Power Quality Metering Solutions

Good power quality allows devices to run at optimal output without being damaged or stressed, while poor power quality can lead to equipment damage and malfunction.

Why Monitor Power Quality?

Power quality monitoring can be used proactively to prevent damages and system outages, or after the fact as a form of analysis to isolate problem areas and identify solutions. Using permanently installed power quality meters and power quality data loggers like the Acuvim IIW allows building managers to remain proactive about power quality issues and avoid costly issues that spot-checking and power studies alone can miss.

Power Quality is used to analyze the characteristics of the incoming electricity interacting with the electrical equipment and devices that use it. Although there is no comprehensive quality score, there are several different components which can be individually measured for an in-depth analysis of the overall power quality including; transient voltages and currents, individual waveform capture, harmonic distortion, sag and swell monitoring, frequency variations, and power factor.

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Recommended Power Quality Solutions

Acuvim II Meter

Acuvim IIR

Revenue-grade kWh meter, the IIR is designed for remote and historical metering with on-board data logging and a wealth of communication options. The IIR also offers additional metering parameters which enable greater versatility.

How is Power Quality Determined?

Individual Waveform Capture – Allowing engineers and executives to track slowly changing variation in electrical waveforms to root out the cause of mechanical failures well before they happen which can be isolated, recorded and graphically displayed while using the Acuvim IIW.

Harmonic Distortion

Harmonic Distortion

The analysis of non-linear loads connected to the distribution system, which affect the frequencies and cause problems such as misfiring, over-heating and voltage spikes. Individual harmonic measurement up to the 63rd and THD (total harmonic distortion) can be read on all of the Acuvim II series meters.

Sag and swell graph

Sag & Swell Monitoring

Voltage sags and swells are the reduction and enlargement of voltage over a short time. Voltage sags are the most common events which lead to affect power quality and are often the most costly; they affect equipment ranging from PLCs, relays, controllers and everything in between, when the sag happens the power supply inside the device over compensates which if the sag is low enough can damage the internal circuits of the device causing malfunctions. Although these are typically blamed on the utility the reality is these are often caused within the site and include grounding, bonding, and coding issues or from powering different equipment from the same supply. Using Acuvim IIW’s individual waveform capture users have the ability to capture 20 cycles of waveforms over three channels and log up to 100 groupings in the meters dedicated internal memory.

Frequency variation

Frequency Variations

The deviation of the frequency is supplied at which may confuse logic systems and affect the operating speed of machinery which can be effectively monitored using any Acuvim II series meter.

Power factor

Power Factor

The ratio of the real power flowing to the load that can be used; this 0-1 figure is a most accurate depiction of how viable the electricity supplied is. Low power factor or "dirty power" greatly strains devices and causes inefficiencies. All of the Acuvim II series meters allow users to keep track of this ratio, and with the Acuvim IIR, IIE, and IIW users can track the historical power factor and log on the device’s internal memory.

Recommended Implementation

Effective and permanent power quality monitoring can be achieved using the Acuvim IIW meter as a permanently installed power quality meter for proactive and comprehensive power quality measurement. The meter can be read remotely via proprietary software or integrated into existing systems. For a portable solution the meter can be paired with the AcuPanel 9100 and AcuCT-Flex Rogowski coils