IEEE 1584 · Engineering

Harmonic Study and Analysis in Portugal | Carelabs Experts

Harmonic distortion doesn't announce itself — it shows up as unexplained equipment failures, nuisance breaker trips, or metering errors long before anyone thinks to check power quality. Carelabs detects and quantifies it in Portuguese facilities using a harmonics analyser, then models system impedance versus frequency to identify resonance risk. Every engagement concludes with an RTIEBT-aligned report package, with mitigation recommendations — harmonic filters, relocated power-factor correction capacitance, or higher-pulse-number rectifiers — where needed.

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The failures that keep returning

Harmonic distortion rarely presents as a power quality problem. It presents as a maintenance budget: capacitors replaced again, a transformer running hot, breakers that trip for no traceable reason.

What We Deliver

Diagnosis from the failure pattern

The investigation starts from what keeps breaking. Repeated capacitor failure, warm neutrals and unexplained tripping each point at distortion in a recognisable way, and each is normally treated as an unrelated component problem.

WHY IT MATTERS

Paying repeatedly for one fault

The common pattern is replacing the capacitors, replacing them again, then uprating the transformer. Each is a capital decision taken without the measurement that would have justified it or avoided it entirely.

Neutral conductor loading checked on four-wire distribution, since triplen harmonics add rather than cancel and can exceed phase current in a conductor sized on the opposite assumption.
Transformer thermal position assessed against measured distortion rather than against RMS loading alone, which understates the heating substantially.
Measurement logged across a representative operating period, because distortion follows load and a snapshot answers the wrong question.
Voltage and current distortion both reported, since one describes what your equipment endures and the other what you inject into the network.
Protective device behaviour examined where tripping is unexplained, as electronic trip units and residual current devices respond to a waveform their measurement does not assume.

DELIVERABLES

What you receive

Issued against RTIEBT and the applicable distortion limits, with the measurement basis and any uncertainty stated.

1Measured voltage and current distortion with the full harmonic spectrum
2Attribution by feeder showing which loads produce which orders
3Transformer derating assessment, expressed as usable capacity
4Frequency scan identifying resonance points and the margin to each
5Mitigation options costed against the failures they would actually prevent

Reach Out

How the study runs

Start from the failures

We collect the maintenance history: what has failed, how often, and what was replaced. That record usually contains the diagnosis before any instrument is connected.

Place the instruments

Measurement is taken at the point of supply for the overall position and at feeders serving the equipment that keeps failing.

Log a representative period

Recording covers the real operating cycle, including the low-load periods when capacitor stages switch and behaviour changes noticeably.

Model and scan

The network is built in ETAP and a frequency scan locates resonance, which determines which mitigation is safe and which would worsen matters.

Attribute and quantify

Responsible loads are identified from the spectrum and the cost of the present situation is quantified in derating and replacement terms.

Report and options

Mitigation is presented against the specific failures it prevents, so the spend can be compared with the cost of continuing as now.

Frequently asked questions

It is the first thing to check. Capacitors present low impedance at higher frequencies and absorb harmonic current they were never rated for, and where the bank resonates with the supply transformer the amplification is severe. Replacing it with an identical unit without measuring usually means paying for the same failure a third time.

Harmonic currents produce eddy current losses that rise roughly with the square of harmonic order, so distorted load heats a transformer far more than the same RMS current at fundamental frequency would. A unit at seventy percent of nameplate running at full-load temperature is usually describing its harmonic environment.

Usually. Line reactors or DC link chokes fitted at the drives reduce injected current at source and are far cheaper than replacing the equipment. Where resonance rather than emission is the problem, detuning reactors on the capacitor bank address it without touching the loads at all. Which applies is a modelling result.

That is a valuable outcome and a fairly common one. It stops further spending on filters and capacitor replacement, and redirects the investigation toward the actual cause of the recurring fault, which is often a protection setting, an equipment immunity issue or a mechanical problem.

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