Last month we hosted a visit from the Managing Director of Technology for A.Eberle a key supplier to HV Power. Till Sybel spent a week with us meeting some of our NZ and Australian customers.  This provided valuable feedback to our supplier, and helped us to develop plans for the introduction and local support of new technologies and improved products.

Here’s an example of a new development from A.Eberle. Special thanks to those customers we managed to visit – we do appreciate your time.

We are heartened that our supplier recognises the diverse and interesting use of their products in our region, and that addressing the needs of our local market feeds strongly into their product development. This very strong collaborative relationship with A.Eberle for us goes back to 1999.

The ripple control monitoring feature has proven to be popular and useful on the A.Eberle PQ-Box 100 Power Quality Analyser. A very cost effective tool – for the purposes of ripple control signal monitoring at customer premises is now available in the form of a Single Phase “Basic” version of the PQ-Box 100.

Simply adding a CT to the unit, allows load current/power to also be measured – useful when you want to record the effect of the ripple control operation to find out how much load was dropped immediately as a result of the ripple control (at your feeder, or customer premises).

A single phase voltage input, “Basic”, PQ-Box 100 is available or with the high speed ‘Ripple Control Option’. These portable Analysers can be field upgraded – right up to full “Expert” PQ monitoring capability any time in the future.

Ripple control information is available for display/analysis in (up to) four different modes. The two most useful are:

1. PQ-Box 100 ‘Basic’ ‘Permanent Recording’ Information

Voltage data logging is provided with sufficient memory to capture days of data [or months when using the recommended 10 minute averaging period]. The averaging period can be set from (1 second to 30 minutes).

This Permanent recording mode allows the ripple control voltage (as a percentage of nominal) to be displayed in a graph versus time.

Figure 1. Example ‘Permanent Recorded’ data - ripple signal voltage vs time (1 second to days)

2. PQ-Box 100 ‘High Speed’ ripple control pulse capture option

A high speed recorder is triggered by the set ripple frequency/threshold being exceeded, capturing the ripple pulse encoding (voltage vs time).

Figure 2. Example high speed ripple control signal data (10 ms resolution)

If you are interested in seeing the PQ-Box 100 ripple control monitoring features first hand, contact us for a demo. Detailed information on the operation of the different ripple control features of the PQ-Box 100 can be found in HV Powers “PQ-Box 100 Hints and Tips #4” document – available from our website Technical Library.

In addition to the ripple control monitoring functions, there are a host of other useful voltage/power measurements that are made available within these suggested PQ-Box 100 configurations and the freely supplied WinPQ mobil software.

A.Eberle have released the PQ-Box 150. This new portable analyser essentially sits between the ‘work horse’ PQ-Box 100 and ‘thoroughbred’ PQ-Box 200. For some customers the PQ-Box 100 will remain the product of choice, for others the PQ-Box 150 is the logical upgrade. The good news is that all products are supported by the same version of WinPQ mobil software – so you can operate a mix of models within your organisation. The PQ-Box 100, 150 and 200 share an almost identical setup, measurement configuration and measured data set, so no significant new learning is required.

PQ-Box 100 PQ-Box 150   Physical 200 x 146 x 57 mm 1.7 kg IP 65 200 x 181 x 40 mm 1.0 kg IP 65 Rating Cat III = 600 V Cat IV = 300 V Cat III = 1000 V Cat IV = 600 V Impulse voltage Not specified 12.8 kV (7.4 kV for 5 sec) A/D 24 Bit, 10 kHz sampling 24 Bit, 20 kHz sampling Versions Basic, Light, Expert Expert only 2 kHz to 9 kHz harmonic No Option B1 (adds 200 Hz groupings) Ripple Control Recorder Optional Optional Other measurements   - Harmonic voltage, 200 ms maximum values (thus average and max values during each recording interval are available) - Voltage Harmonics 2-9 kHz (in 200 Hz bands)* - Harmonic Voltage phase angle - Harmonic current, 200 ms maximum values (thus average and max values during each recording interval are available) - Current Harmonics 2-9 kHz (in 200 Hz bands)* *Only with order option B1 Display Monochrome - text Colour – with graphics Memory 2 GB 4 GB, user replaceable card - up to 32 GB possible Fast download USB 2.0 USB 2, Ethernet, ‘USB Disk mode’ – very high speed Interface USB 2.0 USB 2.0 Ethernet Battery 20 seconds 6 hours Leads Fixed 7 double insulated with 4 mm banana plugs (stackable). 4 x Fuse lead adapter supplied Fixed 5 double insulated leads with 4 mm banana plugs with in-built fuses Aux Power Via black AUX leads: 100 - 280 Vac 140 - 240 Vdc Separate power pack: 88 – 500 Vac 100 – 300 Vdc IP 65 rated, Cat IV = 600 V -20 to +70 deg C 12 kV impulse rated Connected via fused 4mm banana plugs

The PQ-Box 150 borrows it shape and colour LCD display from the PQ-Box 200. Compared to the PQ-Box 100, the PQ-Box 150 features faster sampling speed (allowing up to the 200th harmonic to be measured). The PQ-Box 150 features a 6 hour internal battery and extremely tough external power supply. The power supply boasts a very wide input range, and very high impulse withstand. A.Eberle have moved to this design to cater for ‘worst case scenario’ situations. Should the power supply be damaged – such as from a rouge variable frequency motor drive output – the power supply can be simply replaced, without risk to the PQ-Box 150. A.Eberle’s testing of this robust power supply included such abuse as running from a 40 Vac source in a 70 deg. C environment, and running it from a 550 Vac source! This tough little power supply has two 4 mm banana plugs for its input, allowing the PQ-Box 150 to be simply powered from the measuring circuit if desired, or from a local 230 Vac mains outlet using an adapter.

With the move to safer built-in, inline fuses being provided in both the power supply and measuring leads, the 582.2037 adapter is now available. This has a female 4 mm socket that can connect to the power supply input and provides piggy back 4 mm connector, allowing the measuring leads to also be connected – ideal for the typical application where the PQ-Box 150 is to be powered from the measuring source.

Figure 3. Adapter 582.2037 – the ‘piggy back’ adapter

HV Power have been proudly supplying and supporting A.Eberle Voltage Regulating Relays in Australia since 2010. Some REG-Ds and REG-DAs were supplied into Australia by others prior to that.  As the REG-DA’s were first introduced in 2004, those units will now be in their 11th year of service. As with any IEDs it’s important to understand the battery maintenance requirements.

Refer to our technical note for more information on REG-D battery replacement.

REG-D & REG-DA units manufactured from about 2004 onwards can make use of a handy feature in the V2.12 Bootloader. The ‘RAM backup’ allows a copy of the setting file to be copied into non-volatile memory, from where it can automatically be recalled upon power up (even with a dead battery). The unit still retains a battery and we recommend this battery is replaced each 6-10 years. We also recommend you monitor the battery status SCADA point (in addition to the watchdog point).

Refer to A.Eberle’s technical note Bootloader v2.12 Backup & Restore Parameters for more information.

From May 2014, REG-D & REG-DA moved to having the settings backed up by non-volatile memory so there is no longer a backup battery on the most recent voltage regulators.

At HV Power we stock the different battery types for all REG-D & REG-DA’s.

The inaugural User forum for local PQ Box users was held last month in Sydney.

Highlights of the day included the introduction of a new model PQ-Box 150 by A.Eberle’s MD Till Sybel, a colourful paper given by James Goffey of Aurizon on the use of PQ-Box for Bonding and Earthing studies and an insight into the work of the Power Quality & Reliability Centre - University of Wollongong by Sean Elphick. Attendees of the Forum shared some of their experiences dealing with PQ issues, discussed some work practices and HV Power’s PQ guru Warwick Beech addressed a number of practical aspects of the use of the PQ Box 100 Portable Analysers and WinPQ mobil software. The topic of ‘voltage issues’ caused by high PV concentration was discussed and included a presentation on LVRSys a new development in Low Voltage Regulation (400 V) [22 kVA to 600 kVA]. For an insight into LVRSys, please see here.

We look forward to next year’s Forum when hopefully there is less turmoil in the industry and more attendees can travel interstate to participate..