The demand and use of electricity in commercial and industrial spaces has increased exponentially in the last few decades. Today, businesses not only need more energy, however; they need quality energy too, in order to run sensitive and complex equipment. A commercial energy audit is recommended to evaluate the quality of your electrical supply and provide solutions – but what happens if you choose to operate while experiencing power quality disturbances? Here are the answers, from power factor correction specialists in Australia. 

Factors that can affect power quality and the damage to commercial and industrial equipment relies heavily on the placement of equipment within the facility’s distribution system. A commercial energy audit can show where the correct placement should be and provide additional solutions like power factor correction or harmonic filters. 

Here’s a breakdown of the effect of power quality disturbances on the following commonly-used commercial and industrial equipment: 

Motors 

Motors can both contribute to and be damaged by power quality disturbances. Induction motors, for example, can have a negative impact on a facility’s power factor, while large motors can cause drops in voltage supplied to other systems. If the energy being supplied to your facility is of poor quality, your facility can experience voltage unbalance, harmonics, voltage sags, over/under voltage supply, frequency deviation and voltage transients – all of which can damage motors through overheating, stress, and increased wear. 

Office Tech 

Office equipment requires a steady supply of clean, quality energy in order to run property. Voltage sags and interruptions cause equipment to immediately shut down, resulting in downtime and lost productivity. Constant switching on and off along with poor quality energy means increased wear on computers, printers, routers and more. 

Capacitor Banks 

Harmonics are of special concern for your facility’s capacitor banks, as this issue causes overheating and capacitor failure. 

Programmable Logic Controllers 

PLCs are very sensitive to voltage sags, regularly shutting down if voltage drops fairly minimally for as little as two cycles. 

Circuit Breakers 

Nuisance tripping is a common fault in circuit breakers where energy quality is not as good as it should be. This can result in downtime, loss of productivity, process errors and frustration. 

Generators  

Generators are common components on sites where a reliable energy supply is essential, from data centres and office buildings to healthcare facilities. However, a generator must be derated if supplying non-linear loads, and a low power factor can lead to overloading of a generator. A commercial energy audit by power factor correction specialists can provide insight into the type of power disturbances on your site, provide solutions and help ensure your generators perform at optimal levels by reducing stress and wear. 

For more information on this issue or to have a commercial energy audit performed by trained specialists, please contact us at Quality Energy today.