advanced search

Product of the Month

Dec 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Jaclyn Alcantara, Associate Editor

Getting to the Root of PQ Problems

There's a huge variety of power monitors on the market today, most of which do a wonderful job of reporting when and what kind of power anomalies occur in a facility's distribution system, such as surges, sags, transients, and harmonics. But they stop short of identifying the root cause of the problem. That's where the ZM100 Distribution Analysis System from San Jose, Calif.-based Z Meters comes in.

Unveiled at the October 2005 PowerSystems World show in Baltimore, the ZM100 will hit the market in early 2006 with a retail price of about $10,000. It takes voltage and current measurements on all phases and the neutral at the source and at the connected load to identify and locate conditions that can lead to voltage anomalies and power loss, such as loose wires, carbonized contacts, undersized transformers, harmonic loads, parallel loads, and non-linear impedances. Simply put, the ZM100 takes voltage and current readings from two separate points and then calculates the voltage drops and distribution impedances for each phase and neutral.

Moore is a 40-year veteran of the power quality industry and president and CEO of Z Meters — a company he recently formed to launch this new product. Moore also founded and presided over four other companies prior to this endeavor, including Basic Measuring Instruments and Reliable Power Meters (RPM), which he sold to $4 billion conglomerate Danaher in 2003.

For anyone who has ever used a voltmeter, Moore's design may seem fairly simple, but he explains why implementing the concept was more complicated than it sounds. “Somebody could say, ‘Gee, I could do that with two voltmeters, and put a voltmeter here and put a voltmeter there, right?’ Well, the problem you have is that the electricity is always varying subtly, so the voltage varies by small amounts from cycle to cycle,” he says. “You're looking at 1/60 of a second, and your eyes can't follow anything like that. Also, to get accurate data it's necessary to distinguish between the natural supply variations and the differential voltage.”

To design the ZM100, Moore used a hardware platform developed by power quality monitor manufacturer Summit Technology, Inc. for displaying and capturing information. Z Meters modified the hardware with additions such as a neutral-to-ground channel and a proprietary cross-correlation algorithm. “What we do is we take the two signals — one from meter one and one from meter two, and we shift them in time until we're assured they are absolutely in synchronization. In this fashion, the natural supply variations are zeroed out, and a true differential measurement is accomplished,” Moore explains.

The ZM100 incorporates both Bluetooth communication and memory card storage to provide for either wireless transmission or memory card download of collected data to a personal computer. To maximize the amount of relevant data the device can store, truncation and decimation algorithms are used to select and store only data from cycles that contain abnormalities. Once the data has been downloaded to a computer, the ZM100 Windows-based software performs calculations and correlation of the data in order to characterize the distribution system's impedance. Using these results, abnormalities can be identified so that corrective measures can be taken before a power failure occurs.

Bruce Lonie, president of PowerCET, a power quality consultation firm based in Santa Clara, Calif., believes much of the demand for the ZM100 will come from high-tech manufacturing; however, he says Z Meters is going to have to spread the word before the approach catches on. “They'll have to educate people in looking at it [power quality] in a whole new way, because nobody's ever really approached it from this standpoint.”

Lonie's partner Tom Shaughnessy, the vice president of PowerCET, characterizes the ZM100 as a step in a different direction from traditional power monitors, because it's going back toward looking for root causes. For example, when running infrared inspections on circuit breakers, Shaughnessy says it's common to find a hot breaker. Currently, there is no single tool to determine whether the breaker is just hot because it's carrying a load, or if it's hot because it has internal problems. “Right now when I test breakers I make three or four separate measurements to arrive at that data,” Shaughnessy says. “So I would see it as a beneficial tool in that respect.”

Designed for distribution systems in industrial and commercial facilities, Moore says the medical industry — where power reliability is a matter of life and death — has shown an early interest in the product. “Right now, they basically kind of root around to see if they can find out what the element is that's causing the anomaly,” he says. “It's kind of like Easter egg hunting.”

For more information, visit www.zmeters.com.

Want to use this article? Click here for options!

© 2012 Penton Business Media, Inc.

---

Acceptable Use Policy blog comments powered by Disqus

Browse Back Issues Select an Issue EC&M Magazine | April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 1, 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 1, 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 1, 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 1, 2006 May 1, 2006 April 2006 March 1, 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 1, 2004 January 1, 2004 December 1, 2003 November 1, 2003 October 1, 2003 September 1, 2003 August 1, 2003 July 1, 2003 June 1, 2003 May 1, 2003 April 1, 2003 March 1, 2003 February 1, 2003 January 1, 2003 December 1, 2002 November 1, 2002 October 1, 2002 September 1, 2002 August 1, 2002 July 1, 2002 June 1, 2002 May 1, 2002 April 1, 2002 March 1, 2002 February 1, 2002 January 1, 2002 December 1, 2001 November 1, 2001 October 1, 2001 September 1, 2001 August 1, 2001 July 1, 2001 June 1, 2001 May 1, 2001 April 1, 2001 March 1, 2001 February 1, 2001 February 1, 1995 January 1, 2001 December 1, 2000 November 1, 2000 October 1, 2000 September 1, 2000 August 1, 2000 July 1, 2000 June 1, 2000 May 1, 2000 April 1, 2000 March 1, 2000 February 1, 2000 January 1, 2000 December 1, 1999 November 1, 1999 October 1, 1999 September 1, 1999 August 1, 1999 July 1, 1999 June 1, 1999 May 1, 1999 April 1, 1999 March 1, 1999 February 1, 1999 January 1, 1999 December 1, 1998 November 1, 1998 October 1, 1998 September 1, 1998 August 1, 1998 July 1, 1998 June 1, 1998 May 1, 1998 April 1, 1998 March 1, 1998 February 1, 1998 January 1, 1998 December 1, 1997 November 1, 1997 December 1, 1996 November 1, 1996 October 1, 1996 September 1, 1996 August 1, 1996 July 1, 1996 June 1, 1996 May 1, 1996 April 1, 1996 March 1, 1996 February 1, 1996 January 1, 1996 December 1, 1995 November 30, 1995 November 1, 1995 October 1, 1995 September 1, 1995 August 1, 1995 July 1, 1995 June 1, 1995 May 1, 1995 April 1, 1995 March 1, 1995

browse e-newsletters