5th Harmonic Resonance: Power Quality

5th Harmonic
resonance Application Note
Power Problem description The power to this motor

comes via a 30-mile utility line
Quality A small city gets its water from originating in the city. A power
a mountain lake 30 miles away. factor correction capacitor near
Case A pumping system at the lake the backwash pump improves
Study brings water up a short incline power factor and reduces voltage
and into a long gravity pipeline loss at the end of that 30-mile
that feeds the city’s water line. For a long time, this
distribution system. configuration worked with no
Before entering the pipeline, problems.
the water passes through a After a small earthquake in
filter that removes debris. When the nearby mountains, questions
the differential pressure across arose regarding the continuation
the filter gets too high, a large of the water supply in the event
backwash pump reverses the of a power interruption. How
flow momentarily to clear the would the city get its water if
filter. The backwash flow the utility connection were
carries debris to a settling pond. lost due to an earthquake?
Powering this backwash The answer was a generator.
Measuring tools: Fluke 43B Power pump is a 650 hp, 3-phase
Quality Analyzer Subsequently, the city added
motor equipped with a soft a diesel-powered engine
start. A “negative sequence generator and transfer switch
detector” helps protect this to the system (see Fig. 1).
Operator: Water plant electrical important motor by shutting it
engineer off upon the loss of a phase, or
when voltage distortion exceeds
a predetermined level.
Features used: Voltage, harmonic
spectrum
Shop
Generator
Office
Utility
Transfer Switch
P.F. Correction
Capacitors
Main
Pump
Backwash
Pump
Fig. 1 One-line diagram of the water plant
From the Fluke Digital Library @ www.fluke.com/library

System testing under gener- Fluke 43B displayed 5th Problems can occur if the
ator power revealed a problem. harmonic distortion rising to circuit has a source of harmon-
The backwash pump would 80 % of the fundamental prior ics near the resonant frequency.
suddenly stop part way through to the stop signal. In the case of the backwash
the start sequence. And it was pump, the source of harmonics
stopping because the negative Theory and analysis was the semiconductor switch-
sequence detector was putting ing operation of the soft start.
out a stop signal to the motor The ideal displacement power Why did the circuit work fine
controls. What electrical anom- factor (DPF) is 1.0. This occurs when powered by the utility,
aly was the negative sequence when the current and voltage yet not work when powered by
detector protecting the motor are “in-phase.” Inductive motor the generator? The difference is
from? Was it a phase loss? loads cause the current to lag, the source impedance. The low
Excessive voltage distortion? thereby lowering the DPF. This impedance of the utility means
What were the characteristics usually results in a penalty it can absorb harmonic currents
and source of this anomaly? charge from the utility, so many without causing severe voltage
Unfortunately, the city engineer users install a capacitor to distortion. The impedance of
was unable to answer these provide DPF correction. the generator is much higher
questions with his existing However, the combination of than that of the utility.
test equipment. After some inductance and capacitance will Harmonic currents flowing into
research to identify a device form a resonant circuit that may the generator caused enough
that would allow him to see result in high circulating current voltage distortion to trigger the
what was going on, he at the resonant frequency. It’s negative sequence protection
purchased a Fluke 43B. standard practice to size a circuit to produce a stop signal.
capacitor at a value large
enough to correct the DPF to
Measurements at least 0.9, but not so large Solution
The engineer suspected voltage that it makes the voltage lag the The city engineer solved the
distortion, so he connected the current. The resulting configura- problem by moving the capaci-
Fluke 43B phase-to-phase tion yields a resonant frequency tor to the utility side of the
across the input to the soft between the 5th and 7th transfer switch. With this
start and selected “Harmonics.” harmonic. configuration, the generator
During the start sequence, the never sees the capacitor and
the resonance condition does
not exist when the generator
powers the circuit.
Fluke. Keeping your world

up and running.
Fluke Corporation
PO Box 9090, Everett, WA USA 98206
Fluke Europe B.V.
PO Box 1186, 5602 BD
Eindhoven, The Netherlands
For more information call:
In the U.S.A. (800) 443-5853 or
Fax (425) 446-5116
In Europe/M-East/Africa (31 40) 2 675 200 or
Fax (31 40) 2 675 222
In Canada (800)-36-FLUKE or
Fax (905) 890-6866
From other countries +1 (425) 446-5500 or
Fax +1 (425) 446-5116
Web access: http://www.fluke.com/
©2003 Fluke Corporation. All rights reserved.
2 Fluke Corporation Power Quality Case Study: 5th Harmonic resonance Pub-ID 10663-eng Rev. 01

5th Harmonic Resonance: Power Quality

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5th Harmonic

resonance Application Note

Power Problem description The power to this motor

Fig. 1 One-line diagram of the water plant

From the Fluke Digital Library @ www.fluke.com/library

Fluke. Keeping your world

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