The lighting story
An LED retrofit, then complaints about flicker. The team checked wiring, replaced fixtures and called the manufacturer. The real cause: LED drivers reacting to harmonic distortion in the building’s power.
Industries
Where poor power quality costs the most.
Facilities with large motors, many drives, heavy HVAC or expensive downtime. The loads differ; the symptoms repeat.
The facilities we look for
- Electricity spend above about $250,000 a year
- Large motors, compressors, pumps, chillers or extensive HVAC
- Many variable-frequency drives
- High demand charges, low power factor, hot transformers, nuisance trips or unexplained failures
- Operations where downtime is expensive
- A service that has run out of capacity for new load
Manufacturing and plastics
- Typical loads
- Injection molding machines, extruders, large motors, compressors, chillers, drive-controlled lines
- Symptoms
- Low power factor, hot transformers, nuisance trips, motor and drive failures, no spare capacity for a new line
Food processing and cold storage
- Typical loads
- Refrigeration compressors, evaporator fans, pumps, conveyors, drives
- Symptoms
- High demand charges, compressors running hot, trips that interrupt production, capacitor failures
Distribution centers and large commercial buildings
- Typical loads
- Conveyors and sortation, battery chargers, HVAC, LED lighting
- Symptoms
- Rising demand charges, flicker, neutral heating, charger and controls faults
Hospitals and healthcare
- Typical loads
- Chillers, air handlers, imaging equipment, UPS systems, dense electronics
- Symptoms
- UPS alarms, equipment resets, hot transformers, no margin for new equipment
Universities and school districts
- Typical loads
- Central plants, kitchens, pools, shops, data rooms, LED lighting, solar and batteries
- Symptoms
- Flicker, neutral loading, nuisance trips, inverter interaction, rising utility costs
Data centers
- Typical loads
- UPS systems, switch-mode power supplies, cooling
- Symptoms
- Harmonic current, neutral loading, transformer heating, capacity limits
Water and wastewater
- Typical loads
- Large pumps and blowers on drives
- Symptoms
- Drive faults, motor heating, low power factor at plants and lift stations
Government and military facilities
- Typical loads
- Mission-critical loads, central plants, distribution of mixed ages
- Symptoms
- Strict reliability requirements, aging transformers, little capacity for new equipment
Cooperative and municipal utilities
- Typical loads
- Distribution transformers and feeders serving commercial and industrial customers
- Symptoms
- kVA loading from reactive and harmonic current, deferred upgrades, capacity for new customers
From the Field
Four stories, one cause.
Energy projects can save at the equipment and still create problems in the electrical system. These accounts come from Accentz’s field work.
The HVAC story
At summer peak, motors ran hot and breakers tripped while filters, belts and controls checked out fine. Distorted current from drives raised electrical losses, so the HVAC system was also cooling heat the electrical system had created.
The drive story
After drives were installed: nuisance trips, sensitive equipment behaving unpredictably, hotter transformers. The drives worked. Their 5th, 7th and 11th harmonics were spreading through the network.
The motor story
A motor failed every 12 to 18 months despite new bearings, alignment checks and finally a new motor. Measurement found voltage imbalance, harmonics and low power factor heating its insulation.
Different symptoms, different equipment, the same cause: power quality nobody had measured.