Power Quality In Electricity - How It Affects Us

Hello Friends. A ku ipalemo odun (Compliments of the season). 

My post today is to share knowledge about a concept that affects everyone as users of electricity- power quality. 

The issue of power quality is quite familiar, especially if you live in Nigeria, as it constitutes one of the problems Discos, and in turn their customers, grapple with, resulting from poor power infrastructure. 

Power quality is the ability of distribution companies (NEPA in local parlance) to distribute standard electric current to their customers. By this I mean supply of electric current that is neither too full nor too low for the consumption of their customers. It results directly from efficient planning, investment on and distribution of power infrastructure by Discos such as transformers, distribution lines, buffer/shock system and others that adds quality to the supply offered to customers.

Whenever you experience low current in your house, it is the result of low power quality supplied by the transformer attached to your area which is an indication that the transformer is either faulty or overloaded. The loss at such times cannot be captured in real economic times because electrical appliances with high power demand like air conditioner, iron, washing machine, micro wave machine and others will not work efficiently. Aside the redundancy it promotes, low current have adverse effect on the life span of electrical appliances, reducing it by half. 

I look forward to the time Nigeria will stop recording instances of tragedy resulting from overloaded transformer and economic loss resulting from low power quality. We can encourage its proximity by sharing the knowledge until every consumer of electricity gets the awareness and know what standard to request from their sellers of power. 

Switch off the power when not in use of it this yuletide and perhaps Negawatt Santa could sneak you a gift this xmas.

See you soon.

WSO