Power Quality Measurements - for Fire Prevention
Continuous Power system analysis, for detecting power system anomalies which may lead to fire incident
Description
"Electric power quality, or simply power quality, involves voltage, frequency, and waveform. Good power quality can be defined as a steady supply voltage that stays within the prescribed range, steady a.c. frequency close to the rated value, and smooth voltage curve waveform (resembles a sine wave)" [WikiPedia] Power Quality issues, in general, can be categorize to the following issues: * Harmonic, interharmonics * Signaling voltages * Voltage fluctuations * Voltage dips and interruptions * Voltage unbalance * Power frequency variations * Inducted low-frequency voltages * DC in AC networks As power network quality is one of the main source for in-home or industrial environments, continuous analyze and detection of such issues can help understanding the risks and potential of electronic devices in this network to malfunction or even to cause fire due to shortage or other electric product issues. The idea is to introduce a home, local business and SME related power quality analysis system, using several power connected sensors installed in this network. The home/business owner, or the power engineering /maintenance departments, shall get information from this system, including specific warnings where strong anomaly was detected or when a suspicious pattern was measured. Using such system, shall help to identify issues in the power network installation or wrong maintenance. It shall also enable the owner to quantify their power network and define methods to improve it. In addition, learning the power network quality during long time, allows the system to detect power malfunctions immediately. An appliance that create a power surge or feedback when it is connected to the power network, shall be detected immediately and raise a warning to the relevant person in charge, allowing fixing of this appliance or disconnecting it until it is repaired. Electricity issues are one of the main fire incidents causes, let's prevent them by knowing what is actually happening in our power network systems.
References
Fires resulted from harmonics issues: https://www.copper.org/applications/electrical/pq/primer.html Power Quality issues summary: https://www.slideshare.net/maneesh001/power-quality-issues-46020383 The top three ways power quality affects your business: http://www.engineersjournal.ie/2016/01/26/the-top-three-ways-power-quality-affects-your-business/ Siemens Power Quality related products: https://w3.siemens.com/smartgrid/global/en/products-systems-solutions/power-quality-measurements/pages/overview.aspx Eaton Power Quality related products: https://powerquality.eaton.com/products-services/default.asp