A single point of failure is a single point in the electrical power system beyond which
the electrical power system is down from the failed piece of equipment or power supply. Adding
redundancies to the electrical power system is usually an effective method to minimize single
point failures.
Ensuring reliable electrical power system for the cutting edge research facilities at any organization
requires careful consideration of electrical reliability measures, eliminating single point of failures
with reasonable cost benefit returns. In addition to reliability requirements, electrical system at the
organization facilities must be scalable to facilitate future expansions, easy to operate and maintain
for the long period of continuous operations. As a result, simply adding redundancies or selecting
topology without due considerations of all operational requirements may not meet the organization
requirements.
First, designer must consult with all stakeholders to determine the value of uninterrupted
operations. This varies from one laboratory to another at the organization depending on the
types of activities. As an example, patient/animal research areas will require highly reliable
electrical power systems compared to an administrative building or segment of building
with similar functionality. Designers must establish a common ground about the reliability
with all of the stakeholders prior to selecting topology of electrical power distribution
system and measures to eliminate single point of failures.
Second, designers must establish cost of the various alternate solutions with increasing
level of reliabilities so that stakeholders can select an appropriate electrical system that
meets the reliability requirements with least negative impact on budget. Reliability
calculation for the proposed systems must follow IEEE standard 493 (IEEE Recommended
Practice for the Design of Reliable Industrial and Commercial Power Systems). In addition,
reliability calculation must include actual historical outage data of Potomac Electric Power
Company (PEPCO, the local electric power service provider).
Finally, designers must:
• Choose a network architecture that strikes the right balance between risk mitigation
and return on investment (ROI)
• Select reliable equipment configured for each process and load
• Implement an appropriate maintenance policy with corrective, preventive, and
predictive measures
• Install a power monitoring and control system with the following features, to help
operators make the right decisions and take the appropriate corrective actions:
o Real-time monitoring of the entire electrical network
o Alarming, data logging, event tracking, fault analysis, and root cause
analysis
New electrical systems must be scalable as well as compatible with the existing systems to
integrate seamlessly with the existing systems. New electrical power system should also meet
stringent criteria for reliability including elimination of single point of failures, operability, and
maintainability to ensure that designed system will operate for entire life of the building.
These people, who get paid to know their facilities' systems inside and out, often have trouble
answering questions like, What is the total cost of an outage at the facility?, Does the facility meet
“six nines” availability criteria?, or What would a probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) of the
electrical system tell about downtime?
Also, terms like “N+2,” “MTBF,” “failure rate,” and “high nines of availability” are often misused
or misunderstood. Although PRA techniques have been applied for many years and can now be
applied using off-the-shelf software, the details of this technique can easily become overwhelming.
Reliability through good design. Even though system design is typically not the direct cause of
equipment failure or system shutdown, design will have an effect on system availability and on
the length of shutdowns when they do occur. If the system has been designed with multiple
redundancies, it can allow for maintenance outages and can ride through equipment failures
without resulting in an unplanned shutdown. Using common reliability analysis tools, the predicted
reliability and availability of your electrical system can be calculated.
To provide continuous operation under all foreseeable circumstances, including utility outages and
equipment breakdown, you must design reliability into an electrical system (Photo 1).
Investigating the number of redundancies designed into the electrical system is one of the common
analytical approaches. It identifies the normal source (N) and any redundant circuits/sources or
equipment that would provide alternate paths for electrical power to flow.
A system with one redundant path would be termed an N+1 design. This would allow for one of
the paths to be de-energized for maintenance while the other is still energized, allowing
maintenance without system shutdown. If the system is designed with a normal path and two
alternate paths (N+2 design), one path could be down for maintenance, a failure could occur in a
second path, and ideally, the third path would supply power to the load without interruption. An
N+1 or N+2 assessment of a system can reveal single points of failure within the system.
Reliability through probabilistic risk assessment. Performing a probabilistic risk assessment
(PRA) is another way to look at system reliability. Table 1 provides a list of some of the terms
and formulae used in analyzing reliability.
Describing and detailing PRA would take a book's worth of pages to do justice. However, IEEE
Standard 493, Recommended Practice for the Design of Reliable Industrial and Commercial
Power Systems (the Gold Book) does provide data and describe a process for assessing system
performance based on PRA principals.
Using the typical failure rate for a given type of equipment and the mean time necessary to repair
it, PRA looks at the probability of failure of each type of electrical power equipment and,
depending on the number of redundancies built into system design, can be used to predict
availability, number of failures per year, and annual downtime. Software is commercially available
to perform PRA calculations on electrical distribution systems. Books are also available to help
explain this concept, such as Probabilistic Risk Assessment and Management for Engineers and
Scientists, 2nd Edition, by Hiromitsu Kumamoto and Ernest J. Henley (ISBN: 0-7803-6017-6).
Table 2 provides a small sample of the type of data available from IEEE 493. Of course, the results
of such reliability studies can only predict performance based on available data. And obviously, if
the data used for such a study isn't representative, the results will be unreliable.
Data provided by IEEE 493 is based on failure rates and repair time information gathered from
U.S. industrial plants over the past several years, but it may not be very representative of failure
rates and repair times for your facility. As such, you would need to modify this data by including
more site-specific information or substituting better data, if such data is available.
Table 2:
Quantifying system reliability. To quantify system reliability, it's necessary to first define the
term “loss of power.” Many utilities don't keep records of service interruptions shorter than one
minute. Some don't keep records of those interruptions shorter than five minutes. But for many
critical facilities, even a five- or 10-second outage would qualify as loss of power.
Before performing a reliability analysis, you must understand and agree on the circumstances that
qualify as a power failure. Table 3 shows the relationship between downtime and availability.
Note that six nines of availability represents an average annual downtime of more than 30 seconds.
While this may be an acceptable level of availability for many facilities, it would be completely
unacceptable for many data centers, intensive care units, and other critical facilities that may expect
seven, eight, or nine nines of availability.
If the cost of outages and estimated costs of various improvement projects are known, it's possible
(by multiplying the probability of failure and cost of failure, and then subtracting that cost from
the cost of each of the improvement projects) to compare the relative merits of the current system
and each of the alternatives. You can then use this information to evaluate return on investment
(ROI).
With this in mind, it's important to establish an ongoing program designed to maintain an
acceptable level of reliability for the facility. You can greatly improve reliability of electrical
systems and equipment through proper maintenance practices and procedures, starting with
effective system startup and acceptance testing.
When normal acceptance and start-up testing isn't performed (usually to save a few dollars), the
results can be disastrous. Perfectly good switchgear, transformers, or other equipment can be
“smoked” due to relatively small installation errors. In other cases, the failures don't occur until
months after the facility has gone into operation and the warranties have expired. Loose
connections or insulation damage may not show up until more equipment comes online and
electrical loads increase.
Acceptance and start-up testing also provides valuable baseline or benchmark information that can
be used later. Several good methods exist for establishing maintenance programs designed to
maximize reliability:
NETA Maintenance Testing Standard (MTS) recommendations
National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 70B Standard recommendations
A reliability centered maintenance (RCM) assessment, which rigorously reviews critical
system and equipment failure effects and establishes appropriate condition assessment
tasks and maintenance activities for facilities or systems where reliability is critical
To get the full benefit of condition assessment and maintenance testing, you should trend the
results. Trending contact resistance, temperature, insulation resistance, and other indicators will
warn of deterioration and often provides an opportunity for a planned shutdown for correction of
the problem before failure.
Reliability through proper operations. While the relationship between quality of maintenance
and resulting system reliability may be clear, the effect on reliability due to operations and other
actions of personnel may be less obvious. This area of human interaction and its effect on the
electrical system is considered the main source of unavailability (Photo 3). It has been estimated
that 70% to 80% of all unplanned shutdowns are due to human error, meaning that only 20% to
30% of unplanned shutdowns are due to equipment malfunction or poor design.
The condition and availability of facility records also influences reliability. Out-of-date or non-
existent drawings and instruction manuals can result in unnecessary shutdowns, equipment
failures, and even injuries, yet a surprisingly low number of facilities rigorously maintain these
crucial documents in an accurate and up-to-date condition.
Recognizing that equipment may fail or human error may occur, it's important that you have
documents and procedures in place to quickly enable recovery actions and minimize the length of
the shutdown. Such documents should include an up-to-date single-line diagram of the system and
a list of emergency contact numbers.
Having at least a minimal number of spare parts for critical components is also essential to system
availability. Maintaining a spare parts inventory for emergencies requires the implementation of a
program that identifies which equipment is critical and which spare parts are needed for emergency
conditions. Such a program should also involve periodic condition assessment of each of these
spare parts and regular updating of the inventory.
Personnel training and detailed procedures for operation are essential. Procedures at many data
centers and other similar “critical facilities” or facilities with “critical environments” require very
detailed work procedures or scripts. These scripts must be written and then reviewed, revised if
necessary, and approved by all the appropriate stakeholders, including engineering, maintenance,
information technology, construction, and operations and procurement, before any physical work
begins. The step-by-step work procedures must be followed without exception.
In a typical facility, operations usually have a larger effect on system reliability than maintenance
or system design. Table 4 (click here) provides a basic checklist that can help identify areas that
need to be evaluated.
One step ahead. You must design reliability into an electrical system to provide continuous
operation under all foreseeable circumstances, including utility outages and equipment breakdown.
Analyzing the number of redundancies designed into the electrical system and conducting a PRA
are two methods of looking at system reliability. When considering the implications of reliability,
you must remember that reliability analysis should examine all three pillars of system reliability:
design, operations, and maintenance.
To effectively examine the overall picture, try using an electrical operations and maintenance
checklist like the one shown in Table 4. This checklist serves as a basic blueprint to identify areas
in need of evaluation, and when used in an actual working environment it should be written and
reviewed by all appropriate personnel in the facility.
Make the Right Choice: Know the Right Enclosure Material for Your Application
The enclosure material you select impacts the lifespan, functionality and performance of the
components inside. With numerous materials available, what are the different protective
advantages?
With over 35 years of enclosure installations in the U.S. alone, Rittal’s experts share industry-
proven research on enclosure, accessory and hardware options.
In the "Selecting the Appropriate Materials for Industrial Enclosures" tech paper, you'll find out
the specific impact on your enclosure of:
-Environmental considerations
-Modifications
-Strength and Weight Choices
-Climate control requirements
Select your enclosure with certainty, knowing you've chosen the right material for the job. Read
this technical paper from Rittal to find field-tested recommendations on enclosure materials, plus
easy-to-reference tables matching recommended materials by application and environmental
conditions.
It's time to unveil EC&M's highly anticipated Top 40 electrical design firms list for 2018, ranked
specifically by electrical design revenue earned in 2017. This photo gallery offers a sneak peek at
the companies making it into the Top 10 spots, listed in descending order. To find out more about
the driving forces behind these firms' successes, details on what solidifies their position as leaders
in the industry, hot and cold markets, and key trends shaping the business climate this year, look
for the full 2018 Top 40 Electrical Design Firms Special Report coming soon in the June edition.
The original research EC&M conducts on behalf of the Top 40 article each year has become an
invaluable resource for consultants, manufacturers, and electrical design and contracting firms,
making it an EC&M institution readers wait for every year.
Related: Announcing EC&M's 2017 Top 10 Electrical Design Firms
To get on the list to receive the proprietary survey for next year, contact Content Director Ellen
Parson.
ownload the << Energy Efficiency Project Funding comparison table >>.
Reliability 101: The Basics of Electrical Distribution System Reliability
July 27, 2012
By Dan Steiner, PE, CEM, CDSM, CEA, CMVP; President
Editor’s note – This article is the first in a four-part series on the important subject of electrical
power systems reliability.
Reliability is one of those words with varied meaning, depending on its use. Its root word, reliable,
means “dependable,” something you can count on. But reliability also carries with it the ideas of
honesty (as in “performs as promised”), fitness for purpose, and resistance to failure.
All of these admirable concepts and many others are rolled up in the term electrical system
reliability. And if you’re a plant manager, maintenance supervisor, or other professional with
responsibility for the successful operation of your facility, as much as you want reliability from
the car you drive or the weather forecast you listen to, you’ll want it even more from your facility’s
electrical power system.
In this article, I’ll lay the groundwork for future discussions on electrical reliability – and how to
achieve it.
Take away any leg of this stool and you have an unreliable system. A poorly designed or installed
system is unreliable from the start. Even good systems begin to deteriorate as soon as they are put
into service; poor maintenance hastens this process. And studies show that roughly three-fourths
of all unplanned production shutdowns are due to human errors.
Why Reliability?
Ideally, electricity should be available to every customer all the time, no exceptions. But the
scenario is different in the real world. So we tend to measure number of times the outage occurs
which is inversely proportional to reliability. For exact formula, you can refer any power System
book, i have just given you a simple explanation.
Example:
Reliability is more in urban cities in india like Mumbai, Bangalore,chennai etc whereas it is lower
in many rural areas where frequent power cuts happen leading lesser reliability.
The task of power system is to provide all customers with continuous, quality qualified electricity.
Power system reliability, can list into 2 kind:
1. Adequacy- The former refers to the power system has enough power generation capacity
and enough transmission capacity, at any time can satisfy the requirement of the user on
peak, characterization of the steady state performance of power grid;
2. Safety- refers to the power system in the safety of the accident situation and avoid a
chain reaction and won't cause out of control and the ability of blackouts.
This Requires elaboration, for which I don’t have time now. However, please note, although
reliability and power quality are somewhat related, they are really two separate issues. The simplest
definition for reliability is power that's there when it's needed. Power quality can be defined as the
degree to which power supplied by the utility conforms to "pure" sinusoidal waveforms of exactly
60 cycles(or 50 cycles) per second.
The availability factor of a power plant is the amount of time that it is able to produce electricity
over a certain period, divided by the amount of the time in the period. Occasions where only partial
capacity is available may or may not be deducted.