Prevent Arc Flash by Simultaneous Suppression with Phaseback VSGR
The Phaseback VSGR (Voltage Stabilizing Ground Reference) provides Simultaneous Protection for all electrical equipment on the system it is connected to.
The Phaseback VSGR is the only power quality device in the world which operates at the speed of current flow.
The Phaseback VSGR offers numerous benefits, most importantly, the prevention of arc flash events before they can occur.
Written by William Hinton, Dan Princinsky, CY Cates
Conventional Arc Flash Solutions Are Not Acceptable
Today, prevailing opinion states that mitigation is an electrician’s best option when looking to prevent arc flash event. Commonly proposed solutions include “fast-acting” relays whose purpose is to de-energize the circuit breaker, hopefully mitigating the arc flash event.
In consideration of employee safety, this “fast-acting” approach is not fast enough and cannot guarantee results. Arc flash events must be prevented or instantly suppressed. This requires a device that can correct power quality problems without any delay.
Voltage Control: Why It Matters
In order to adequately resolve power quality problem such as arc flash events, the solution must operate fast enough to engage simultaneously with the cause and effect of the problem. Otherwise, the power system is forever a step behind, and true event prevention is not achieved.
Electrical engineers are familiar with conventional transient voltage surge suppression (TVSS) devices. These devices attempt to control voltage imbalances by redirecting the associated current to ground, which results in a delayed drop in voltage. This surge of current can cause other problems: current flows through the path of least resistance, which could be the ground connection of variable speed drives, operator terminals, or control systems such as PLCs.
Fast-acting relays, mentioned earlier, operate on the same basis as TVSS: they attempt to diminish the consequences of a problem after it’s already happened.
Because voltage causes current and not vice versa, it is obvious that controlling voltage is a faster and more effective means of correcting issues with power quality. The Phaseback VSGR uses voltage control, and via laboratory testing and multiple field applications, it has been proven to prevent arc flash events from occurring. Click here to see the KEMA test report in pdf form.
While current-driven devices counter a voltage imbalance with a separate and disproportionate current imbalance, the Phaseback VSGR corrects phase voltage imbalances using the energy caused by the voltage imbalance, also known as event energy.
By using the energy of the event, Phaseback VSGR uses thousandths of an amp instead of the hundreds or thousands of amps used by other inferior methods. The energy supplied from the high phase voltage is directed 180 degrees out of phase with the low phase voltage. This is back voltage: a
quantity of voltage supplied back into the low voltage phase. It is this voltage- driven approach that allows the Phaseback VSGR to correct power quality problems simultaneously as they manifest.
When phase voltages are balanced with the Phaseback VSGR, the power system enjoys numerous benefits not available from any other power quality
product. The Phaseback VSGR will simultaneously suppress the following events automatically, reliably, and economically:
• Arc flash events
• Voltage imbalance
• Voltage harmonics
• Transient voltage spikes
There exists only one product that has been proven to prevent and suppress power quality problems. The Phaseback VSGR from Applied Energy, LLC is the world’s only laboratory-tested, industrially-hardened, energy-saving, energy-efficient, future proof, harmonic noise eliminating, ground fault/arc flash preventing, lightning arresting, EMP mitigating system.
If Phaseback isn’t already installed in your facility, ask your manager: Why not?