Permanent Power Monitoring

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tkb

Senior Member
Location
MA
I have a customer that wants to install permanent power monitoring on their data center feeder.

It is 480 volt, 1200 amp.

I was looking at the Square D Ion meters.

They want to be able to record any problems with the utility feed.

I am not sure what to specify, or should I be looking at Dranetz?

Anyone have any recommendations?
 

hillbilly1

Senior Member
Location
North Georgia mountains
Occupation
Owner/electrical contractor
How much do they want to spend? ADMMicro has a pretty nice power monitoring system, don't know at what rate their sampling is, but they have some nice graphics and are networkable. They are out of Roanoke, VA.
 

jdsmith

Senior Member
Location
Ohio
I have a customer that wants to install permanent power monitoring on their data center feeder...

They want to be able to record any problems with the utility feed.

We have a few dozen fixed meters that have been installed since 2005 - all EPM/GE multilin - GE purchased EPM a few years ago. We have GE 5300/5350 series meters and 9650 meters. The 9650 series has a waveform capture feature - whenever the waveforms go outside preset boundaries it will perform a high speed capture and show you all three phase voltages and all three currents. Ours are set up for 16 or 32 samples/cycle and record about 8 cycles - 1-2 cycles before the triggering event, the rest after. The length of capture and conditions that will trigger a capture are configurable.

All of the basic metering functions are available: phase and average amps, phase and average voltage, power factor, power, and demand. Harmonics metering is optional.

The 5300 meter isn't as easy to use, plus it doesn't have the waveform capture. I'm not sure if your client is interested in waveform capture, but if you're trying to track utility problems it's the best way to go.

A single EPM9650 meter with display runs maybe $4200. Installation is fairly simple - mount the brick, connect CTs, PTs, control power, and run a cable to the display. They are available with an ethernet port so you can install the free software somewhere on a networked computer to view the captured waveforms and live or logged metering data.

I haven't looked in detail at Square D units. My recollection is that they were similar to the GE products on the low end, but that GE had more features and higher accuracy on the higher end models. The 9650 that I recommend has utility class accuracy, which is important if you're using it as a check on the utility.

What is the main overcurrent protection? If the 1200A main is a power circuit breaker in switchgear there may be an electronic trip unit available for the breaker that would get you some basic metering without having to modify CT nad PT circuits.
 

jim dungar

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Wisconsin
Occupation
PE (Retired) - Power Systems
If you want to look for power quality problems coming from the utility (not just confirm their meter readings), you should get a meter that has sag/swell capability and transient disturbance recording (sometimes called waveform capture). Don't forget software either.

You mentioned Square D ION, they have several models with these features.
 

bbaumer

Senior Member
Location
Indiana
I have a customer that wants to install permanent power monitoring on their data center feeder.

It is 480 volt, 1200 amp.

I was looking at the Square D Ion meters.

They want to be able to record any problems with the utility feed.

I am not sure what to specify, or should I be looking at Dranetz?

Anyone have any recommendations?


The Square D ION series was the PML ION series before Square D bought PML.

They have very low end up to very high-end metering with lots of options in between. I installed 70+ of these meters on a college campus and ethernet networked them. Still working fine for the most part. The campus is up to over 100 of those meters now. Yes, there have been a couple of failures over almost 10 years but mostly no problems.

I shy away from anything made by GE. Over the years I have had nothing but cut corners and failures with GE. Everything from switchgear to light bulbs.
 

tkb

Senior Member
Location
MA
If you want to look for power quality problems coming from the utility (not just confirm their meter readings), you should get a meter that has sag/swell capability and transient disturbance recording (sometimes called waveform capture). Don't forget software either.

You mentioned Square D ION, they have several models with these features.

We are looking for power quality problems.
Also we want the ability to record some history, either in the meter or to a database that we can access remotely.
This needs to be connected to the ethernet and accessible from anywhere.
 

jim dungar

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Wisconsin
Occupation
PE (Retired) - Power Systems
We are looking for power quality problems.
Also we want the ability to record some history, either in the meter or to a database that we can access remotely.
This needs to be connected to the ethernet and accessible from anywhere.
This is all possible with the ION8600 and ION7650 models and among other offerings from Schneider Electric and other manufacturers.
 

boboelectric

Senior Member
We are looking for power quality problems.
Also we want the ability to record some history, either in the meter or to a database that we can access remotely.
This needs to be connected to the ethernet and accessible from anywhere.

What is the purpose of monitoring the in coming power? The in house power should be protected by UPS,ect.Utility co.can't stop sags ang surges cuased by lightning,crashes,other faults.
 
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