Maintenance Technology May 2017 - 40

SOLUTION FOCUS

NuEra's Ken Dodds uses the Fluke 3540 FC three-phase power monitor to track three-phase systems at his client's plants. The monitor
sends the data stream to cloud-based servers for analysis.

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power factor (PF)
total harmonic distortion voltage (%)
total harmonic distortion current (%)
harmonic content current (A).
The information is streamed from the Fluke 3540 FC
to secure cloud servers where the measurements can be
analyzed with the Fluke Connect mobile app or Fluke
Condition Monitoring desktop software. Graphs show trends
and fluctuations during the monitoring period. Dodds sets
up alarms to indicate when the power is outside certain
thresholds.
Monitoring the data gives Dodds a signature of the
building, from the main feeders and on into critical pieces
of equipment. "First, it lets us know where best to attack the
building to make changes, or see if we can fix something
upfront," he said. "We look at kilowatts, we monitor the
voltage, we look at use times. We can tell if the loading is off
on different legs of the three phase, important because if it's
not uniform, you're going to have issues."

Easily shared, reliable data
The data is useful to a wide range of workers. "The powermonitoring system not only educates our electricians to a
problem," Dodds stated. "If I'm worried about a motor or
another big expensive piece of equipment, I can see trend
graphs on what's happening with the machine on my tablet
or phone."
Dodds connected a Fluke 3540 FC at one manufacturing

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MAINTENANCE TECHNOLOGY

plant recently so he could watch, in real time, the power
going into the building, as well as the power going back to
the grid from the solar system. "This is really valuable to me,
especially for knowing what happened to the power I sent
back to the utility. That is what they are paying my customer
for so it's verifying that," he explained. "If my data shows I'm
sending 15 kilowatts and the utility only shows 5 kilowatts, I
can question that and we can figure what's going on."
Recently, the system allowed him to identify energy waste.
"I discovered the other day a compressor was kicking on in
the middle of the night. I called the building supervisor to
see if anyone was working at that time. He said no, so we
knew having the compressor on was a waste of money. You
are paying for air to go leak around the plant. So these are
some of the types of savings we find."
The 3540 also provides power-factor data, a measure
of real and apparent power, which can be a reason for the
demand charges being high. "The convenience of monitoring
energy consumption from anywhere is huge," Dodds said. "I
can use it in the car, when I'm on a roof or in the office or at
the coffee shop or at home, wherever. My phone goes whoop
whoop, when an alarm goes off. I check and I know what an
asset is doing. It only takes a second to look at and read it.
From anywhere, you can answer a text or send an e-mail. It's
exciting to see it develop." MT
For more about the Fluke 3540 FC monitor, supporting
software, and cloud-based data handling, visit fluke.com.
MAY 2017

http://www.fluke.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Maintenance Technology May 2017