Irregularities in incoming power can negatively impact discrete and process applications’ electronic components and the bottom line.
Rockwell Automation has expanded its Allen‑Bradley power quality portfolio to now include the i-Sense monitoring solution, i-Grid service and DySC dynamic sag corrector. These scalable solutions help OEMs and end users identify and mitigate power issues to improve uptime and productivity.
“Power-quality issues are responsible for a significant amount of unplanned downtime, yet power quality is often overlooked as a key productivity variable,” said Scott Harlan, product manager for power-quality portfolio, Rockwell Automation. “Our new monitoring and mitigation solutions help identify where and when voltage sags and outages occur, and offer corrective actions to improve performance.”
Improved monitoring – The first step toward improved performance is identifying any power quality issues affecting electronic equipment. The i-Sense voltage monitors read incoming power for the entire facility. The cost-effective, maintenance-free i-Sense technology provides vital data that pinpoints voltage-based power events, reveals any consequent relationship between voltage sags and downtime situations, and helps users get operations running with minimal mean time to repair (MTTR).
Real-time analysing – The subscription-based i-Grid service logs, analyses and corroborates i‑Sense data via an Ethernet or modem connection from in and around facilities to confirm if power-quality issues were the result of a grid event. Service options include detailed technical analysis and executive summaries. The i-Grid service also can send instant notifications to facility managers that a power event has occurred, enabling them to more quickly diagnose downtime and resume operations.
Proactive protection – Data collected from the Rockwell Automation installed base of several thousand i-Sense units suggests that most downtime events are the result of short-duration voltage sags, commonly lasting less than 0.1 seconds. While barely perceptible, these sags can impact the performance of electrical equipment and the facility as a whole. The DySC dynamic sag corrector uses patented, double-conversion inverter technology to protect against brief voltage sags and momentary outages. Customers can scale the DySC corrector from 0.25kVA to 2000kVA, offering machine- to facility-wide protection. The corrector provides 100 per cent sag protection in a relatively compact size and without batteries, compressors, pumps or flywheel bearings. Optimised for fast response at voltage peaks, the DySC corrector has a typical peak voltage detect time (pVdT) of one millisecond and can provide a facility continuous, uninterrupted power for up to five seconds.
The Allen-Bradley power quality portfolio reaches beyond the new solutions to meet the needs of customers at every level and stage. The Allen-Bradley PowerMonitor 5000 monitor provides current, power factor flicker, waveform capture, harmonic analysis and sub-cycle transient detection. The Allen‑Bradley PowerPad Portable PowerMonitor unit offers a portable, self-contained solution, enabling monitoring anywhere in the facility. Allen-Bradley surge and filter products mitigate transient and noise problems at a machine level and uninterruptable power supplies (UPS) provide back-up power to keep critical control and network circuits operating through a power interruption.