Datacenter-Link Blog

Electrical power is far from being an invariable energy resource, insofar as it is subject to the influence of users.
To this end Leonardo Energy helps to evaluate the costs of low power quality. The European Power Quality Survey Report, published in November 2008, highlights that 151.8 billion euros are wasted in Europe every year, not only due to voltage dips and interruptions (61.2 %) but also due to harmonics (<1 %), surges or transients in general (35.2 %), and flicker, earthing and EMC problems (<1 %).

Investigations conducted by Leonardo Energy also show that users are rarely aware that the cause of poor power quality is to be found in their own system, or at least in the neighbouring system.
Potential causes of power deterioration include the inrush currents of asynchronous motors, non-linear electronic loads, arc furnaces, soldering irons and sometimes even protection devices themselves, such as passive power factor correctors.

Tags: Flicker, Harmonics, Power Quality, PQ, surge, transient