Wind Generation Power Quality & Interconnect Issues

Wind generation plants are growing at a fast pace. Government assistance in the form of production tax credits, grants for capital investment and other sources of funding are fueling such growth. Howe

ver, concerns remain over the interconnection of such plants to the grid as well as overall power quality characteristics. Dranetz provides ideal various solutions for both temporary monitoring or troubleshooting and fixed systems for continual 7x24 monitoring to capture the dynamics over time and alarm on faults, system dynamic changes and deteriorating conditions.

Wind turbine design has evolved with various types in use. Each type can have different power quality characteristics that relate to the generator type, associated power electronics, collector systems and other aspects. Common problems and design considerations studied are grounding, harmonics, voltage flicker, voltage regulation, reactive power and fault ride through capabilities. Measured values can be evaluated against existing standards and guidelines such as IEEE 519, IEC 61000-4-15/IEEE 1453 and those from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

Trend of measured 5th harmonic current at a wind plant

Dranetz power quality solutions are ideally suited for wind power applications. Combined with our DranView software, our portable tools such as the PowerXplorer PX5 provide you the state-of-the-art tools for onsite troubleshooting and engineering studies performed by plant manufacturers, owner technicians, service organizations and consultants. For fixed, 7x24 applications our Encore Series provides cost effective continual remote monitoring and alarming in a common web browser environment that helps ensure the system is always operating within design guidelines and that you will be quickly notified should anomalies or failures occur.

References:
- Power Quality Considerations of Wind Power Plants, David Mueller, P.E., 2010 Georgia Tech Fault Disturbance Analysis Conference

Demand Response Case Study

Data Center uses Encore to monitor Demand Response Performance

A 1.2M square foot Data Center located in Northern New Jersey was participating in a Demand Response program utilizing their backup generators as the primary means of reducing their 7MW of load. The service provider that they worked with installed telemetry metering from the utilities KYZ pulse output to report the performance to the grid operator. However, the facility director wanted live access to the generators output so that they could measure the performance of the generators and watch loading on each of the four 2.5MW turbines in real-time and historically. And, it had to painlessly integrate into his existing BMS system over an IP backbone.

Backup generators are critical to the operation of a 24x7 facility, downtime is lost revenue and lost customers. A facility operator needs to know what’s happening to his system all the time, and electricity is the main backbone of his entire operation. Let’s face it, no matter how many T1’s are coming in from different carriers and different POP’s, if the electricity goes out everything stops working including communications.

Utilizing the Encore Series ES230 DataNode’s along with their existing Encore Series Software installation, the Facility Director was able to give his BMS team a Modbus map for the instruments which were easily programmed. Because these were backup generators installation was much easier, however they were done sequentially in bypass mode because no one knows if or when the power will go out and the engines would be needed for an emergency. After the installation was complete and the integration into the BMS was done, the facility manager performed a live test and the results were perfect. The facilities network operations center (NOC) was able to read the instantaneous values from the generators from their control room, the ES230’s were also integrated into the existing Encore Series Software system so the facilities engineers also gained that they were able to see all of the instruments remotely when needed.

The graphs below display how easy it is for a user to view their reports on energy usage, demand, and any other electrical parameters recorded in the Encore Series Software from any remote location.

The ES230 DataNode’s are small and easy to install and configurable either at the local display or through the Encore Series Software. These instruments are capable of recording Volts, Amps, kW, kWh, kVA, kVAR, Power Factor, Harmonics, and a variety of other parameters simultaneously. They also have the option of RS232, RS485, or Ethernet communications and support native Modbus protocols. The Encore Series Software is a web enabled application that does not require the installation of any software on a local users computer. The system can be accessed from any web-enabled browser by multiple people simultaneously, and performs a variety of operations, including; data collection, data analysis, reporting, alarming, and remote setup of the equipment. With the Modbus driver installed the software can easily read data from any previously installed instrument that supports the Modbus protocol. Additionally, the software allows for easy expansion, including the addition of Power Quality instruments for more detailed analysis of power anomalies.

Sub-optimal Power Quality Can Cause Sensitive Medical Equipment to Fail

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Power Quality has always been a key issue for healthcare facility managers. With the rapid advances in medical technology, hospitals, medical clinics and laboratories increasingly rely on sophisticated electronic devices for diagnosis, treatment and monitoring. This equipment is often interconnected within networks, industrial processes and power infrastructure and can be negatively affected by events that arise both from the supplying power system and aregenerated within the facility.

All of the interconnection of electrical circuits, and the high sensitivity of the equipment in use, demands a high degree of power quality and reliability to prevent disruption of mission-critical operations and procedures. Power quality disturbances can be caused by a range of internal and external phenomena and often re-occur because the location and nature of the event is not well understood or identified.

The Dranetz PowerVisa

While the costs of downtime or failures can result in thousands of dollars per hour, the costs of power and equipment failures in critical patient operations are immeasurable. Power monitoring is key to maximizing uptime and ensuring all power infrastructure is functioning properly.

Manufacturing Process Unexpectedly Halted

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This medium-sized manufacturing facility, located in an industrial park that experienced an unexplained shutdown of several adjustable speed drives (ASDs) , wreaking havoc on key process equipment. Each day, at approximately 6 am, the utility-owned PF capacitor kicks on to improve the voltage of inductive loads prevalent in many of the park’s manufacturing facilities. The ASDs are conditioned to anticipate this expected power quality event and are typically able to ride through the problem. So when one of the ASDs closed down and interrupted the continuous stream manufacturing process, the facility manager needed to learn why, correct the problem, and prevent it from happening again.

As you can see from the attached screen capture, a second, unanticipated capacitor switching event occurred shortly after the first. This event was categorized by the Encore Series System Capacitor Switching Answer Module , enabling the facility manager to pinpoint the exact source of the problem. Further analysis showed that the ASD shutdown was the result of an overcurrent trip, which was quickly remedied preventing hours of downtime, at a loss of $10,000/hour.

SecuTest & SecuLife Safety Testers From Gossen Metrawatt

www.gossenmetrawattusa.com

The SecuTest SIII+ and the SecuLife ST are universal test instruments for testing the electrical safety of portable electrical equipment in commercial, residential, and medical applications operating at 120V/60Hz or 230V/50Hz.  The SecuTest SIII+ and SecuLife ST are the same basic instrument, with the SecuLife including standard features specific to medical testing, such as testing up to 10 application parts and test sequences per IEC 60601.  In order to evaluate electrical safety, tests are performed for protective conductor connections, insulation resistance, and leakage current.  Individual tests can be performed manually, or testing can be automated by using built-in test sequences that are in accordance with widely accepted international standards.

In the video below, Dieter Feulner, Product Manager for Gossen Metrawatt,  tests for touch current on a mobile X-ray device.

Dranetz Fall Power Quality Seminars

The first Dranetz Fall Power Quality Seminars have been confirmed and we hope you can attend.


These no-cost educational seminars are held at select cities in the continental US throughout the year. This incredible value is open to anyone interested in Dranetz instruments, and only requires registration to reserve your seat. All power quality seminars are 1/2 day and run from 8:00am to 12:00 noon, and a continental breakfast is included.
To register online CLICK HERE.

The current schedule (with more to follow) is:
October 9, 2013
Mayfield Village, OH

October 22, 2013
Albuquerque, NM

October 23, 2013
Lake Oswego, OR

October 23, 2013
Birmingham, AL

October 24, 2013
Greenwood Village, CO

October 30, 2013
Fort Lauderdale, FL

November 6, 2013
Fargo, ND

November 7, 2013
Bismarck, ND

November 13, 2013
Waltham, MA

General Agenda

• Introduction to Monitoring
• What Are We Measuring?
• Transducer Considerations
• Introduction to Power
• Energy and Demand, Power Factor 
• Real-Apparent-Reactive Power
• Typical Utility Billing Practices
• Case Study — determining energy costs
• Going Beyond Energy and Demand 
• to Improve Reliability
• Introduction to Power Quality
• Impact on Business Productivity
• Maintenance and Operating Costs
• Identify Typical Power Quality Events (overview of sags, transients, harmonics, etc.)
• Q & A: Your Application Questions

Ready to register?  CLICK HERE

Automatic Distribution Fault Location Case Study

www.dranetz.com

Consolidated Edison Company of New York is a long time user of Dranetz power quality monitoring systems and sister company Electrotek Concepts software and services. Dranetz Encore Series (61000) and Enhanced Power Quality, EPQ DataNodes) and legacy power quality instruments (8010 PQNode) are deployed throughout their network collecting needed data for PQ assessment. Electrotek’s PQView software, which is seamlessly integrated with the Encore System, provides database management, reporting and advanced statistical analysis. PQView’s Fault Analysis Modules identify and characterize faults, providing location information. Alarms are sent to operators who dispatch crews for repair, reducing the time to locate faults by hours.

The automatic distribution fault location system at the Consolidated Edison Company of New York was first put into use during the spring of 2005. It incorporates power quality monitors, microprocessor relays, database applications, up-to-date distribution circuit models, and geographic information system (GIS) databases in order to provide automatic distribution fault identification and fault location estimation. The system has become an indispensable tool for quickly and accurately identifying the location of faults in the Con Edison network distribution system.

The fault location system uses measurements recorded by Encore Series PQ monitors located in distribution substations. These measurements are downloaded automatically by Encore Series Software which manages the power quality monitoring system. Fault data is automatically acquired by PQView software and stored in its relational database. Calculations on these measurements estimate the reactance from the substation to the fault. The calculations are based on phasor measurements derived from the voltage and current samples and calibration constants based on previous fault data and known locations. The result of these calculations is an estimated “reactance to fault,” or XTF. The XTF values are compared with feeder models that estimate the positive-sequence impedance between substation and feeder structures. The estimated locations can be viewed in tabular format on the corporate intranet and can be displayed graphically using maps derived from a GIS database. The estimations for fault location typically are available on the company intranet approximately ten minutes after the fault’s occurrence. The estimates are accurate to within 10% of the total number of feeder structures, for about 80% of the single-phase faults measured in the system.

Each Dranetz power quality monitor records voltage and current at the output of a transformer in parallel with other transformers that together supply up to thirty underground network distribution feeders.

Example of a single phase fault on Con Edison network estimated to be j0.97 ohms downline from monitored substation

Example Summary Page for Faults Measured in a Network

Example Map Display of Estimated Fault Location