Uninterrupted power is a very important goal at many facilities ranging from government buildings, commercial buildings, manufacturing plants, health centers, and data centers. To ensure that the power facility is reliable, you should focus more on foresight rather than hindsight. Obviously, compromised power quality can cause damage to the costly electric equipment, reduce productivity, and if severe; it can also disrupt the day to day operations. Power quality varies due to voltage spikes, harmonic disturbances, long and short interruptions lasting for few milliseconds to over two seconds. Below are four reasons why a continuous power quality monitoring policy is recommended.
1. Fast Recovery
When a problem is noted at an early stage, it easier to address before it escalates to unmanageable magnitude. Such escalation can cause costly interruptions and damage to property which can be prevented through constant review of continuously recorded and stored wave fronts and also to detecting anomalies such as swells and sags at an early stage. Early detection also helps in the proactive scheduling of repairs in a timely fashion, which is more efficient than an emergency repair.
2. Enhanced Analytics
By analyzing and monitoring power quality, a baseline can be developed to help in the evaluation of the performance of electrical components and equipment over time. Also, preventive maintenance programs can be put in place after the analysis of the performance trends using a comparison to baseline. The future power requirements can also be determined using the comparison to baseline thus helping in the purchase of additional electrical equipment such as variable frequency drives and servers. During forensic investigations, analytics will easily pinpoint the cause of the problem and the power quality problems which could lead to the premature aging of the equipment.
3. Accurate Information
With good operational continuity and power quality, the facility's management will benefit from a dedicated critical power management system (CPMS) and a building management system (BMS) which complements it. CPMS operates at a very high bandwidth and speeds whereas BMS operates at a low bandwidth and low speed. With these two systems, it is easy to generate power quality details such as wave form capture and transient harmonic displays thus guaranteeing the accuracy of the information and speeds the accessibility of information from any part of the world.
4. Compliance Benefits
With a CPMS system, you will easily test whether the facility complies with the regulatory reporting requirements such as national fire Association's NFPA 110, NFPA 99, and NFPA 70.
Undoubtedly, the improvements in the reliability and efficiency of a facility's power infrastructure goes a long way when it comes to solving the cost of energy, minimizing the complaints of power issues by occupants, and also maintain good reputations and relations with tenants.
Need more information on power quality monitoring or electrical testing? Contact the team at Power Plus Engineering today, we can help!