troubleshooting at the service panel Application Note
Voltage sags, tripping breakers,
overheated electrical panels, and excessive voltage levels are all indications of possible trouble in an electrical distribution system. It is helpful to understand that these symptoms are telling us something is wrong with the power system. But where oh where do you begin the search to isolate the exact cause of these power quality problems? Just like cars have a single connection point to monitor vital functions, the electrical system has a similar connection point: the electrical service panel. As a common point for branch circuit distribution, the service panel is also a convenient place to take the pulse of your electrical sys- tem. A number of problems can be located right in the service panel itself. For problems else- where in the system, measure- ments at the service panel can tell you where to look next. Some problems can be caught by a quick visual inspection, while others require that measure- ments be taken.
Finding the cause of the
problem This article outlines a step-by- step process for locating and Note fixing potential trouble spots. 1. Voltage level (steady state) Prior to making any measurements, always familiarize yourself and voltage stability (sags) with the equipment you will be using. Read the instrument users 2. Current balance and loading manual paying particular attention to the WARNING and CAU- 3. Harmonics TION sections. Do not use the measurement instruments in appli- 4. Grounding cations for which they are not intended. Always be aware that if 5. Hot spots: loose connections/ the equipment is used in a manner not specified by the manufac- terminals turer, the protection provided by the equipment may be impaired. 6. Bad or marginal branch circuit breakers
From the Fluke Digital Library @ www.fluke.com/library
Depending on the voltage and measurement requirements, you can use a variety of tools for power quality troubleshooting, from digital multimeters to Downstream (Load) handheld single and three Load V phase power quality analyzers red that perform many calculations automatically. I black Voltage level and Upstream (Source) stability The first step in checking to see V M if voltage levels and stability are I the culprits is to measure voltage levels of the branch circuits, phase-to-neutral, at the load side of the branch circuit breakers. Figure 1. Isolating source of disturbance. Note: For safety’s sake, when making voltage measurements always keep a circuit breaker swell/surge), as well as the aver- between you and the fault cur- age value of all the cycles in the rent ampacity of the feeders. sample period. The sample If voltage levels are low at the period is the elapsed time breaker, they’ll be even lower at between one point and the next. the receptacle. This could be The analyzer allows you to select caused by low tap settings at the the sample time you want, with transformer. Other likely culprits one second being the minimum include loose connections, long period (this corresponds to a feeder runs, and overloaded recording time of four minutes). transformers, which create The cursor can be moved to the excessively high source imped- desired point on the trend and, ance (impedance from the load along with the min/max/average to the source). Source impedance values, the real-time stamp of and voltage drop are two sides the event is displayed. Figure 2. Voltage on top, current on the of the same coin. bottom. Real-time stamp on top. On a three phase power qual- If intermittent voltage sags are ity analyzer, the dips and swells suspected, start at the panel to function can measure all three isolate the cause of sags: Are the Connect the instrument’s volt- phases simultaneously (Figure 3). sags the result of loads on the age probes and current clamps same branch circuit or are they on the load side of the breaker, caused by loads elsewhere in as shown in Figure 1. Using a the distribution system (including single phase analyzer’s Sags & utility-generated sags)? We can Swells mode, voltage events can start to isolate the source of be trended on the top half- the sag with a multi channel screen and current events on the recording instrument, such as a bottom half-screen (Figure 2). Fluke power quality analyzer, Each point on the trendplot (240 that can trend voltage and cur- total points for the full-screen rent simultaneously. trend) represents three values in the sample period: The lowest single cycle (min or sag), the highest single cycle (max or Figure 3. Voltage dip on three phases.
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Upstream, downstream Current balance and So how do you measure for loading CF? You need a true-rms DMM or What information are you clamp, and in addition, the meter looking for from the trendplots? To check current balance and needs to be able to measure the • If a voltage sag occurs simul- loading, measure each feeder peak value of the current wave- taneously with a current phase as well as current on each form. Harmonics analyzers or surge, the sag was caused by branch circuit. When making ScopeMeter® test tools will also a load on the branch circuit these measurements, it is criti- give you this measurement. (Figure 2). In other words, the cally important to use a true-rms A three phase power quality cause of the sag was down- clamp or true-rms digital multi- analyzer will calculate crest fac- stream of the measurement meter (DMM) with a clamp-on tor and balancing automatically point and therefore can be accessory. An average responding (Figure 4). thought of as a load-related clamp-on meter will not provide disturbance. an accurate measurement as the • If, on the other hand, the volt- combination of fundamental and age sag coincides with a very harmonic current makes this a small change in current, the distorted waveform. A lower-cost sag was likely caused by average-sensing meter will tend something upstream of the to read low, which would lead measurement point and can you to assume that the circuits be thought of as a source- are more lightly loaded than they related disturbance. Typical actually are. Here’s what we’re source-related disturbances looking for when making this are heavily loaded three- measurement: phase motors started across- • The loading among the three Figure 4. Crest factor (CF). the-line or sags originating on phases should be as balanced the utility feed. If the sag is as possible. Unbalanced cur- deep and approaches an out- rent will return on the neutral age, the cause is more likely and, as we shall see, the neu- to be the utility. The event tral already has enough to probably reflects a fault and deal with. breaker trip followed by auto- • Neither feeder nor branch cir- matic breaker reclosure. cuits should be loaded to the maximum allowable limit. There should be some derating to allow for harmonics.
As a safe and conservative rule-of-thumb, a short-cut formula
used for derating of transformers serving single-phase dc power supply loads can be applied to conductors: Harmonic Derating Factor (HDF) = 1.4 = (1.4) (RMS) Crest Factor Amps Peak
This is a pretty straightforward
concept. Crest Factor (CF) is the ratio of peak to rms. For a sine wave, that value is 1.4. So for a sine wave, which by definition has no harmonic content and no distortion, HDF = 1, meaning that no derating is necessary. It only goes downhill from there. If CF = 2, which is a more likely value for branch circuits in offices, then HDF = 1.4 / 2 = 0.70. So a con- ductor rated for 20 A should only be loaded to 70 percent capacity, or 14 A max.
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Harmonics To check for the presence and level of harmonics, measure current on the feeder neutral. This will typically be in the 80 to 130 percent range of the feeder current, due to the fact that the third harmonic will add up in the neutral. Figure 5a shows some readings that were made in an office, at a lightly loaded panel. These waveforms were captured with a single phase power qual- ity analyzer. Note that the neutral current (Figure 5b) is far in excess of what would be expected from unbalanced currents alone. Although most of us are Figure 5a. Top screen shows waveform and rms amplitude of feeder phase current, bottom increasingly aware of the fact screen shows amplitude of third harmonic. that third harmonic currents (also called triplen or zero sequence) generated by non-linear, single- phase loads add up in the neu- tral, we often wonder why. Figure 6 tries to explain this phenomenon with an idealized graphic. Basically, while there is a 120-degree phase shift between the three phases of the fundamental, the third harmonic on all three feeders are in-phase with each other. That is, they all reach their peaks and zero- Figure 5b. Neutral current. crossing points at about the same time (in reality, there is some phase shift, but it is very percent of them had neutral cur- little as compared with higher rent in excess of 100 percent of order harmonics, and therefore phase current! The strong recom- there is not much cancellation). mendation from the power qual- This means that, first of all, the ity community therefore is that triplens have nowhere to go but the neutral be double the size of the neutral, and secondly, on the the phase conductor. neutral all the peaks and all the Count the black and white valleys add up. wires and if there are more black The size of the feeder neutral than white wires, there is a good conductor becomes a matter of possibility of shared neutrals. At concern. The neutral must now that point, we should definitely return not only unbalanced fun- measure the branch neutral cur- damental current, but the sum of rents. Basically, the same thing all the third harmonic current. is probably happening on the The 2002 NEC 310.15(8)(4)(c) branch circuit as on the feeder states that “On a four-wire, level; i.e., third harmonic cur- three-phase wye circuit where rents will add up and possibly the major portion of the load overload the shared neutral con- consists of nonlinear loads, har- ductor. This is a distinct fire haz- monic currents are present in the ard. The neutral, after all, has no neutral conductor; the neutral circuit breaker to protect it. shall therefore be considered. In A neutral ground voltage effect, this requires that the neu- measurement will also show if tral conductor at least equal the the neutral is too heavily loaded, size of the phase conductor. But or if its source impedance is too this may well be inadequate: For great. The neutral ground volt- Figure 6. Why third harmonic adds up on the neutral. example, a 1990 survey of 146 age is usually in the 0.25 V third harmonic in each feeder is in-phase. There is no sites nationwide found that 22.6 range at the panel, while the vector cancellation as there is with the fundamental currents (which are 120 degrees out-of-phase).
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