Analysis using virtual instrumentation of

perturbations induced in the network to supply a

consumer from a UPS
Maria Cristina Nițu, Claudiu Nicola, Viorica Voicu, Sebastian Popescu, Marcel Nicola
Research, Development Division for Electric Equipment and Energy Efficiency
National Institute for Research, Development and Testing in Electrical Engineering - ICMET
Craiova, România
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract—This paper presents the virtual instrument used to equipment heating and increasing the possibility for
monitor and analyze the behavior of Uninterruptible Power interference. Harmonic frequencies are integral multiples of the
Supplies (UPS) system. The monitoring system includes: Hall primary supply frequency; for example, for a frequency of 50
effect sensors, data acquisition board, the LabVIEW Hz, third order harmonic will have a frequency of 150 Hz, and
environment and PC host. fifth order harmonic will have a frequency of 250 Hz [18],
The applications enable the equipment to perform the [19].
functions of digital scope and analyze the following parameters:
harmonic content, total harmonic distortion THD, RMS value, Since the disturbance caused by harmonics result in power
positive peak value, negative peak value. loss, premature ageing of equipment and even damage, it is
necessary to perform their analysis to determine the total
Keywords—UPS system, Total Harmonic Distortion, Data harmonic distortion THD allowing adoption of optimum
Acquisition, Virtual Instrumentation solutions to remedy any possible critical situations.
Starting from the concepts listed above, in this work we
I. INTRODUCTION conducted the analysis of disturbance in case of power supply
In an ideal – perfectly clean – power system, the shape of to a consumer with an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) [12-
voltage and current curves is perfectly sinusoidal, but in 15].
practice non-sinusoidal currents occur if load is non-linear in
relation to applied voltage. There are times when power supply cannot be achieved
from a conventional source due to drops in voltage on longer
In case there is disturbance (distortion) while energizing a duration of time, and in case of unexpected outages [5], the
consumer from a voltage supply, current passing through the secondary power supply can be achieved using uninterruptible
circuit in question increases sharply, reaching values which power supplies (UPS).
may cause, in addition to power losses, damage to equipment
in the circuit. Increased harmonics lead to deflection of Uninterruptible power sources are used on large scale as
waveforms both in the current and the voltage. standby power in case of usage power outage, e.g. computers,
medical/life care equipment, and communication systems.
Harmonic currents are the product of non-linear load, such
as: In general, the function of a UPS is to generate high-quality
low distortion alternating current voltage, notably in the case of
a) Single phase loads non-linear loads or sudden load changes.
• switching power supplies (Switched mode power The UPS system is characterized by a high harmonic
supplies-SMPS); distortion factor (THD) [11], [12] in the case of nonlinear
loads, even if filtered, real output voltage may still produce
• electronic ballasts for fluorescent lamps;
distortion due to the fact that nonlinear load is injected into the
• small units of uninterruptible power supply (UPS- harmonic current.
Uninterruptible power supplies). In the power system, the variation form of voltages and
b) Three-phase loads: currents is not sinusoidal because of both the constructive
imperfections of generators and the non-linear behavior of
• drive with variable speed; some circuit elements. This function rating is called deformant
• large UPS units. rating and it is characterized by harmonic distortions:
continuous components, harmonics, interharmonics,
Currents with high harmonic content [1] occur at commutation impulses, noises.
frequencies higher than the supply frequency (50 Hz), causing

978-1-4673-8562-6/16/$31.00©2016 European Union

 A virtual instrument consists of a PC host equipped with - Single channel maximum 250 kS/s;
powerful application software, cost-effective hardware such as
plug-in boards, and driver software, which together perform the - DAC resolution 16 bits;
functions of traditional instruments. Virtual instruments - Timing resolution 50 ns;
represent a fundamental shift from traditional hardware-
centered instrumentation systems to software-centered systems - Input range ±0.2 V, ±1 V, ±5 V, ±10 V DC.
that exploit the computing power, productivity, display, and For on-line measurement of voltage and current signals [3],
connectivity capabilities of popular PC host. we will use Hall effect sensors that are based on the Hall effect,
LabVIEW is an integral part of virtual instrumentation which is the ideal solution for this type of measurements.
because it provides an easy-to-use application development The Hall element [20] is made of a thin plate of conductive
environment designed specifically with the needs of engineers material. The output connections for these transducers are
and scientists in mind. LabVIEW offers powerful features that carried out perpendicularly to the direction of the current flow
make is easy to connect to a wide variety of hardware and other and under the influence of a magnetic field, the current
software. generates an output voltage proportional to the magnetic field
strength. The voltage output is generally very low in the range
II. SYSTEM HARDWARE DESCRIPTION of microvolts and additional electronics are required for useful
output levels. A Hall Effect sensor is achieved by combining
The main hardware components of the monitoring system
the Hall element with the associated electronics. The integrated
are the data acquisition systems (DAQ). DAQ acts as the
circuit chip containing the Hall element and the signal
interface between the computer and the outside world. It
conditioning circuit diagram is the core of every Hall Effect
primarily functions as a device that digitizes incoming analog
device [2].
signals so that the computer can interpret them. The design of a
DAQ is influenced by the number of signals to be monitored, Both the current and the voltage transducers have as output
their variation speed, the need for input signal conditioning, the scalable signals in DC voltage for the analog input for the data
precision and resolution of analogic-digital conversion, the real acquisition systems. The current and voltage transducers used
time processing capabilities of the system and the cost. in the virtual instrument are externally powered by a ±15V
power supply.
The hardware components of the monitoring system are:
• voltage transducer LEM LV 25-P; III. SYSTEM SOFTWARE DESCRIPTION
• current transducer LEM LA 55-P; Software is the most important component of a virtual
instrument. We decided to use LabVIEW graphical
• DAQ NI USB-6229; programming [6], [8] developed by National Instruments. It is
• PC host. a powerful and versatile analysis and instrumentation software
system for measurement and automation.
The block diagram is presented in Fig. 1.
LabVIEW is designed to facilitate data collection and
analysis, and provides many display options. With data
collection, analysis and display combined into a flexible
programming environment, the PC host functions as a
dedicated measurement device. LabVIEW contains a
comprehensive set of VIs and functions for acquiring,
analyzing, displaying, and storing data, as well as tools to help
us troubleshoot our code [7].
The two LabVIEW windows are the front panel (containing
controls and indicators) and block diagram (containing
terminals, connections and graphical code). The front panel is
the user interface of the virtual instrument. The code is built
using graphical representations of functions to control the front
panel objects. The block diagram contains this graphical source
code [7].
The main input signals into the program were two sine
waves, one for the voltage and one for the current of phase of
Fig. 1. The block diagram of the monitoring system
the transformer. For each of these voltage and current signals
we calculate Total Harmonic Distortion, harmonics, RMS
The main characteristics of the NI USB-6229 DAQ that we value, positive peak value, negative peak value, power supply
used are the following: frequency, power factor, active power, reactive power, on-line
apparent power.
- 32 analog inputs, 4 analog outputs, 48 digital I/O, and 32
bits counters;
 To calculate the full harmonic analysis, the fundamental IV. MEASUREMENT RESULT
frequency modulation, harmonics, the fundamental frequency, As a result of on-line measurements carried out on the
all harmonic amplitude levels, and the total harmonic distortion proposed circuit, the disturbances generated by uninterruptible
(THD) we use the harmonic distortion analyzer VI. power source (UPS) could be determined. In the first stage on-
The application software has an option for storing the data line measurements were carried out when the consumer was
that we calculate. Data files are important and we save the powered directly from the network, and in the second stage, the
measurements data to a text file and we have the possibility of measurements were performed when the consumer was
setting the writing time. powered by a UPS.
The software interface of the monitoring system is In the first stage sine waves were achieved, and in the
presented in Fig. 2. second stage high disturbance occurred (high harmonic
content) which distorts both current and voltage waveforms.
The software interface for analyzing the voltage and current Distortions of waveforms resulting from the UPS are
THD, and allows the comparison of data recorded on the considered as disturbance in power quality.
consumer supply with and without UPS is presented in Fig. 3.
In case the circuit to be analyzed is energized directly from
the power supply, it reaches a voltage of approx. 220 V AC and
a current of 2.17 A, see Fig. 4 and 5.

Fig. 2. The software interface of the monitoring system

Fig. 4. The voltage signal.

Fig. 3. The software interface for analyzing the voltage and current THD Fig. 5. The current signal.
 In Fig. 6 and 7 we can observe the current and voltage When supplying the consumer with a UPS, major
harmonics, which reached lower values, and they cannot disturbances occur both in current and voltage (See Fig. 9 and
disrupt current and voltage waveform. The Fig. 8 shows the 10). Current and voltage harmonics exceeding the value of
time evolution of THD [%], THD of the current registers 40% can be observed in Fig. 11 and 12. The Fig. 13 presents
values up to 1.21 and the maximum THD of the voltage is of the time evolution of THD of [%],THD of the current registers
1.22. values up to 32.33 and the maximum THD of the voltage is of
32.99.

Fig. 6. THD and voltage harmonics.

Fig. 9. The voltage signal.

Fig. 7. THD and current harmonics.

Fig. 10. The current signal.

Fig. 8. The evolution of the voltage and current THD. Fig. 11. THD and voltage harmonics.
 transformers, particular operating conditions of transmission
lines.
This method is a low cost solution in comparison with
using a power analyzer and our solution is based on LabVIEW
and has a lot of capabilities for data processing and storage,
and for comparative analysis.
To solve the practical problems of AC circuits, it is
necessary to use the same digital instruments with an
adequate hardware and software. The implementation of
applications into the LabVIEW graphical programming
environment, has been achieved based on theoretical
aspects and experimental results in the laboratory using
accurate devices.

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