Page 34 - Climate Control News Dec-Jan 2020

Hot Products
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: The AFOQm active harmonic filters are multi-function 3-in-1 units with multilevel technology; that’s three functions from a single unit.
Power saving products for commercial facilities
VARIABLE SPEED DRIVES (VSD) and LED lighting are two products that can make a differ- ence to your energy bill. But that’s just the begin- ning. Eaton’s ANZ commercial marketing man- ager, Sanjay Kallianpur, explains how to secure even bigger savings.
Three main load types dominate electricity use in commercial facilities. HVAC, lighting and plug loads (office device and computers) com- bine to represent almost 85% of all electric ener- gy consumed by commercial customers. In ad- dition to VSDs, installing Power factor correction (PFC) equipment provides the most common so- lution for real opportunities on savings. While new devices (such as VSDs) contribute great ben- efits such as optimising production processes, they also lead to higher levels of harmonics.
Harmonics are a concern because they can cause excessive heating in transformers and re- duced torque in electric motors; increased heat-
Eaton’s commercial marketing manager, Sanjay Kallianpur.
ing and voltage stress in capacitors; and malop- eration in electronics, switchgear and relays. This can lead to premature aging of equipment which results in increased costs. IEEE Std 519-2012 is a useful document for understanding harmonics and applying harmonic limits in power systems.
One very basic distinction when discussing harmonics is whether the harmonics in question are voltage harmonics or current harmonics. Ac- cording to IEEE 519, harmonic voltage distortion on power systems 69 kV and below is limited to 5.0% total harmonic distortion (THD) with each individual harmonic limited to 3%. The goal of ap- plying the harmonic limits specified in IEEE 519 is to prevent one customer from causing harmonic problems for another customer or for the utility.
There are several basic methods for reducing harmonic voltage and current distortion from non-linear distribution loads. One such method is active harmonic filtering. Active harmonic fil- ters work by monitoring the non-linear currents and electronically generating currents that match and cancel the destructive harmonic cur- rents– so that a single active filter can be used for filtering VSDs of varying sizes. Unlike passive harmonic filters, these filters can provide har- monic mitigation under any load conditions up to their rated capacity.
Eaton have supplied the AFQm series in the
Australian market, in wall-mount and rack-style floor-mount cabinets, to 400A harmonic correc- tion capacity. This latest active filter technology guarantees 5% THDi compliance for a set of non- linear loads and is an ideal solution for installa- tions with a large amount of single-phase and three-phase loads generating harmonics, such as computers, UPS units, lights, lifting equipment and air-conditioning systems with variable speed drives.
“WITH THE PROLIFERATION OF NON-LINEAR LOADS, HARMONIC FILTER TECHNOLOGY IS KEY.”
The AFQm active harmonic filters are multi- function 3-in-1 units with multilevel technology that allows performing 3 different functions with one single unit, namely harmonic filtering, power factor correction and phase balancing.
With the proliferation of non-linear loads in today’s networks, active harmonic filter technol- ogy is key to solving harmonic problems and sav- ing energy.
34
CLIMATECONTROLNEWS.COM.AU