Oct 18, 20162 min read

An Industrial Talk of Power Quality 2016

Organizing Chairperson: Tan Li Zhi

Date & Time: 5 October 2016, 2:30pm – 4:00pm

Venue: G401 (G block), Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus

Participants:

Speaker

· Mr. David Lee

SSIET Main Advisor

· Dr. Chua Hong Siang

2 IET YPS Representative

· Priscilla Toh

· Jarvis Ling

6 SSIET Members

14 Swinburne Sarawak student

On the 5th of October 2016, SSIET conducted a talk in Swinburne Sarawak by inviting a highly experienced engineer, Mr. David Lee. Mr. David is currently the business development manager in Mun Hean Malaysia, specializing in power electronics for energy efficiency and power quality. All the committees of SSIET and students from electrical and electronic engineering faculty were encouraged to participate. The event started at 2:30pm and ended at 4:00pm. Happenings for the events are as follows:

2:30 pm

Participants, SSIET committees, teacher advisor and guest speaker arrived at G401.

2:35 pm

Welcoming speech by Tan Li Zhi. Followed by a brief introduction and guest speaker’s background.

2:45 pm

Mr. David Lee started his talk with some brief introduction about his job scopes, responsibility and the company he is working for. There are seven sins in power quality, for instances: voltage unbalance, voltage sag, voltage spikes, burnout, harmonics, frequency and outrage. But in this talk, Mr. David Lee mainly focus on voltage sag. Voltage sag is a short duration reduction in RMS voltage which can be caused by a short circuit, overload or starting of electric motors. Mr. David Lee gave a few example of causes of voltage sag such as: switch gear fault, malfunction circuit breaker, starting of large load and lightning.

Mr. David Lee further his explanation on the effects of voltage sag on components which are used in our daily lives. Voltage sag may cause lighting to burnout, confuses machine, damage to the motor drive and also ‘ice-cube’ relay to malfunction. All these situations are very dangerous, as it will cause harm to human life. Moreover, power sag also affected industrial daily operation. In industry focus, painting robot might hang and caused a big mess. In municipal water supply, large amount of water not treated due to malfunction UV lamp. In other industries such as semiconductor industry, plastic injection molding, high speed rolls, textile industry, all of them faced loss of income, delay of production, bankruptcy due to machinery faulty caused by voltage sag.

To overcome voltage sag, Mr. David Lee explained few solutions that are widely used in today’s industrial plant. Firstly, dynamic UPS are used in casino and hospital. Secondly, variable transformer and industrial UPS, there are high in efficiency and solves voltage sag or blackout. Lastly, dynamic sag restorer which is a new technology and it is good for computer industry. In conclusion, voltage sag can cause production tool damage, company facing million dollars of losses, defective products and opportunity loss. Effective solutions and lots of precautionary procedures need to be taken seriously to prevent such catastrophic.

3:45 pm

Q&A session and pop quiz with some goodies is conducted by Mr. David Lee. The talk end with a closing speech by Tan Li Zhi.

4:00 pm

End of programme.