The type and size of a power monitoring system varies considerably from one installation to the next. One company may have a single meter and monitor the service entrance from a web browser. A substation or manufacturing facility could have a group of meters set up to monitor sub-feeders and equipment. A campus might have meters installed in every building and linked through an Ethernet network. Other utilities such as water, gas, compressed air, steam, etc. can also be monitored.
Power Measurement Ltd. produces a full line of digital power meters for use in monitoring systems. Specific meters and software are chosen based upon the applications to be served:
Power Quality: Voltage sags, transients, and harmonics can shut down operations, damage electronics, and cause equipment malfunctions. Continuous power monitoring and high-speed sequence-of-events recording to help identify the source of disturbances and determine corrective actions that can help prevent recurrences or their effects.
Energy Cost Control: Demand charges, power factor penalties, and billing errors all can lead to higher energy costs. A power monitoring system helps reduce these expenses through revenue-certified bill verification, automated demand control, and cost allocation for tenants or even departments/divisions.
Operational Improvements: The electrical aspects of your operations need careful management just as any other raw material. You may need to plan for facility expansion, generate weekly energy consumption reports, arrange for equipment maintenance, and contribute to activity-based costing or buy-versus-build decisions with the energy-related cost of every process.
You can handle all these tasks with the help of a single power monitoring system. Save on capital expenditures by using trend data to load electrical circuits at higher levels and run systems near rated tolerances. Replace manual meter reading with automated collection, processing, and customization of data. Streamline maintenance with desktop access to historic files and automatic notification of work requirements.
Preparing for Deregulation: Revenue-accurate meters and networked software help you manage today's electricity contracts. Energy providers can create new services such as performance guarantees, Web access to reports, remote load management, and sub-metering. Energy consumers can make better purchase decisions and respond to real-time pricing.