From the category archives: Power Systems

Power systems theory - generation, transmissions and distribution

Star-Delta Motor Starting - Performance

By Steven McFadyen on 7/10/2014 3:51 PM

Many questions sent in to the site are in connection with motor starting and in particular star-delta.  For all but the simplest application, there is merit in performing a more detailed study.&... read more..


How a Digital Substation Works

By Steven McFadyen on 3/2/2014 12:06 PM

Traditionally substations have used circuit breakers, current transformers (CT), voltage transformers (VT) and protection relays all wired together using copper cables.  With advances in digital... read more..


RLC Circuit, Resistor Power Loss - some Modelica experiments

By Steven McFadyen on 1/20/2014 1:32 PM

Modelica is an open source (free) software language for modelling complex systems. Having never used it before, I thought I would download a development platform and see how it stacked up.  This... read more..


Harmonised Cable Codes and Colours

By Steven McFadyen on 8/28/2013 2:17 PM

Within Europe the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) has standardised the both the designation and colour of cables.   These are published in CENELEC document... read more..


UPS - Uninterruptible Power Supply

By Steven McFadyen on 8/21/2013 3:21 PM

A UPS is an uninterruptible power supply.  It is a device which maintains a continuous supply of electrical power, even in the event of failure of the mains (utility) supply.  A UPS is inst... read more..


Cables for MV Power Distribution - Earthed versus Unearthed Systems

By Jeson Pitt on 8/12/2013 12:37 PM

Power cables can basically be classified into earthed and unearthed cables, where earthed and unearthed refer to the application for which the cable is used. Earthed system refers to a three phase syste... read more..


Photovoltaic (PV) - Electrical Calculations

By Steven McFadyen on 7/11/2013 2:46 PM

Photovoltaic (PV) cells (sometimes called solar cells) convert solar energy into electrical energy.  Every year more and more PV systems are installed.  With this growing application, it's ... read more..


Fire Resistant and Fire Retardant Cables

By Steven McFadyen on 7/4/2013 1:31 PM

Fire resistant and fire retardant cable sheaths are design to resist combustion and limit the propagation of flames. Low smokes cables have a sheath designed to limit the amount of smoke and toxic ha... read more..


Capacitors - Energy Storage Application

By Steven McFadyen on 6/29/2013 8:24 PM

Capacitors have numerous applications in electrical and electronic applications.  This note examines the use of capacitors to store electrical energy.  The sidebar shows details of a typical c... read more..


Introduction to Cathodic Protection

By Steven McFadyen on 4/25/2013 12:53 PM

If two dissimilar metals are touching and an external conducting path exists, corrosion of one the metals can take place.  Moisture or other materials acting as an electrolyte between the metals... read more..


Frame Leakage Protection

By Steven McFadyen on 4/18/2013 1:12 PM

While not as popular as it once was, frame leakage protection does still have some use in some circumstances.  In essence frame leakage is an earth fault type protection.  A current transfo... read more..


What is Aircraft Ground Power

By Steven McFadyen on 4/11/2013 12:53 PM

Ever wondered what kind of power an aircraft uses when parked at the airport stand.

Normally the aircraft generates it own power, but when parked with the engines switched off power provided ... read more..


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Network Theory – Introduction and Review

In electrical engineering, Network Theory is the study of how to solve circuit problems. By analyzing circuits, the engineer looks to determine the various...

Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC)

Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) is the study of coordinating electromagnetic fields give off equipment, with the withstand (compatibility) of other...

Robotics - Home Innovations

We have a sister note to this (Robots - Interesting Video), in which I have posted some videos of interesting robots developed by commercial corporations...

Sony Pocket eBook Reader

For the past few years I have reading eBooks on my HTC touch phone. On and off I have debated buying an eReader and recently purchased a Sony PRS-300 ...

UPS Battery Sizing

Various techniques exist to enable the correct selection of batteries for UPS applications.  The procedure described below is one of the more common. ...

Introduction to Cathodic Protection

If two dissimilar metals are touching and an external conducting path exists, corrosion of one the metals can take place.  Moisture or other materials...

Famous Scientists

Here’s list of some famous scientists. Deliberately short, with the aim to provide a quick memory jog or overview. If your looking for more detailed information...

Restricted Earth Fault Protection

The windings of many medium and small sized transformers are protected by restricted earth fault (REF) systems. The illustration shows the principal of...

Generation of a Sine Wave

A fundamental concept behind the operation of alternating current systems is that voltage and current waveforms will be sinusoidal – a Sine Wave. This...

Tip – Latitude and Longitude on Large Scale Plans

If you are working on a large plan, get the real coordinates [latitude, longitude] for two or more points and add them to the drawing. That way you can...

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