Energy and Power
Aluminium or copper busbar trunking system? What do you say?
These two materials (aluminium and copper) are both physically and economically viable for use as conductors in power busbar trunking systems (BTS). Some manufacturers of busbar trunking systems offer a product with copper busbars and others offer a product with… Read more
Oct 17, 2016 | By Edvard Csanyi
Energy and Power
Guidelines for good consumer unit design and low electric fields in the house
The consumer unit is the “fuse box” which goes between the electricity meter and all the electrical circuits in the house. Modern units do not contain fuses, but miniature circuit breakers (MCBs) which have replaced them. They often also contain… Read more
Oct 10, 2016 | By Edvard Csanyi
Energy and Power
Best practice for using surge protective devices (SPDs) and RCD together
Where the power distribution system incorporates RCDs transient activity could cause RCDs to operate and hence loss of supply. Surge protective devices (SPDs) should wherever possible be installed upstream of RCD to prevent unwanted tripping caused by transient overvoltages. Where… Read more
Oct 07, 2016 | By Edvard Csanyi
Energy and Power
4 steps to diagnose a potential harmonics related problem
If a plant engineer suspects that he might have a harmonics related problem, the following steps can easily be performed as an initial investigation into potential problems: Look for symptoms of harmonics as listed in Table 1 below. If one… Read more
Oct 05, 2016 | By Edvard Csanyi
Energy and Power
Problems with audible substation noise and what you can do about it
Audible substation noise, particularly continuously radiated discrete tones (e.g., from power transformers), is the type of noise that the community may find unacceptable. Community guidelines to ensure that acceptable substation noise levels are maintained can take the form of governmental… Read more
Oct 03, 2016 | By Edvard Csanyi
Energy and Power
Advice how to calculate the power loss inside the low voltage switchboard
In order to give the necessary indications on the methods intended to calculate power loss and improve the current carrying capacity of the circuit breakers inside LV switchboard, first of all it is necessary to analyze an assembly from a… Read more
Sep 30, 2016 | By Edvard Csanyi
Electrical Lectures
6 transformer operating limitations that make it far from ideal
There are few operating limitations that make transformer far from ideal. Generally, some of transformer operating limitations can be minimized, but not in total, never in total. Let’s talk about these limitations. Transformer losses (Heat) Copper (or winding) losses Iron… Read more
Sep 28, 2016 | By Edvard Csanyi
Energy and Power
8 steps to follow in power substation design and engineering
Building a new substation or retrofitting the old one is a complex process full of design and engineering tasks to be worked on. The main steps in substation design and engineering are as follows: Selection of a substation switching system:… Read more
Sep 21, 2016 | By Edvard Csanyi
Electrical Lectures
What is grounding and why do we ground the system and equipment?
The term grounding is commonly used in the electrical industry to mean both “equipment grounding” and “system grounding”. Equipment grounding means the connection of earth ground to non-current carrying conductive materials such as conduit, cable trays, junction boxes, enclosures, and motor… Read more
Sep 14, 2016 | By Edvard Csanyi
Energy and Power
When does exciting current inrush occur in power transformer?
When a transformer is initially energized, there is a phenomenon known as exciting current inrush. Although inrush currents are not generally as damaging as fault currents, the duration of exciting current inrush is on the order of seconds (as compared… Read more
Sep 07, 2016 | By Edvard Csanyi
Electrical Lectures
Answer 20 questions correctly and prove you are good electrician
It’s not easy to be a good electrician, that’s for sure. Things you studied hard (or still studying) are gradually being forgotten, especially electrical formulas. Well, these 20 questions tend to wake up your memory and test your electrical knowledge… Read more
Sep 02, 2016 | By Edvard Csanyi
Energy and Power
Direct and indirect measurements using CTs and VTs
In order to measure electrical quantities, the measuring instruments must be connected to the lines safely, with maximum simplicity and convenience. Generally, the fundamental parameters to be detected are voltage and current, which respectively require a parallel connection and a… Read more
Aug 31, 2016 | By Edvard Csanyi
Energy and Power
Breaking of a short circuit current in a direct current system
Direct current presents different problems than alternating current with aregard to the phenomena associated to the breaking of a short circuit current and interruption of other types of high value current since the arc extinction results to be particularly difficult…. Read more
Aug 29, 2016 | By Edvard Csanyi
Electric Motor
What details a motor nameplate shows and how to use them
We have all seen the motor nameplate attached on the motor side (or on top). All motors have a permanent nameplate which lists all important data, further data is usually available in the motor catalogue. It is important to recognize… Read more
Aug 26, 2016 | By Edvard Csanyi
Energy and Power
Calculate reactive power of the capacitor bank and improve power factor
For the dimensioning of the capacitor bank to be installed in order to improve the power factor of a plant, it is necessary to calculate correctly the power factor according to the consumption or to the load cycle of the… Read more
Aug 24, 2016 | By Edvard Csanyi
