An engineer at PMI purchased a portable power station and wanted to verify the quality of the inverter before attaching sensitive electronics. The steps used to quantify the output quality…
Analyzing Waveforms White Papers
Power quality white papers on Analyzing Waveforms.
51 white papers in Analyzing Waveforms
Interharmonic Analysis with Python
Traditional harmonic analysis in electrical systems has revolved around looking at the spectral content on, well, the magnitudes of harmonic frequency components. The IEEE 519 specification provides guidelines for measuring…
Ferroresonance and Power Quality
Most in the world of power quality are familiar with the concept of resonance in an electrical network as well as the methods for dealing with the issues and byproducts…
Advanced Waveform Analysis Using Python
PMI provides a suite of powerful power quality analysis software packages, from ProVision – the primary desktop offering – to Canvass and PQ Canvass, both web-based products, all well-suited for…
Understanding Crest Factor
Crest factor is an often neglected power compatibility measurement, but can be very important in certain applications. This white paper presents the definition of crest factor and the method for…
Tips on Transformer K-factor
Transformer loading is ultimately limited by internal heating caused by load current flow. Some heating is caused by resistive losses in the transformer winding. Another important heating source is eddy…
RMS Measurements and Harmonic Analysis
The RMS value is used to quantify the overall "size" of a waveform with a single number. By extension, harmonic amplitudes can be used to describe a complex waveform with…
Waveform Capture with Transient Capture Overlays
PMI Revolution recorders can record waveform captures and, with the transient capture option, high-speed microsecond-level transient captures. Transient captures have a much higher sampling rate than waveform captures but have…
Understanding Arc Fault Breakers
Arc Fault Breakers (or AFCI breakers) are sensitive breakers that augment traditional breakers' functionality by using logic and signal processing to determine whether or not an arcing condition is present.…
Understanding Harmonic Power
Harmonic power is a complex and often misunderstood topic. This leads to misinterpretations, including using a harmonic power analysis when the measurements aren't physically meaningful. An overview of harmonic power…
CBEMA Graphs Revealed
The CBEMA (Computer Business Equipment Manufacturers Association) curve and the ITIC (Information Technology Industry Council) curve both refer to a similar method to visibly represent voltage events. A graph of…
Cold Load Pickup
One of the most visible customer-facing challenges an electric utility can face comes in the form of voltage interruptions. From the short, fraction-of-a-second momentary to the prolonged, multi-hour (or even…
