To most people, the world of power and energy efficiency can seem intimidating. The power landscape contains hundreds of terms, acronyms and data that can take years to learn and understand. For this reason, building owners who don’t have easy access to an energy expert are often unaware of how much dirty power and disturbances affect their bottom line.

Power disturbances are quick and often go undetected, but their effects can harm businesses for years. A majority of power disturbances last for less than one second and occur without immediate notice. Equipment malfunctions, downtime and high utility charges are just a few examples of the setbacks that disturbances can cause.

Below is a quick list of the ways power disturbances can affect your company’s bottom line.

Stopped Production Time

One of the most financially damaging events businesses can experience is production downtime. In some instances, just one hour of production downtime is equivalent to losing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Coupled with employees who are unable to be productive, downtime can affect a business in more ways than one. Power disturbances are known to be one of the primary causes of production machines stopping when they aren’t scheduled to because of their impact on equipment’s power sources.

 

Interruptions and sags are examples of power disturbances that are quick, but can create long downtimes. Interruptions and sags are caused by a number of factors, including the startup of large motors and faults caused by the facility or the utility.

Increased Utility Bills

High utility bills are costs that almost every business faces during their lifetime – especially in Michigan. Lowering utility bills is a goal everyone would like to work toward and achieve to reach some additional savings. Even with the implementation of energy savings strategies, most of the time there are more opportunities for reduction.
 
Some of the biggest energy wasters are inefficient machines. Production machines, assembly equipment and HVAC/lighting are often the culprits of high energy consumption because of their constant use throughout the day. When machines face frequent power disturbances, they become more electrically demanding, which lead to higher utility charges.

Shorter Equipment Life

Equipment that unexplainably falls short of the promised lifecycle is an obstacle that wastes time and resources. Making the financial commitment to purchase equipment that ends up having to be repaired or replaced sooner than expected is can be frustrating. Maintaining equipment’s health is crucial to create long life cycles. Part of this maintenance includes making sure the power that is fueling equipment is clean.
 
Transients, swells, harmonics and overvoltage are a few power disturbances that create dirty power and shorter equipment lifespan.

Power Loss

Unexpected power outages can throw off an entire work day. Without power, it is nearly impossible for employees to complete their day-to-day tasks and stay productive. Along with downtime, power failure can lead to the loss of important data stored in production equipment and computers. If computers without proper backup suddenly lose power, the information they were processing during the time of the power loss could disappear. Interruptions and sags are commonly associated with power loss.
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to learn more about how power disturbances are affecting your bottom line, or visit our power metering page to discover how you can monitor and prevent these events.