Why is power quality so important?

Electricity is not the stable, uniform source of power that you might imagine it to be.  It is not, in fact, simply a matter of plugging in and sitting back to enjoy an unending stream of electrical juice.

On a domestic level we might have seen lights dim and then return to their previous brightness, a variation in supply that is much more common in more developing countries.  On a more commercial, or industrial scale, other issues might be larger scale voltage swells and sags, wave shape faults, voltage impulses or transients and high frequency noise.  Of course this runs right up to total power outage, which might follow an extreme event, such as the major storms we have experienced this winter.

Many of these issues can be put down to “power quality”; in other words, the relationship between your electrical equipment and electric power that drives it.  Electrical power is considered to be of “good quality” if your electrical equipment operates properly, and reliably, without its operation causing any damage to the equipment.  Conversely, electrical power is viewed as “poor quality” if it damages equipment during normal usage, or causes equipment to malfunction or perform unreliably.

In most cases, the subsequent damage caused to equipment, especially in larger commercial settings, can be sizeable, and will always far outweigh the cost of on-going servicing, of testing the power quality of the electricity during the operation of the equipment, and thereby eliminating potential problems.  Fortunately, there is a solution.  Danfoss have been leading the way in the manufacture of air conditioning systems and electric controlling motors for many decades.  Founded in Denmark in the early 1930s – and now active in nearly 50 countries – the company understands the importance of this integral relationship between electricity and equipment, and therefore the importance of power quality.  For over ten years Danfoss has also been part of the United Nations Global Compact, confirming their social and environmental responsibility.

As well as manufacturing and selling VLT drives, Danfoss now also offer a consultancy service to check for power quality issues.  Each type of electrical device will be affected differently however Danfoss will be able to analyse electrical power, then evaluate equipment or load, to determine if a power quality problem exists.  How?  Well, a high-speed analyser is installed to monitor power, feeding back the relevant data which can then be interpreted – based on the equipment being used – to decide whether a power quality issue exists.

The duration of these surveys can vary form one week to four weeks, depending on the scale of the consultancy, and will always include a pre-consultation over the phone, the analysis itself, and final report and recommendations.

If you feel you might benefit from this service, and save money in the long run by caring for your electrical equipment and its power supply, please contact us on 01457 837145 or email us at info@p-n-p.co.uk.