We are experiencing severe voltage drops and amperage spikes at our facility. Our power company is denying all culpability. Would any other power company like to provide power to our facility! We need reliable clean electricity.

Any thoughts on the mechanisms that are capable of dropping the voltage from 120V to 13V within a normal facility? Freezers, HVAC, compressors? Are these capable of dropping the voltage to such extremes. Is there any equipment malfunctions that can cause such a drop in voltage? Would bad transforms cause such a problem?

Any recommendations on affordable equipment to monitor the power quality within our facility?

Thanks,
Andy

talaniman

You need a professional evaluation of your equipment, and all logs that pertain to regularly scheduled maintenance. The manufacturer of that equipment is where you start, as well as a complete file of any upgrades made. Once you have identified the problem, you'll know in what direction any repairs, and or changes need to be made. The power company has to be a partner in this, as they may have to re-evaluate your needs, and make changes or adjustments. Simply changing companies, without identifying the root causes, is not an efficient way to go about this problem, as it may be a simple, yet costly upgrade in delivery, or old outdated equipment, that is at the center of the problem. You'll never know without a comprehensive check, of all the areas involved.

KeepItSimpleStupid

You have to have bad connections somewhere.

Power quality monitors can be rented.

You might be able to determine what sub-panels are affected by investing in a meter capable of doing peak holds. These meters are inexpensive <$300 for sure.

Kill-a-watt makes a very simple power line monitor.

WATTS UP PRO Power Analyzer/Watt Meter (USB Interface) SM-EE-WU-PRO

You could also pay for someone to do an Infared Survey on your power panels/connectors/feeders so see if any areas are getting hot.

Those kinds of problems hit residential as well and are usually caused by loose connections to overhead wires, meters, main lugs, circuit breakers or even breakers themselves. Measuring significant voltage across these connections is indicative of a failure.

Where there is a bad connection, there is heat, so an IR camera will pick that up.

AndMadMan

Thanks for the information.

We have preventative maintenance on our HVAC, refrigerators, and freezers. We also have an annual electrical inspection on all of our subpanels and mains to check for hotspots and loose connections. Our electrical maintenance company has done a power monitoring at a subpanel and the service main and has identified voltage drops and amperage spikes at both places, not necessarily occurring at the same time.

I think we have done what we could to try to isolate this problem without any success. We have tried to eliminate the obvious and are looking for other ideas.

When you say "You need a professional evaluation of your equipment" do you mean our facility equipment or the power companies equipment, and all logs that pertain to regularly scheduled maintenance.

Thanks again.

talaniman

Both. On the power companies side, they must make sure your getting what you need, when you need it. That means they have to evaluate, and upgrade, when necessary their peak load, and usage criteria, and adjust accordingly. Things like peak load hours, and weather considerations, have to be formulated to ensure peak efficiency.
On your side, you must document, and investigate, those power drops, so the service vendor can track where those losses come from, when you have eliminated, your own equipment as a cause. If its their problem, and not yours, you can make that case, otherwise the onus is on you. What kind of industry are we talking about? Each industry has their own consulting firms.

KeepItSimpleStupid

Since your grasping at straws, this atricle might give you something to think about:

Addressing Arc Flash Concerns Through Smart Design