Evaluating Wind Turbines With Electrical Signature Analysis

Electrical Signature Analysis (ESA) is the method of using the electric machine magnetic field as the transducer as measured through voltage and current.  The method was originally developed by Oak Ridge National Labs in the late 1980s for the expressed purpose of fault detection of gear and bearing wear in driven equipment in addition to…

Understanding the Energy Impact of Lubrication in Electric Machines

It is generally understood that lubrication must, by default, have an impact on equipment efficiency in terms of friction.  These losses, which are lumped into friction and windage in efficiency standards, such as IEEE Standard 112 Method B[1], which is one of the five types of electric machine losses: core losses (15-25%) and friction and…

Evaluation of the Impact of Harmonics on Electric Machine Reliability

Power, magnetic and ground harmonics have a negative impact on the reliability of your electric motors both electrically and mechanically.  We often focus just on the power harmonics when reviewing information on power quality, but rarely view the self-generated electric machine harmonics and the harmonic content present in grounds and neutrals.  Over the past several…

Electrical and Current Signature Analysis in Standards a 2022 update

On December 1, 2022 I received my usual daily IEEE standards updates for voting which included IEEE P1017.4/D1, “Draft Recommended Practice for Testing and Rating of Electrical Submersible Polyphase Induction Motors.”  This would be the complete new draft of such a standard developed by the Petroleum and Chemical Industry Committees of the IEEE Industry Applications…

Impact of Electrical Reliability and Precision Maintenance Programs on Energy and Environment in Commercial and Industrial Facilities

What is the impact of an electrical reliability program?  Or even the application of a precision maintenance program Overall, the transition to a planned maintenance program from a reactive program has been identified by the US Department of Energy (US DOE) Industrial Assessment Centers (IAC) as having at least 14% improvement of all energy consumption…

Update Energy Savings through the Application of Neutral Harmonic Filter: A Case Study

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…

EMPATH Continuous Monitoring Special Applications for Energy Analysis

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…