Power Quality

Power quality refers to electric power that drives an electrical load and the load's ability to function properly. Without proper power, an electrical device (or load) may not function, malfunction, or fail prematurely. There are many reasons why electric power may have poor quality power.

One of the most significant problems a manufacturing plant may have is reactive power. Reactive power exists because many machines are not purely resistive but have consistent value of capacitors and inductances. The reactive power measured in Volt-Ampere Reactive (VAR) occurs when currents and voltages are not moving at the same time. The most common method of expressing the amount of reactive power in a system is Power Factor.

Another negative effect involving power quality is harmonic distortion. This distortion is caused due to rectifier diodes present in electronic devices such as variable frequency drives, UPS, etc. These devices draw a non-sinusoidal current.

Finmotor’s solution to improving power quality is the active and passive harmonic filter series. Finmotor’s active harmonic filters remove harmonic distortion by generating an equal and opposite waveform. Installed in parallel on the main power line, the active harmonic filter is sized to compensate energy for harmonic distortion. The active harmonic filter also compensates the power factor. The active harmonic filter may be programmed with specific parameters allowing for control of remaining power above the minimum value required for power factor. 

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