Surge Protection

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trip54

New member
Can anyone make a recommendation for protecting my customer from significant power fluctuations from utility? Building has one 600A and one
800A service. They are at the end of the line on the utility's service and get major fluctuations. This continues to take a toll on the building owners equipment.
 

dereckbc

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Plano, TX
What you describe sound more like voltage fluctuations, not transients. If that is the case there is no TVSS unit that will fix that.
 

techntrek

Member
Location
MD
Level 9 UPS (always online) for the loads that have been affected in the past, or one big enough to handle the whole facility.
 

mivey

Senior Member
What are the voltage ranges and duration of abnormal voltages? Are the voltages balanced? What effect does your customer's load have on the voltage levels? Are there time periods when it is better or worse?

If the voltages are outside industry standards, you may be able to get the utility to fix it for you. There may be some things they can do for you even if the voltages are within industry standards.

They will be most interested in data at the service point, not so much at the utilization point. They are more likely to respond to documented data as opposed to verbal accounts. They need facts to determine a course of action and to validate what you are telling them. As you know, the first rule of troubleshooting is to assume you have not been given the correct information.
 

dereckbc

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Plano, TX
Level 9 UPS (always online) for the loads that have been affected in the past, or one big enough to handle the whole facility.
Huh? There is no mneaning for level 9. IEEE has 3 classifications for TVSS:
A, B, & C.

Al TVSS units are on-line all the time.They are passive devices that are hard wired.
 

robbietan

Senior Member
Location
Antipolo City
Can anyone make a recommendation for protecting my customer from significant power fluctuations from utility? Building has one 600A and one
800A service. They are at the end of the line on the utility's service and get major fluctuations. This continues to take a toll on the building owners equipment.

being on the end of a utility's service line is generally not good. however, I would suggest that you ask your utility to verify your voltage levels and increase them if necessary. my experience is that places with voltages on the low side tend to suffer from voltage fluctuations; a slight decrease in voltage could push their voltage to below the 90% nominal voltage limit.
 

mivey

Senior Member
being on the end of a utility's service line is generally not good. however, I would suggest that you ask your utility to verify your voltage levels and increase them if necessary. my experience is that places with voltages on the low side tend to suffer from voltage fluctuations; a slight decrease in voltage could push their voltage to below the 90% nominal voltage limit.
Unbalance is another problem way down the line. Seasonal loading on the distribution system make it worse. Utilities do not always do a great job of balancing the loads.
 

techntrek

Member
Location
MD
Dereck
He referred to a UPS not a TVSS.

Yes, a UPS. Or just a voltage regulator if temporary dropouts aren't an issue, or voltages don't temporarily get too low or too high for a voltage regulator. Any of those issues exist and you need the UPS with its batteries to carry over the blips. I imagine only certain loads will need this so that would keep the cost down.
 
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dereckbc

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Plano, TX
Yes, a UPS.
My bad, sorry bout that. FWIW I think you mean either an Line Interactive or Dual Conversion UPS? Level 9 Online sounds like a brand or marketing jargon.

Back to the OP problem. Sound to me like a SAG and SWELL problem not transient. A TVSS is useless for SAG & SWELL (fluctuating voltage) Only cure is a UPS on sesitive equipment if the utility cannot correct.
 
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techntrek

Member
Location
MD
Double-conversion is what I'm advocating. Line-interactive might not be good enough here. Level 3 (standby), 5 (line-interactive) and 9 (online) are terms used by several UPS companies - I guess you could call it consumer marketing jargon. Describes how many "problems" the UPS solves.
 

dereckbc

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Plano, TX
Double-conversion is what I'm advocating. Line-interactive might not be good enough here. Level 3 (standby), 5 (line-interactive) and 9 (online) are terms used by several UPS companies - I guess you could call it consumer marketing jargon. Describes how many "problems" the UPS solves.
:D

I thought you meant double conversion. However many of the line interactive are very good and remove any fluctuations of sag and swell by using buck/boost. The real question is how fast the is the static switch operates with a total loss of commercial power. Some of them are good enogh you never know the power failed except from the alarms going off on th eUPS and setting in the dark, but the equipment never feels a thing.

I agree standby UPS are practically worthless, but what do you expect for a couple hundred dollars? ;)
 
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