Power System Studies

One of the core services that our Electrical department offers is Power System Analysis in the form of comprehensive power system studies.  Our Clients might require a power system study if they are building a new facility, making major changes to an existing facility, or to improve overall system reliability and safety.

Under the broad heading of Power System Studies there are various specific types of studies including:

• Fault (short-circuit) - Determination of fault levels throughout a system and ensuring installed equipment is adequately rated for the expected fault duty

• Coordination - Optimization of protective device selectivity to ensure maximum system uptime and proper equipment protection if faults do occur

• Arc Flash - In conjunction with the short circuit study, the arcing fault incident energy is determined at all major system connecting points, such as MCCs, so that workers exposed to energized equipment ensure that the PPE they are using will adequately protect them from arcing faults, and when possible, methods are presented to reduce the arcing energy to lower levels

• Load Flow - Ensuring that adequate power is available when it is needed is essential, such as during heavy loading and motor starting. Reliability and safety is critical, and hardware must be chosen and utilized within its load ratings and these are all verified and checked under various operating conditions.

• Motor Starting - During motor starts, there are extra loads placed on the power system under many circumstances, and these demands must not have a negative impact on the rest of the power system. Corrective measures can be evaluated such as utilizing soft starts, reconfiguration of transformer taps, and new starting schemes.

• Harmonics - Modern power systems incorporate equipment such as VFDs that can result in higher harmonics in the system, which can in turn place extra stresses on the power system resulting in higher than normal heating and also affect protective device accuracy and performance. Identifying areas of high harmonic distortion is important to mitigate these effects.

Fransen has been completing Power System studies since we first opened our doors in 1980.  Our team has a depth of both theoretical expertise and practical experience, having completed these studies in a variety of industrial settings using the latest advanced software tools.