Analysing electrical power quality simply and reliably – In certified power quality analysis, new features pay off

Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)

Especially when making power quality measurements with a portable device, it is not uncom-mon for the supply voltage to be briefly interrupted. This often occurs for trivial reasons which, however, can influence measurement results significantly. For example, the power plug might fall out of the socket or be unplugged by mistake. If this happens during an EN50160-compliant measurement campaign for example, which normally lasts 7 days, the measurement result may contain gaps. For this reason, the newly integrated UPS in the LINAX PQ5000-MOBILE can easily outlast a power cut of 5 x 3 minutes. So, if there is a power failure, it provides enough time to reconnect the power plug to the socket while the measuring device continues to record without interruption. And the battery life is approx. 3-5 years.

So now, all LINAX PQ series power quality analysers can be optionally equipped with a UPS

Remote access via secure connection

We increasingly find in applications that measurements made with portable devices are also being made as part of a remote process. This entails not only having a qualified person on site to carry out the measurement on the electrical installation but also someone else, who may be located somewhere quite different, starts and ends the measurement series and saves the measurement data via Internet somewhere in the world. And so, this poses the question of how to implement this type of application securely.

To support this, Camille Bauer Metrawatt has introduced secure gateway access with a SIM card. This enables measurements to be carried out remotely at any time and from anywhere through the VPN tunnel. In addition, real-time data, for example from the event recorder, ener-gy flow data, interim reports, alarms etc., can be safely viewed at any time, thus leading to ear-ly detection of mains power quality. In addition, the compliance reports, for example according to EN50160, can be generated without external software. Last but not least, the measurement data can be easily backed up to another location using the VPN connection.

Programmable event recording duration

In addition to the existing standards, customers are increasingly requesting individual parame-ters and results for evaluating and analysing power quality data. This has led Camille Bauer Metrawatt AG to introduce several new functions.

The time-based monitoring of the statistical conformity assessment, for example according to EN50160, IEC61000-2-2, GB/T, IEEE519, customer-specific protocol etc., can now be parametrized down to 10-minute periods. This also allows short-term monitoring of the power quality based on existing standards. To make events even more readable, in future users will be able to configure the output graphics with reference to a programmable recording period. This includes the RMS values ½ ≤1s before and ≤180s after the triggering of a PQ event. In addition, the sample values of ≤1s before and ≤5s after triggering can be parametrized. The events can then be zoomed directly in the web browser and allow the relevant values to be read even better in a higher resolution.

All the above-mentioned properties can be entered easily in a user-friendly manner directly on the display of the LINAX PQ device (if display is available). It is even easier to do this directly in the integrated web browser using a PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone. And all this without the need for complex and costly additional software.

IT security through specific protective measures

New protection mechanisms have been introduced to reduce threats such as data theft, data manipulation and misuse. These include role-based access rights which prevent unwanted access to various functions, views and data. Consequently, users only receive the rights need-ed to perform their specific activities.

The "Audit Log" function logs additional security-relevant processes and stores them securely on a system logger. Furthermore, the Syslog protocol can be used to transfer the contents of the audit log to a central server for network monitoring. The access authorization can also be restricted to up to 10 computers with access rights.

The web-based device access can also take place via an https channel. Here, messages are encrypted and decrypted with the help of a certificate. The certificate is provided by Camille Bauer Metrawatt or alternatively a customer certificate can be used.

Taken together, these specific protective measures guarantee a high degree of security and while still ensuring the greatest possible variability in the applications.