Improving the power quality in the company is a top priority to improve productivity and reduce costs

Poor power quality is not just a technical problem: it’s actually a big business problem.

A study conducted by Leonardo Energy in 8 EU countries out of 16 different industrial sectors concluded that the overall cost of low power quality accounts for around 4% of turnover!

Again: according to the authoritative Electric Light and Power Magazine, a percentage ranging from 30% to 40% of the downtime of all companies is related to power quality problems. As a result, improving power quality means significantly improving the company’s overall performance!

Unfortunately, Power Quality is still a partially unknown issue in companies in general, and it is therefore essential to define its perimeter: Power Quality (PQ) means the capability of a system or electrical equipment to function satisfactorily in its environment without suffering and without introducing electromagnetic disturbances, or the capability of an electricity grid to power loads in a clean and stable way.

In other words, with Power Quality you want to create an ideally perfect and always available power supply, with a pure and noise-free sine waveform and always at nominal voltage and current values.
Power Quality is mainly concerned with ensuring continuity of service and quality of voltage/current.

In the first area are included all the phenomena related to the adequacy of the electrical system to power the loads at any time. The main phenomena related to this factor are power outages, of any duration.

The second area includes phenomena related to temporary faults in the electricity grid and/or the presence of disturbing loads, including: transients, harmonics, reactive power, imbalances, oscillations, voltage variations and flickers.

The implications, therefore, of poor Power Quality are manifold and have serious consequences in terms of productivity and maintenance costs:

• Increase in line currents and equipment resulting in additional ohmic losses;
• Increase in line currents and equipment leading to a reduction in useful power and/or an increase in operating costs for electricity supply;
• Increase in losses leading to higher operating temperatures resulting in a reduction in the useful life of the equipment;
• Premature equipment failures due to increased electrical and thermal stress;
• Equipment malfunction;
• Poor quality of production;
• Unplanned outages leading to production loss.

On the contrary, the benefits of good Power Quality bring a significant positive impact on the overall performance of the company:

• Reduction of line currents and losses on equipment as well as energy costs;
• Release of blocked capacity and consequent reduction of investments;
• Improvement of the power factor (PF);
• Reduction of the maximum power required for supply and reduction of connection charges;
• Improvement of the waveform of the current and consequent more efficient operation of power equipment;
• Reduction of harmonic distortion and consequent reduction of losses in copper, core and stray currents;
• Prevention of equipment malfunction, avoiding loss of production;
• Elimination of sudden and unplanned outages that can cause production loss;
• Elimination or reduction of equipment failures due to the reduction of electrical and thermal stress;
• Increased reliability and durability of the equipment due to lower operating temperature for lower losses,

There are several solutions to improve Power Quality in the company.

Surely the innovative E-Power solution patented and produced by Energia Europa is one of the most effective and efficient: it produces a significant impact on the entire line managed by the transformer with a relatively limited cost and a rather simple application mode.

The E-Power device acts by modifying the current waveform, an effect that generates a substantial improvement in power quality and a corresponding reduction in losses and disturbances on the line. This reduction translates into true energy efficiency with the same work performed.

The Power Quality benefits introduced by the E-Power system have been tested and verified in some 950 installations at some of the largest international groups in Europe and can be summarized in these categories:

• Improvement of the current waveform
• Reduction of the losses on the line
• Improvement of the harmonic distortion
• Improvement of the power factor (PF) resulting in an improvement in reactive power
• Stabilization of voltage and current
• Improvement of the phase balancing
• Improvement of the energy efficiency of the connected plant
• Extension of the average life of electric loads

E-Power can be the ideal solution for your company’s Power Quality issues. For more info contact us!