It is established that neutral and ground harmonic content will load transformers and systems. Prior work has been limited as to the direct relationship of this additional loading on power consumption for a facility. Over the past 24 months applied research has been performed on the measured impact of neutral and ground harmonics and energy…
A common question we receive is: ‘what is the impact of voltage unbalance on temperature?’ With incoming power to facilities having challenges in many parts of the United States (and elsewhere) from aging grid and the rapid application of power electronics, this becomes a significant issue. Voltage unbalance is the variation from the average voltage…
The EMPATH™ family of Electrical Signature and Motor Current Signature Analysis (ESA/MCSA) systems go well beyond analyzing electric motors, generators and wind turbines. It provides prognostic and time to failure estimation (TTFE) capabilities for AC/DC electric motors, synchronous machines, servo motors, machine tools, generators – including utility scale, and transformers. Not only will it identify…
As I just mentioned to a friend – I seem to be waxing philosophical this past weekend as I complete reading “Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla, Biography of a Genius,” by Marc J Seifer. I would not have tripped over this and several other excellent texts had I not started returning to…
Two significant issues in wind power asynchronous generators are magnetic wedge loss and coil movement resulting in winding faults. Most of the time the failures occur unexpectedly or require borescope or visual inspections of the generator stators. In this paper we will identify how both conditions can be detected during operation through Electrical Signature Analysis. …
Initial testing of an ID fan performed in 2018 with corrections made and retesting performed with EMPATH analysis, GTI Predictive vibration analysis and RDI motion amplification. While values were not extreme in the pre-test, the resulting vibration destroyed fan bearings and other poor conditions which prevented the operation of the fan system. Testing was performed…
As we start into ESA theories and application, we will have to spend a little time on electric motor theory. As we will start out with a basic system, AC motors are the simplest in terms of operation and components, we will start out with AC induction motors. Using this base knowledge, we can later…
Free Seminar April 20, 2020 from noon to 1pm CST We will discuss the art of EMPATH data collection and analysis of wind turbine generators, gearbox, main bearings and blades from the voltage and current. We will discuss how the data is collected and the approach to analysis. This will be exclusive for wind companies…
Free Live Seminar for April 17, 2020 from noon to 1pm CST In this presentation we will work step-by-step how to analyze an electric motor, sheaves, belts and fan including related bearings using real field data. The demonstration will be with the EMPATH system but applies to other current and electrical signature analysis. GoToWebinar to…
Kevin Alewine of Shermco and I presented at the American Wind Energy Association Operations and Maintenance Conference (AWEA O&M). The EMPATH data on just under 400 generators and powertrain resulted in 772 findings on a specific manufacturer’s generators. The general industry findings for these generators are: The findings from the EMPATH evaluations: The generator findings…
