Methods for Power Conditioning to Counter Various Power Problems

Category: Technology

Power conditioners are used to protect sensitive electrical devices against the different types of power distortion and disruption problems associated with the mains power. These problems faced with the mains power could severely affect the working of electrical devices and make them underperform than expected. For example, electromagnetic interference from those devices that draw high amount of current such as electric motors or air conditioners could get into the mains and affect the quality of voltage supplied to other devices.

A power conditioner’s main function is to smooth out the sinusoidal AC wave fed to it from the mains power to the specified voltage range and eliminate any type of noise present in the line. There are many other desired features of power conditioners such as power factor correction, transient impulse protection etc. that improve the overall quality of the supplied power. There are different types of conditioners and they vary from each other in terms of designing and power correction features they offer. Online UPS systems offer every possible type of power correction feature required and are widely used in the UK for mission critical processes in datacenters and other emergency systems.

Different power problems that endanger the proper working of sensitive electrical devices include surges, sags, spikes, brownouts, blackouts, noise & harmonics, radio frequency interference, lightning, etc. Not all conditioners would be able to protect against every power problem mentioned above and you have to make a choice keeping in mind the major problems encountered in the mains available in your area. Online UPS though being more expensive than these conditioners are more than capable to handle every possible power distortion experienced in the line and thus are used widely here in the UK for industrial purposes.

A surge which is an increase in the supply voltage for a small but appreciable amount of time is smoothened to the specified limit by the conditioner with the help of an active clamping device which is deployed directly into the supply line. The most commonly used of such clamping devices is metal oxide varistors which provides excellent protection against excessive transient voltages. To provide voltage regulation, conditioners generally make use of transformers that through the taps could regulate the voltage provided at the output terminal. Different transformer types provide varying degree of voltage regulation accuracy and have their own advantages and disadvantages.

To reduce the presence of noise, total harmonic distortion, and radio frequency interference, power conditioners make use of passive frequency noise filters that eliminate any unwanted frequency transients picked by the power system from the nearby sources. These passive filters consist of various combinations of resistors, inductors and capacitors for blocking the unwanted and boost the desired frequency components. Filters could be low pass filters or high pass filters depending on the type of frequencies that are required to be passed or attenuated to be later used for powering the electrical devices. A low pass filter will only allow those signals to pass through it which have frequencies less than a specified value and will attenuate any other frequency which is above this specified cut-off value. A high pass filter will do exactly the opposite.