cslater
Structural
- Jun 27, 2007
- 46
A facility manager I work with recently had a small APC UPS catch fire and burn up. A week before, they had an SCR on a large UPS fail.
We suspect the cause to be some sort of power quality issue on the distribution system. The issues have come up since introducing some large, non-constant DC power supplies to the system.
My first thought was harmonics, but some reading I've done indicates that it might also be voltage fluctuations. I understand why harmonics could cause failures, but I'm not clear on why voltage fluctuations might.
Two questions then:
1) Is it possible for voltage fluctuations to cause this kind of damage?
2) Are there other power quality issues that he should be looking at - like Surge, Sag, etc?
Thanks very much!
We suspect the cause to be some sort of power quality issue on the distribution system. The issues have come up since introducing some large, non-constant DC power supplies to the system.
My first thought was harmonics, but some reading I've done indicates that it might also be voltage fluctuations. I understand why harmonics could cause failures, but I'm not clear on why voltage fluctuations might.
Two questions then:
1) Is it possible for voltage fluctuations to cause this kind of damage?
2) Are there other power quality issues that he should be looking at - like Surge, Sag, etc?
Thanks very much!