Using Power Meters To Regulate Energy Distribution With Asd

By Author: SamJacob Thomas
Total Articles: 40
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Machines often require a range of equipment that helps adapt it to different application. One of thisequipment is the adjustable speed drives or ASDs. Often known as variable-speed drives, this equipment is used to control the speed of machinery. Assembly lines or printing presses may need to work in different speeds for different applications and products; this is where ASDs come into picture. These are especially useful for saving energy as compared with other techniques for flow control, when process conditions demand adjustment of flow from a pump or fan.

However, adjustable speed drives may possibly an element that deters the work of the machine. This means that it could be a source and a victimof poor power quality. There could be many reasons for this, here are a few:

• Capacitor switching transients: A typical capacitor switch has the characteristic of high power and low frequency that can pass through the service transformer, feeders, and converter. The front-end of the ASD directly passes to the DC link bus. It is likely that due to this, the dc link may trip due to overvoltage. In addition to ...
... this, input diodes couldalso be blown out by these transients. With a quality power meterthat checks the flow beforehand this maybe avoided or its frequency may be reduced.

• Voltage distortion: When power quality monitoringis not performed correctly, there may be high-voltage distortion which may result in flat-topping. This in turn may not charge the DC link capacitorsfully, plus, it may diminish the ride-through capabilityof the drive. Thus, this may result in tripping of the drive due to undervoltage. With power monitoring, your grounding may be proper, a lack of which may lead to extreme results in the ASDs.

• ASDs as culprit loads: ASDs distorts the voltage and will generate harmonics in the power system. With power loggersand other power monitoring tools, we can monitor the impact and severely of such distortion.

The drive’s impact on power depends mainly on the type of drive you use. This is because of the difference in converter designs, which means the turn AC to DC converters that are the first stage of the drive. Thus, ASDs are not all bad. ASDs offer many advantages like soft start and no inrush current.