power continues to circulate in your building or plant. Lights remain on, machines are still operating, production lines or processes are still running. Every now and then, you might experience a power outage due to problems on the utility side, such as an outage or some other kind of distribution or transmission system disruption. Let’s hope these are few and far between. If you’re operating a sensitive facility, you’re likely to have some sort of backup power system, like a UPS, to run through these kinds of events.
Power management systems have been developed for this very reason. They serve like a microscope in your power delivery system, looking over it 24/7. They warn the team to threat and provide you with knowledge and analysis tools to quickly isolate issues and get things moving again. Some of the latest systems available go even more by having you avoid risks in the first place. Take a look at 5 examples of common occurrences and how these new technologies will help you deal effectively with them.
Keep an eye on the machinery
When designing a new power management system for one of the largest wastewater treatment facilities in the world it was found that a tie breaker in one substation had been shut down via the dual input feeds from the power grid. Normally, this would only occur if the successful incoming feed failed, which was not the case. In addition, a burst fuse was found on the other incomer, effectively sacrificing dual income redundancy. This may have had significant implications for the plant’s ability to handle wastewater.
Moving to the centre of the power issue
Imagine an industrial site with a large engine that causes a voltage instability on the utility grid any time it starts up. This condition causes intermittent machinery malfunction and failures in other parts of the factory. Power management may conduct an effective root cause analysis for these forms of acute and chronic cases.
Intelligent, linked devices record and log all sorts of power events that surpass predetermined levels in the power system network. These devices may be stand-alone monitors or meter features installed in smart circuit breakers. These data are continuously submitted to the central analytical program which help with power crisis solutions.
Keeping an eye on energy quality
Power irregularities can have a significant effect on the reliability and reliability of production for semiconductor manufacturers. The electrical power management system would analyse the quality of electrical power in the facility, classifying these events across industry-standard sensitivity curves (e.g., CBEMA/ITIC, SEMI-F47).
If an incident falls below appropriate tolerances – e.g., a voltage sag deeper than 80 per cent and longer than 50ms – the operating team will be alerted. They will then determine if the risk is too high to pursue a method that could lead to a lack of standard product and, in turn, a waste of time, materials and resources.
