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Voltage Optimisation®
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powerPerfector and Security of SupplyA powerPerfector will optimise the power supply to the entire electrical load of a site as it is installed at source. Any installation at the electrical incomer must be absolutely reliable, so energy saving does not come at the expense of additional risk to supply integrity. For this reason, the powerPerfector has been designed with no moving parts or electronics: voltage optimisation® and power quality improvement is achieved through the interaction of magnetic fields only, and the unit is as reliable as the incoming power supply itself. Over 300,000 powerPerfector units have been installed in Japan alone, without a single failure. The unit requires no maintenance, and will last for the lifetime of the building – around 30-50 years. No other technology that purports to optimise an entire site’s voltage can match the powerPerfector for reliability. It has come to light that other companies are marketing large auto-transformers for this role. It is important to emphasise that, while the powerPerfector was designed from the bottom up to be installed at source as an energy-saving device, auto-transformers are an old technology intended for low-voltage applications that have been shoe-horned into this role, in order to capitalise on the current market need for energy-saving systems. A variable auto-transformer, or ‘variac’, essentially has a sliding brush which adjusts the turns ratio of the transformer to maintain a constant output voltage. Originally designed for low-voltage applications, transformers of this type introduce a significant risk of failure to an incoming power supply due to their reliance on mechanical adjustment. In the event of failure, the best case scenario is that the full incoming voltage is supplied to the site, with no reduction or optimisation taking place. Given that the full site load current is being transmitted by an inherently unreliable moving contact, the consequences of a worst-case failure can best be imagined. It is known that failures of energy-saving variacs have occurred at installations in universities and private firms in the UK. Aside from the obvious risks to power supply integrity, and the considerable maintenance requirement to allow safe operation, the use of a variac for energy saving purposes has serious limitations. The improvement in the efficiency of site equipment downstream must be offset by the inherent inefficiency of the variac itself, which is likely only to approach full efficiency at full load. The powerPerfector is able to reduce electricity consumption by 11-20% as it has been designed for energy saving, meaning that it is 99.9% efficient across its entire operating range. Using a variac will not improve the power quality going into a site, as no part of the design will filter harmonics, unlike the powerPerfector, and output voltage distortion will closely match the input. A 3-phase variac will act to balance phase voltages, which is known to improve the efficiency of 3-phase AC motor equipment. The powerPerfector has an unreferenced star point between its secondary windings, so phase voltage balance is improved through magnetic interactions rather than the use of independent moving brush contacts. Finally, and importantly, ‘energy-saving’ variacs are not claimed to protect the site against transients and spikes originating from elsewhere on the grid. Transients are very sudden increases in voltage that can be immensely damaging to sensitive electronic equipment. The powerPerfector is designed to eliminate transients up to 25kV. This document "powerPerfector and Security of Supply" is also available as an Adobe .pdf for download |
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