Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Centre for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technolo- Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
gies Australia (CRESTA) University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez
Curtin University of Technology Mayagüez, PR
GPO Box U1987
Perth, Western Australia
Abstract: This paper describes power quality audits conducted at hospitals in Western Australia and Puerto
Rico. Voltage and current measured at various points were used to assess the quality of the power used at
both facilities. The main power quality problems found were voltage flicker, neutral currents, and harmonic
distortion. Measurements of the total harmonic distortion (THD) were used to locate harmonic sources. Rec-
ommendations were made based on the results of each of the audits. Both studies serve as awareness for the
importance of power quality in sensitive equipment found at hospitals. The power quality audits in this paper
were part of the programs of study for students participating in the projects, which makes these efforts impor-
tant pedagogical tools.
Keywords: Power quality, harmonic distortion, voltage disturbances, Flickering, Neutral Current, Total Har-
monic Distortions
Other
Utility Loads
4.16 KV
150 KVA
120/208 : 480
1MVA CathLab
T2 TS 1 Office Load
Figure 1. Simplified Electrical Layout of the Cardiovascular
Operating Theatres 4160 : 120/208 Other
Loads
B. Puerto Rico
The peak load at Bella Vista Hospital (BVH) is 1 MVA, as Figure 2. Pictorial for the hospital’s electrical system
measured by the local utility. The load is distributed among
thirty-seven circuits, using two 1 MVA dry-type transformers. III. METHODOLOGY AND PROBLEMS FOUND
Fig. 2 shows the main circuits of the system. Service from the A. Australia
Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) comes from a The X-ray equipment in the operating theatres at the hospital
4.16 kV feeder. The hospital is located in a residential area is supposed to be normally run from the UPS system. How-
over the top of a hill. ever, due to light flickering while being supplied by the UPS,
BVH has an alternate power supply consisting of two the XThe was
generators. The first one has a capacity of 625 kVA, and can instead. Hence in a blackout situation the XThe
supply emergency power within 5 seconds of an outage, as
required by healthcare standards [4]. The second is a backup
in case of malfunction of the main generator. It has a capacity
of 487 kVA. The emergency energy is supplied through fifteen
transfer switches. Individual loads can be selectively turned
off/on with this configuration. However, the topology in -
creases significantly the number of components in the sys-
tems that can have troubles.
The hospital has 37 major circuits available in the two
switchgear at the substation, and more than 50 panel boards
distributed through the building. Thus, the single line dia-
gram was indispensable for the power quality audit.
Changes in the quality of power have been observed at
the Bella Vista Hospital in Mayagüez, PR. An increase of
sensitive medical equipment, recent problems with an expen-
sive catheterization equipment and the installation of million-
dollar equipment, motivated the Hospital’s Engineering De-
partment to conduct a power quality audit. The main objec-
tives of the survey were to assess the quality of service re-
B. Puerto Rico
The first step of the power quality audit was an inspec-
tion of the hospital’s electrical system. Even though numer-
ous renovations had been made in the last fifteen years, a
one-line diagram of the electrical system was not available at
BVH. A complete schematic of the system, shown in Fig. 2,
was developed using the information gathered after a thor-
ough inspection of the system.
A portable, stand-alone, single-phase power quality ana-
lyzer was used to record the measurements [5]. One 500 am-
peres clamp -on CT and a 2000 A flexible clamp -on CT were
als o used. Measurements were made at the substation trans-
formers, at the output of each circuit breaker, at the input of
each distribution panel, and finally at the individual loads.
Voltage and current values as well as power and power factor
were logged. After taking the first voltage and current meas-
urements, it was evident that harmonics were the main prob-
lem in the facility. Therefore, both current and voltage THD
were measured.
A method based on the current-source model was used
to locate harmonics [6]. A harmonic source can be traced
from multiple measurements of THDI in the system. The
closer one gets to the source, the higher the THDI will be.
Measurements were taken starting at the substation, then
going all the way up to the individual loads. The “harmonic
tracing” used in this study was validated in a previous study
at an industrial food-processing facility [7].
An infrared study was performed in the main circuits and
critical services in the facility. This study revealed several hot
points in circuits (one as high as 349° F), which gave evidence
of deterioration of the contacts. Harmonics were present at
some of these hotpoints.
The physical facilities at Bella Vista Hospital range from
25 to 45 years old. Although the electrical system of the five-
story building has undergone many renovations, it is not
suited to deal with power quality conditions related to the
operation of a large number of sensitive, microprocessor-
based devices. The neutral wires were not designed to sup-
port nonlinear loads and harmonic flow. There is a possibility
of grounding problems caused by corroded wiring. Rooms
that had one or two medical devices in the past, now house
complex medical systems and/or numerous portable devices.
The interaction between loads is also a concern at BVH in
terms of voltage sags. Office equipment and medical devices
with high distortion can affect the operation of other micro-
processor-based equipment even if the latter has built-in
power conditioners. For example, imaging systems cause
sags that may generate some of the problems shown in Table
1.
Figure 4. Lamp rms voltage over a 4 Minute Period.
As the lamps running from ES supply did not show any volt-
age fluctuations, it was recommended that all emergency
Figure 3. Emergency Lamp Voltage while Snapppshot x- lamps be supplied from the ES supply. However, considering
raying. the fact that in the event of loss of ES supply, the stand by
generator take 2 minute to take up load some measures are
required. For this purpose, our recommendation was to re-
place all emergency lamps in the operating theatres by their
Emergency Lamp Flickering energy storage type counterparts. The Atco power pack
In order to investigate the cause of lamp flickering, the volt- model DBL 1120N-01 is one such lamps suitable for 2X36 W
age and current of the lamps were monitored. Figure 3 shows lamp fittings which would provide back up for 2 hours.
the lamp voltage with UPS while snapshot x-raying.
The voltage waveform clearly shows a 50 Hz variation of Neutral Current
40 V. Before the investigations into the neutral current, the THDI’s
Figure 4 shows the lamp r.m.s voltage over a 4 minute interval. on the ES and UPS supply were measured and found to be
In this period two x-raying snapshots were taken as shown in 4.1% and 3.3% respectively. The rms voltage of the ES supply
the Figure. The variation of peak voltage was measured to be is also 4 to 5 V higher than the UPS supply.
equal to 40 V between two successive period. Figure 4 clearly
indicates severe voltage fluctuations while x-raying using the Figure 6 shows the neutral current and its spectrum. The cur-
UPS system. However, with the ES supply no voltage fluctua- rent waveform is severely distorted with a THD of 38.16%
tions were found. without x-raying from the ES supply.
VI. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS