Fluke 434 Series Ii Application Note 2435544

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PART FOUR
of a predictive
maintenance series

Applying power quality
measurements to
predictive maintenance

Application Note

You may already be using predictive maintenance (PdM)
techniques on your motors and
drives. But how often do you
inspect the power to your equipment? By adding basic power
quality measurements to production equipment maintenance
procedures you can head off
unexpected failures in both
production equipment and your
power system.

Cost savings
Insurance claims data in the
NFPA 70B maintenance standard
shows that roughly half of the
cost associated with electrical
failures could be prevented by
regular maintenance. A study
published in IEEE 493-1997 says
that a poorly maintained system
can attribute 49 % of its failures
to lack of maintenance.
To determine the cost of a
failure, it helps to consider three
key categories:
• Lost income (gross margin)
due to downtime
• Cost of labor to troubleshoot,
patch, clean up, repair and
restart
• Cost of damaged equipment
and materials, including
repairs, replacements and
scrapped material
To calculate power quality
costs and potential savings
at your facility, reference the
online calculator at
www.fluke.com/pqcalculator.

Figure 1. This maintenance control chart tracking voltage unbalance shows a Nov-03 reading above the 2.5 %
limit and then the effect of the corrective action.

For more information on Fluke Predictive
Maintenance Products and Services go to
www.fluke.com/pdm

Voltage stability, harmonic
Integrating power quality
distortion, and unbalance are
into PdM
Unlike a comprehensive electrical
system survey, predictive maintenance power quality focuses on a
small set of measurements that
can predict power distribution or
critical load failures. By checking
the power quality at critical
loads, you see the effect of the
electrical system up to the load.
Your predictive maintenance
inspection route probably already
includes any motors, generators,
pumps, A/C units, fans, gearboxes, or chillers on site.

and as time goes on limits may be
“tightened” or “loosened” by anagood indicators of load and distri- lyzing historical data. The approbution system health and can be priate limits depend somewhat on
the ability of your loads to deal
taken and recorded quickly with
with power variation. But for most
little incremental labor. Current
equipment, your maintenance
measurements can identify
team can devise a set of default,
changes in the way the load is
“house limits” based on industry
drawing. All of these measurestandards and experience.
ments can be taken without
The cost of three-phase power
halting operations and generate
analyzers is lower now than ever
numbers that can easily be
and it should only take roughly 15
entered into maintenance softminutes to take the readings disware and plotted over time.
For each measurement point or cussed in this article. (Storing voltage sag data will add more time,
piece of equipment, determine
since it requires picking up the
what limit should trigger correcdata after a day or so.)
tive action. Limits should be set
well below the point of failure,

Measurement Guidelines
Voltage Measurements
Voltage Sags
Voltage Harmonics
Current Measurements
Voltage Unbalance

Phase-to-Neutral Voltages
Neutral-to-Ground Voltages
Phase to Neutral Sag Count
Phase Voltage THD
Phase Currents
Negative Sequence, Zero Sequence

Table 1. Basic power measurements for 3-phase Wye equipment

Voltage
Good voltage level and stability
are fundamental requirements for
reliable equipment operation.
• Running loads at overly high
or low voltages causes reliability problems and failures.
Verify that line voltage is
within 10 % of the nameplate
rating.
• As connections in your system
deteriorate, the rising impedance will cause “insulation
resistance drops” in voltage.

•

Added loads, especially those
with high inrush, will also
cause voltage decline over
time. The loads farthest from
the service entrance or transformer will show the lowest
voltage.
Neutral to ground voltage tells
you how heavily your system
is loaded and helps you track
harmonic current. Neutral to
ground voltage higher than
3 % should trigger further
investigation.
Figure 2. Recording all phase voltages and neutral to ground voltage
is a good start for a PQ analysis of critical equipment and overall
distribution system health.

2 Fluke Corporation

Applying power quality measurements to predictive maintenance

Voltage sag count
Taking a single voltage reading
tells only part of the story. How is
the voltage changing during an
hour? During a day? Sags, swells
and transients are short-term
variations in voltage. The voltage
sag (or dip) is the most common
and troublesome variety.
Sags indicate that a system is
having trouble responding to load
requirements and significant sags
can interrupt production. Voltage
sags can cause spurious resets on
electronic equipment such as
computers or controllers, and a
sag on one phase can cause the
other two to overcompensate,
potentially tripping the circuit.
Sags have several dimensions:
depth, duration, and time of day.
Utilities use a special index to
track the number of sags that
occur over a period of time. To
gauge the depth of the sags, they
count how often voltage drops
below various thresholds.
The longer and larger the
voltage variations, the more likely
equipment is to malfunction.
For example, the Information
Technology Industry Council
(ITIC) curve specifies that 120 V
computer equipment should be
able to run as long as voltage
does not drop below 96 V for
more than 10 seconds or below
84 V for more than 0.5 seconds.

Current
Current measurements that trend
upward are a key indicator of a
problem or degradation in your
load. While equipment is running, monitor phase, neutral and
ground current over time. Make
sure none of the currents are
increasing significantly, verify
that they’re less than the nameplate rating, and keep an eye out
for high neutral current, which
can indicate harmonics and
unbalance.

•

•

Unbalance is tracked in percentages (see Figure 3). The
negative sequence voltage
(Vneg) and zero sequence
voltage (Vzero) together identify any voltage asymmetry
between phases.
Using a power quality analyzer
to do the math, high percentages indicate high unbalance.
EN 50160 requires Vneg to be
less than two percent.

Voltage harmonic distortion
Harmonic distortion is a normal
consequence of a power system
supplying electronic loads such
as computers, business machines,
electronic lighting ballasts, and
control systems. Adding or
removing loads from the system
changes the amount of distortion,
so it’s a good idea to regularly
check harmonics.
Harmonics cause heating and
reduced life in motor windings
and transformers, excessive neutral current, increased susceptibility to voltage sags, and
reduced transformer efficiency.
As current harmonics interact
with impedance, they’re converted into voltage harmonics.
Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) is
a sum of the contributions of all
harmonics. By tracking Voltage
THD over time you can determine
if distortion is changing. For voltage harmonics, IEEE 519 recommends less than 5 % THD.

Figure 3. This unbalance display shows the voltage unbalance
parameters (Vneg and Vzero) as well as current unbalance.

International safety standards for test tools
Overvoltage
Category

Summary Description

CAT IV*

Three-phase at utility connection,
any outdoors conductors (under 1000 V)

CAT III

Three-phase distribution (under 1000 V),
including single-phase commercial lighting
and distribution panels

CAT II

Single-phase receptacle connected loads

CAT I

Electronic

*CAT IV product specifications are not yet defined in the standard.

Fluke. Keeping your world
up and running.
Fluke Corporation
PO Box 9090, Everett, WA USA 98206

Voltage unbalance

Fluke Europe B.V.
PO Box 1186, 5602 BD
Eindhoven, The Netherlands

In a three-phase system, significant differences in phase voltage
indicate a problem with the system or a defect in a load.
• High voltage unbalance causes
three-phase loads to draw
excessive current and causes
motors to deliver lower torque.

For more information call:
In the U.S.A. (800) 443-5853 or
Fax (425) 446-5116
In Europe/M-East/Africa (31 40) 2 675 200 or
Fax (31 40) 2 675 222
In Canada (800) 36-FLUKE or
Fax (905) 890-6866
From other countries +1 (425) 446-5500 or
Fax +1 (425) 446-5116
Web access: http://www.fluke.com

Figure 4. This Harmonics table shows the voltage THD for each
phase. Note that it’s normal for the voltage THD on the neutral to run
close to 100 %.

©2005 Fluke Corporation. All rights reserved.
Printed in U.S.A. 3/2005 2435544 A-US-N Rev A

3 Fluke Corporation

Applying power quality measurements to predictive maintenance



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