In the mid-1980s, I embarked on a mission to resolve persistent “power failure” complaints from the National Accelerator Centre (NAC) in Faure, Western Cape, now known as iThemba LABS—the largest accelerator facility in the Southern Hemisphere. Invited for private tours, I delved into their operations, even entering the high-stakes environment of the operating room. Witnessing […]
Category Archives: Power Quality Matters
Power Quality Matters involve detecting phase imbalances and ensuring that all phasors have equal magnitudes and are symmetrically phase-shifted by 120 degrees relative to each other.
To mitigate the effects of Load-Shedding, many homeowners have decided to install PV Solar Energy systems. And, as I said before, they are more worried about how much it would cost than the quality of the products. If they can pay the lowest possible price for the entire installation, they are happy and do not […]
Practical imperfections which can result in unbalances are: A three-phase equipment such as induction motor with unbalance in its windings. If the reactance of three phases is not same, it will result in varying current flowing in three phases and give out system unbalance. With continuous operation, motor’s physical environment cause degradation of rotor and […]
In a balanced three-phase network, the magnitudes of the voltages and currents in all three phases are the same and these voltages and currents phase are shifted symmetrically by 120 degrees to each other. If the magnitudes are not the same and phase-shifts are different from the 120 degrees, the network is unbalanced. Eskom strive […]
When switchgear is poorly maintained and operated continuously, it is only a matter of time before something significant occurs. However, if these extreme events go unnoticed, the consequences can be long-lasting. During load-shedding, circuit-breakers should be opened when load-shedding starts and closed when load-shedding ends. Unfortunately, the contacts of these circuit-breakers are often concealed. As […]