Unive Joday’s instrumentation and control operations not only demand high quality ultrareliable ower, but need it in unprecedentediy vast ‘quantiles and fast time frames. Recent estimates report that more than 30% of the power drawn from utilities is destined for sensitive equipment, and this igure isrising. ‘But what happens when power quality disturbances take place? As of today the responsibilities of the enengy provider ‘or high-tech equipment manufacturer in preventing losses are not defined by a standard, Clearly in the new and, dynamic deregulated electricity environment, this scenario signals myriad business opportunities for energy providers. One such opportunity exists at the University of CCardoba, Spain, The university has 21000 students, ‘more than 1200 lecturers and 700 other employees Its Rabanales Campus’ suplle throtgh a20kV feeder emanating from a nearby substation, ‘which serves 17 academic buildings Including the data conte, the departmental research and development laboratories, the veterinary hospital and main library Other buildings ‘include the lecture hal building, che can residence hall for students, sports failities andthe train station. Each building houses a 1000kVA detta- \wye transformer This is used to step down, 2OKV 0 240/400V for the panel boards distributed throughout the building loors. ‘While the campus server room is served viaan uninterruptible power supply UPS), ‘he rest ofthe campus sometimesty ‘experiences generalised power perturbations. This situation ‘has ed fo subtle problems such ss computer Tockups and ‘electronics component wear, as well as more devastating damage including data loss, disk crashes and burnt ‘lectronles (table 1), As a result an analysis of power Aiscurhanoes at the Rabsnates campus has been carried ou ‘To Wdentify the most likely causes of the problems, on- site inspections of equipment and installations were concucted, These included a walk-down ofthe facility's lectrical system to inspect the condition of equipment as. vwellas interviews with faclity electrical personnel and the fend:users of the ftlod equipment. Electronic equipment that had beon particularly sensitive to power disturbances was identified and collected. At the same time lectromagnetic compatibility and general equipment Merature was reviewed. Bach building has an air conditioning system and levator, both powered via a separate branch elreult. ‘Meanwhile, in each floor, a subpanel serves both the uorescont lights and the electronic equipment separately. These power ciroults are Ukely to contain more than 120 personal computers and terminals, several printers, coplers, facsimile machines, In addition to’ chromate: graphers, spectrometers, ultraviolet spectrophotometors and mumerous microprocessor-based control and Instrumentation devices. After talking measurements over a 13 ay period on a typical bullding entranes, twas evident thatthe voltage harmonics level was atively high. Carapus starts activity at7.00am and is characterised by arise in the harmonic level As expected, the dominant harmonic was the fl harmonie, whieh follows the ‘typical daily load patter. Tis peaked at 2% arotnd 4.16pm inthe afternoon ~ with cored Cad A power disturbance can cripple a high-tech campus, but not if you track it down first. By Antonio Moreno Mufioz and Maria Dolores Redel lenge {otal harmonic istortion (THD) being 241% ~as measured ‘oma Friday. However, the 6% compatibility Timi fr that harmonic order ~as dictated by the EN s0t60 standard ~ was not vielate. Electronic equipment power supplies were the most likely eause of this Sth harmonic level. In generat, the Jharmonic potution levels rom work activity peaked cand ‘midaternoon and were lower during the morning. These ‘measurements were taken during the summer, so the likely cause of the higher afternoon levels would have been air conditioner actstion between midday and 7.00pm, Lighting loads would also be lower in the mornings ‘The current sd sth and 7h harmonte levels were found tobe below UNE-EN 2100034 standard limits However the total harmonic distortion ~ coming in at 27.54% - violated ‘he 20% limit established for he entire installation. ‘To trace the harmonic soe, measurements were aen ‘across the system as the closer you get toa soure, the higher the current distortion level. In this instance, > Sea a Typical cause of disturbance ered Lock up ea ee reent) ore oe ean Heme eerie oes [ones Coane Pol a ere) erent Sr eee anee? Power electronics Bret eed een) el aaa rere eee) Seren! sate sage ints — ene Sere ‘nly applies tT equipment ater ee ei the equipment gon See ae eee ‘currant distortion was found in the organic chemical laboratory Here, there had been continuous disconnection of the residual current circuit breakors caused by the Impact of spectrometer and chromatographer currents ‘The current THD maximum for the complete laboratory ‘was 58.95%, while the maximum value for the neutral current was 88.51%. The phase current 3rd, 6th and 7th harmonic lovels had maxima of 20%, 11% and 5% respectively while the neutral current rd, St, 7th and sth harmonic levels peaked at 85%, 50%, 12% and 23% respectively ‘The highest degree of current distortion was found in ‘the campus server room, with the THD actually reaching 100%. The phase current rd, th and 7th harmonic levels, ‘nad a maximum of 61%, 50% and 2% respectively. After monitoring the campus fora year, results showed ‘that disturbances were within the voltage tolerance ‘envelope of the ITIC curve (fig 1 and ‘Curve of power” pate), This indicated that voliages were stable with only a ‘daily Duetuation and the gecasianal minor sag and swell ‘Butalthough voltage outages were not recorded findings over the relatively short power audit are not conclusive ‘indications of either the longterm facility or the utility's continuity of service. Indeed, during the monitoring time, and after some recent power disturbances, computer power supplies were damaged ~ most likely due to transients and nad to be replaced. TAKING ACTION So, how can the owner of a facility such as a university avoid voltage fluctuations? A range of technologies are available that can protect consumer equipment (table 2). "The most commonly recommended device for high-cost electronic equipment is a commercial uninterruptible power supply (UPS), ‘Voltage sags atthe trminals of sensitive equipment are ‘often due to faults occurring ata much higher voltage lve Even though theload current i small compared tothe fault, ‘current, the changes in load current during and after the fault stil strongly influence the voltage atthe equipment terminals, Indeed, investigations have shown that 8% of computer malfunctions attributed to por power quality are ‘caused by vltage ag or interruptions that last for les than ‘one second. ‘The typical ride through capability of power supplies ‘anges from J0ms tom, tut this time interval is too short to be of much help. If the switching power supply was ‘modified to have aridethrough capability of one second, a low cost power conditioning system could be used rather ‘Han an expensive, and olen over-speciied, UPS installation. ‘Other studies have showin that large opportunity exists toembed solutions to vltagesag problems into advanced loctronc tools Such an approach removes the nee for arse