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What is the power system reliability?

Study of power systems forms a vast and major portion of elect. engg. studies. It is
mainly concerned with the production of electrical power and its transmission from the
sending end to the receiving end as per consumer requirements, incurring a minimum
amount of losses. The power at the consumer end often changes due to the variation of
load or due to disturbances induced within the length of transmission line. For this
reason, the term Power System Stability is of utmost importance in this field. It is used
to define the ability of the of the system to bring back its operation to steady state
condition within a minimum possible time after having undergone any transience or
disturbance in the line.

Power system reliability refers to the ability of a power system to provide adequate, stable,
reliable power to a given distribution. If you were a plant engineer, it would encompass the
ability of the connected grid to supply the voltage you need, the power you need, and also
include whatever backup systems you had for when the grid went down.

It is the result of statistical calculation of the failure rates of all the components in it.

Why should we study power system reliability?


1. The reliability of every power system may not be particularly important. However, some of
them are critical. Hospitals, Data Centers, Emergency egress lighting, Financial institutes, to
name a few. There are many others where life, money, treasure, or just people’s comfort and
wellbeing depend on electrical power. Designers of power systems that support these types of
facilities need ways to evaluate their designs to assure they meet appropriate reliability levels.
This requires knowledge and knowledge requires study.

2. The electric grid is fundamental to modern society. Without it, much of society would
fail and breakdown. Therefore, it is essential to maintain the reliability of the electric
grid under all situations. We study power systems reliability to learn how to prevent
power outages and blackouts, and increase system reliability.

So much of society runs on electricity. From storing food, to communicating with family,
to performing financial transactions, nearly every facet of modern life depends on
electricity. It is a central and fundamental pillar to all of society. Imagine what would
happen if you lost power for a day, then a week, then a month or longer. It would be
chaos.

So the study of power system reliability is essential and in my opinion can be quite
interesting. There are numerous organizations that focus on power system reliability
from an operational perspective (utilities and system operators) to a regulatory
perspective (state public utility commissions and NERC). Someone needs to study and
make reliability their business, like we do at ERCOT, in order to ensure the grid is
reliable and providing power to society.

3. Short answer
Because people and businesses nowadays need power to maintain modern day
expectations and operations.
Long answer
We should study power system reliability because so many things depend on having a
reliable power source.

Some examples include but are not limited to:

 Hospitals
o Especially persons on life support
 Banks
 Communication centers.
o if your Internet or phone service provider had an unreliable power center, then
you would have unreliable internet or phone service in the area.
o If you play a critical role in the saving of lives, you would want/need your cell
phone to communicate on the network when you need it
 Cryptocurrency calculators
 Facebook
 Google
 Traffic lights
 Airplane navigation systems that communicate with airport towers
 NASA
 SpaceX
 The government
 FBI
 Federal Reserve
 Any company that does online business
 Any person that does online business
 Schools and universities
 Package carriers and deliverers
 Airports
 Gas stations
Even my response to your question is dependent, because this computer could go into
an unknown power state and kill the hard drive (and the operating system) due to a
short brown-out.

The brown-out could have been caused by persons who did not make sure their power
generation, transmission and/or distribution systems were not reliable.

It could also be no fault of the designers of the power system, either. It could be a
squirrel creating a short circuit on the power line or a lightning strike.

Even then, power system reliability is even more important to study and know - to be
able to deal with unexpected (or expected) events, because people need power to
maintain modern day expectations and operations.

4. I can think of three. There are certainly more.

1.) Everything in your life depends on electricity. Just think about it for a minute or two.
How many aspects of your existence require reliable power? The answer is almost
everything. Your job, your healthcare, your entertainment, and your nourishment all
depend on power reliability in some form or another. Extend this importance to every
other person in the developed world and you begin to see the picture.

2.) Prominence in future affairs for undeveloped areas. In the undeveloped world it is
absolutely necessary a nation create for itself a reliable power system before they plan to
move into modernity. In some ways, this is an advantage areas like Sub-Saharan Africa
have that America lacks. The U.S. already has an infrastructure that’s well aged. Placing
new and interesting technology on top of that is proving to be difficult without some
major system over-hauling. Sub-Saharan Africa doesn’t have this problem. Should they
decide on a course of action to electrify rural Africa, they’ll do so with over a hundred
years of trial-and-error proven methods on the books and a world-wide wealth of freely
available knowledge at their disposal. They’ll have access to the new technologies
without the headache of retrofitting to an aged system.

3.) Continued knowledge dispersion. This ties into the first point, but it’s important
enough to warrant its own. The internet is the single most powerful ally to future
advancement and has provided a way for everyone in the developed world to access
information on any topic they can imagine. The loss of the internet would affect society
in ways I don’t think can be fully understood anymore. It is as ubiquitous as is electricity
in the lives of most Americans and without electricity there would be no internet.

With those three points in mind, I think the answer is fairly clear: Without electricity,
modern life would cease; and losing access to it, even momentarily, disrupts the whole
flow of any individual's day. Surely finding ways to make electric power more reliable
should be studied.

5, Real simple to me, anyone, anywhere, should be trying to find better ways and different
equiptment to improve efficiency and reliability in our power systems. More people and more
homes come on line every day needing more and better quality power. Some equiptment used by
persons working from home are very sensitive to small inconsistancies in power. That home
work force seems to grow larger each year.

6. In order to develop a more robust, reliable and dependable power source.

What are the advantages & disadvantages of DC in


power systems?
1. Dc transmission is preferred for long distance bulk power transmission..to have asynchronous
interconnection also we use hvdc links..In underground systems also inorder to reduce charging
currents we can use hvdc links..
advantages start with security..with deregulation in power sector..threats to security also
increase with hvdc security can be enhanced..fault currents can be controlled by firing angle
control..
Disadvantages are absence of transformers..costly hvdc circuit breakers..rectifier n inverter
stations require filters..reactive power sources.

2. If you are asking for HVDC transmission, then there are many things to know between
ac and DC transmission.
HVDC transmission is used when bulk amount of power need to be transmitted over the
long distance power lines. This is because in case of DC transmission, the capital cost is
very high, so in order to have profit, you need to have very high voltage long
transmission which, on the long run term, makes profit. Normally it is used at
transmission voltages of 765 KV or above.
The advantages of HVDC transmission are :

 The number of conductors required, mainly one or two, is less as compared to


ac transmission ( normally having three conductors).
 Smaller towers are required in HVDC as compared to the tall towers of AC
transmission.
 Fault clearance is faster in HVDC which provides improved transient stability.
It is due to the absence of reactive elements in DC.
 Skin effect doesn't exist in DC. So size of conductor in DC transmission is
greatly reduced.
 Two AC systems at different frequencies can be interconnected through HVDC
transmission lines.
 In case of underground cable, DC transmission is preferred as it requires no
charging current and any reactive power.
The disadvantages are :

 Additional cost of converter and inverter


 Harmonics generated in both supply and load sides due to the use of electronic
equipment like rectifier and inverter.
 Absence of transformer to modify voltage levels.
But the advantages of HVDC over disadvantages are greater in case of long transmission
line of bulk power requirements.
That's why HVDC is used for bulk power transmission as compared to AC transmission.

3. This is a bit outside of my area, but one obvious thing is that it's easier to transform AC to
higher voltages (meaning lower currents), which causes less losses in the power grid. On the
other hand, once you have a high voltage, it's more energy efficient to transport that as DC over
long distances, compared to AC.
So it is a balance between how much power you waste by doing AC/DC and DC/AC conversions
versus how much you lose by running AC over very long distances. I understand that underwater
cables are particularly sensitive to this, as you get a long, large capacitance between the cable
and the water, causing reactive power losses.

A real power engineer can probably come up with another dozen reasons.

4. DC is easier for electrical devices to use directly. Most items use DC, which is why
so many electronics have "wall wart" power supplies. ...or used to. USB's 5v source has
become a new standard for small electronics. Now that this is becoming a standard,
we're starting to see adaptations like this:
What advantages does an alternating current have
over a direct current?
1. AC is a lot easier to handle, since you can use a transformer to change the voltage, which is a
lot cheaper, less complicated and more reliable than DC voltage converters for any given
capacity. That was the single most important factor that swung the whole AC vs DC debate in the
favour of AC.

High-voltage direct current (HVDC) is a lot more efficient than HVAC systems for transmitting a
lot of power over long distances, since DC doesn't suffer from Skin effect, so the losses are lower.
Also, it needs only one conductor instead of 3. In fact, the difference in losses and the lower
amount of conductor required for HVDC makes it ideal for very long distance transmission.
2. Alternating current doesn't lose (much) energy to heat over large distances.

With direct current, electrons are being pushed through the wire at a the rate of a few inches an
hour. This causes them to collide with other atoms on the way, giving up some energy in the
process. The wire heats up.

With AC current, the electrons are vibrating so there is no net translation in space.

AC current can be stepped up to a higher voltage (and lower amperage.)

Using transformers, volts can be exchanged for amps and vice versa. It's the amps that causes
the loss due to heat. When electricity is transmitted over long distances, it is "stepped up" to a
high voltage to minimize the amperage. This is why you see those high voltage power
transmission lines.

As the lines get closer to your house, it is stepped down to 120 V at higher amps. Given the
short distances, the heat loss isn't a big hit.

3. ADVANTAGES

1. The generation of A.C. is cheaper than that of D.C.


2. A.C. machines are simple , robust and do mot require much attention for their
repairs and maintainance during their use.
3. Wide range of voltages are obtained by the use of transformer.
4. The magnitude of current can be reduced by using an inductance or a
conductor without any appreciable loss of energy
5. A.C. can easily be converted into D.C. with the help of rectifiers.
6. When A.C. is supplied at higher voltages in long distance transmission , the line
losses are small compared to a D.C. transmission.
4. Ac current is better than Dc.

1. Energy loss during transmission is less in ac. Because power loss is


proportional to voltage. Using low voltage, ac current can be
supplied efficiently in long distance.
2. Even from dynamos (ex:hydro-electric power plants) we get direct ac output.
3. We can easily get dc from ac using rectifier (ex: bridge rectifier) circuits.
4. Check the war between ac and dc from this
link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wa...
For all these reasons all high voltage transmissions are done in ac and for household
uses step down transformers are used to lowering the voltage.
4. AC has these advantages:

 Easily available at a wall socket near you


 Easily stepped up and down for long transmission with fairly low loss
 Easy to generate with AC Generator/motor from rotary sources (e.g. turbines)
 Easy to make powerful, reliable motors (induction type)
 Frequency reference for clocks and other devices needing frequency reference
 Easily rectified to DC if needed.

5. I know two, will enumerate them,

1. Higher transmission capability -- AC is easier to step up or down, and AC


transformers are easier and cheaper to build. DC transformers require movable
parts and hence, the wear and tear is higher. AC can easily be stepped up and
transmitted thus reducing the resistive losses, and then stepped down to safe
operating voltages at the consumer end.
2. Safety -- ACs have been shown to be more safe to humans. AC because of it's
waxing and waning doesn't cause continuous damage to the human body as
compared to DC.

6. The top most advantage of AC is it can be delivered to long distances economically with
minimal loses. That is the reason why Westinghouse won the battle over Edison.

What is Physics Good For?

The second is its flexibility. You can change the voltage according to your equipment needs.
Using a transformer, you can easily change the voltage up or down with minimal losses. With
DC how do you raise the voltage from a fixed power supply without complexity?

7. Basically two main advantages,


1. The main advantage being lower transmission line losses
2. Ability to change voltage with simple transformers.

Two BIG advantages that makes the choice very easy!


8. Easier to step voltage up/down for more efficient power transmission, besides, AC electrical
motors/generators needs less service than DC ones due to brush wear (at the time of switch to
AC system there were no brushless motors) .
9. The main advantage is that it is easy to transport it long distances by using a transformer to
raise the Voltage to several thousand Volts - or more - to minimize losses, then another
transformer to reduce the Voltage to values used in houses and businesses. It is then easy to use
more transformers to raise or lower the Voltage as needed for the application. This is not
possible with DC.

10. Especially in high power circuits, interrupting the current is easier in the ac circuit because
the current naturally goes to zero twice per cycle. In the dc circuit, inductance in the circuit will
cause more severe arcing as the opening switch tries to stop the current.
11. Advantages

1. We all know that we got ac supply in our homes and we got this supply by
transmitting ac over long distances. AC can be transmitted using step up
transformers but direct current or dc cannot be transmitted by this method.
2. The ac is easy to generate than dc.
3. It is cheaper to generate ac than dc.
4. The ac generators have higher efficiency than dc.
5. The loss of energy during transmission is negligible for ac.
6. The ac can be easily converted into dc.
7. The variation of ac can easily be done using transformers either step up or step
down.
8. The value or magnitude of ac can be decreased easily without loss of excess of
energy. This can be done by using choke coil.

12. The main advantage of alternating current over direct current is the ease of
generation and transmission.

For production of direct current , firstly the power is generated as alternating current
then it is converted to direct current using commutator which adds additonal cost to the
machines. So we can say that a.c machines are cheaper than d.c machines.

We know that transformer is used to minimise the transmission loss . Tranformer


cannot transform d.c voltage due to saturation of its core. And we can get required
voltage using a.c supply as it works smoothly with transformer.Hence transmission of
power is easier in a.c supply.

13. The only one I remember now is that AC voltage can be transformed to higher or
lower voltages with a transformer, which DC voltage wouldn't work.

Now I just realised that some AC motors that are not the universal type wouldn't work
without AC current. But as most of motors are the universal kind (works with DC or
AC), I don't think this is a big advantage over DC.

14. Edison and Tesla fought about this for years. Graham Moore’s “The Last Days of Night”is a
fantastic historical novel which is fun to read and provides many insights into the pros and cons
of both burgeoning technologies which would ultimately bring electric power to the masses.
15. One advantage is more simple to disconnect avoid arc (for example in 500Kv line) , because
alternate current cross the zero point where current is also zero .

How do you calculate the reliability of an entire


system?
1. Reliability is defined as a probability:

Reliability: The conditional probability, at a given confidence level, that the equipment
will perform its intended functions satisfactorily or without failure, i.e., within specified
performance limits, at a given age, for a specified length of time, function period, or
mission time, when used in the manner and for the purpose intended while operating
under the specified application and operation environments with their associated stress
levels.

Kececioglu, Dimitri, Reliability Engineering Handbook, Vol. 1, Prentice-Hall, 1991.

There are two ways to calculate this probability for an entire system

1. Emperically: Gather performance data of the entire system or subsystems in


operational conditions, then use the statistics to calculate empirical reliability
for specified conditions.
2. Analytically: Build up a mathematical model based on the reliability of the
individual functions, failure modes, components, and subsystems. This is done
with a Reliability Block Diagram (RBD).
Both of these approaches require good data collection. In practice, an analytical model
of the system is built during design. That model uses component reliability data from
past history, laboratory tests, handbooks, databases and component manufacturers. The
model is used to inform design decisions to ensure the system meets specified reliability
requirements. Once test begins or the system becomes operational, real-world data is
taken and used to improve the model.

An RBD is just a graphical representation of the logical statement: “The system will fail
if…” Each block in the diagram represents the logical failure of a function, or the
occurrence of a failure mode.

(Image from Basics of System Reliability Analysis )

The connections represent a logical conjunction; that is an “and” or “or” logical


conjunction. For example, “System A fails if (A and B fail) or D fails”.

The system model is built up from the component or failure mode level, subsystems are
built from the models of the functions, etc. The reliability is then calculated as the
probability of failure of the entire system within a specified mission duration.
(Image from Basics of System Reliability Analysis )

Static or relatively simple calculations can be performed with a single closed form
equation. The models become more complicated when you consider dependency,
redundancy, stand-by systems and components, etc. When a closed-form solution isn’t
possible then the solution can be calculated numerically with an iterative solution. It is
also possible to model subsystems with their equivalent failure probability distributions,
and then use those as properties for equivalent blocks to be included in a higher level
diagram. A simulation model can also be combined with maintainability and logistics
data, then used to do more advanced reliability calculations, such as Operational
Availability, and long-term sustainment and Life Cycle Cost.

2. AJ provides a straightforward answer for a simple system where a failure of any


element in the system causes the system to fail.

If the system include redundancy or the ability to operate in a degraded mode, then the
model is a bit more complex. See articles or tutorials on reliability block diagrams to sort
out the modeling and math for the reliability modeling of a system.

AJ is right in the idea is to estimate the reliability of each element in the system. Then
use a reliability model to determine the system reliability value.

Besides testing, you may have the ability to use field system performance data, repair
data, warranty data, etc. Another source of reliability data is from component vendors.

All of these methods are estimates and as a general rule use the best available data when
possible. Actual field systems being used by customers in typical situations provides
actual reliability values. When this data is not available, using a range of sources is often
the best you can do.

Pay more attention and invest in testing for elements which are critical to system
reliability. For areas with long a history of operating well, use your historical data and
skip testing.

Just some ideas, hope that helps. If you would like a few links to reliability block
diagram modeling, reliability estimation methods, reliability testing, and data sources,
let me know and I’ll send them to you.

3. System reliability can be calculated by correlating the individual components of the system in
series or parallel. If the failure in one component of the system leads to the failure in the
next/other component then the system is said to be connected in parallel. Nevertheless, if the
failure in one component increases the stress/load in another component then they are said to
be connected in parallel. The combined reliability thus can be determined from these
correlations. The following link well explains the formulation behind this concept.

4. Calculate all the individual parts and determine their reliability. Then multiply each
one of the components and you will have your reliability.
CRUDE but you will have a starting point. Then TEST each component and then
Multiply each and you will have Reliability of the system

Compare it to your original estimation. THEN start over again to improve Reliability.

How do you calculate the reliability of an electrical


system involving multiple components?

If a system arranged in complex configuration has 4


components with reliability of 0.9 each, what is the
reliability of the system?
1. There are several additional pieces of information you would need to predict the
reliability. The graphic you’ve shown isn’t meaningful without additional information.

Reliability is a statement of probability, so complex systems are analyzed with logical


statements and logical arithmetic. The reliability-wise relationship of the components in
a system can be represented graphically with a Reliability Block Diagram (2 examples
shown below). Keep in mind that the RBD is not the same as a connectivity, system or
physical configuration diagram.

You would have to know:

 Dependency, that is, if one component fails does it affect the reliability of the
others. An example would be a set of 4 aircraft tires. When one tire fails, it
increases the load on the others.
 Redundancy, that is,
o Does the failure of a single component result in a system failure? This is
represented by components in series:
(Graphic from RBDs and Analytical System Reliability )

o Or can the system continue to operate with one or more failed components?
This is shown by components in parallel:

(Graphic from RBDs and Analytical System Reliability )

Once you have identified the reliability-wise relationship of the components then you
can predict the reliability of the system.

It’s also important to note that reliability depends on time, that is, a reliability of 0.9
means that a component has a 90% probability of failure during a specified operational
period.
What is the difference between a highly fault
tolerant and a highly available system?
1. Fault tolerant systems are systems where the failure of one or more components does
not cause the failure of the entire system.
Highly available systems are systems where the level of operational performance is kept
constant during a contractual measurement period. This means that despite the load, a
system is able to perform the operations with the same level of performance.
A fault tolerant system thus does not require that the performance level is kept constant,
the performance of the system could degrade when one or more component fails.
However, a fault tolerant system guarantees a services over time. In a highly available
system the performance of the system should never degrade. The failure of one or more
components should not affect the performance of the system. In this meaning highly
availability is therefore an higher requirement than fault tolerant.
A practical example is a website that has two web nodes serving different clients.
In a fault tolerant system if one web node fails the other might be used to serve the
clients which were served by the faulty server. The clients will not experience any
downtime. However, the website could appear slower to all clients.
In highly available system the failure of a web node does affect the performance of any
client. To achieve this each web node might have a slave node that is used only in case of
failure of a master node.

2. While availability and fault tolerance are sometimes conflated to mean the same concept, the
two terms actually refer to different requirements. Designing for high availability is a stricter
requirement than designing for high fault tolerance.

Availability is a measure of a system's uptime -- the percentage of time that a system is actually
operational and providing its intended service. Service companies, when offering service level
agreements (SLAs) to their customers, usually quantify their availability in nines of
availability. Carrier-grade telecommunication networks claim "five nines" of availability [1, 2],
meaning that the network should be up 99.999% of time and experience no more than 5.26
minutes of downtime per year. Amazon's S3 covers three nines of availability (99.9% uptime) in
its SLA [3] and offers a service credit if it is down for more than 43.2 minutes per month.

Fault tolerance refers to a system's ability to continue operating, perhaps gracefully degrading in
performance when components of the system fail. RAID 1, for example, by mirroring data
across multiple disks, provides fault tolerance from disk failures [4]. Running a hot MySQL
slave that can be promoted to a master if the master fails, or eliminating Hadoop's NameNode
as a single point of failure [5] are other examples of making a system more fault tolerant.

Making individual components more reliable and more fault tolerant are steps toward making
an overall system more highly available; however, a system can be fault tolerant and not be
highly available. An analytics system based on Cassandra, for example, where there are no
single points of failure might be considered fault tolerant, but if application-level data
migrations, software upgrades, or configuration changes take an hour or more of downtime to
complete, then the system is not highly available.
3. Back when I worked on HACMP, we made the distinction in terms of Mean Time Between
Failures and Mean Time To Repair. Fault tolerant systems try to maximize system-level MTBF
by letting redundant components "cover for" failed ones in a completely transparent way (e.g.
Stratus's pair-and-spare CPUs executing in cycle-level lockstep). Highly available systems are
more focused on MTTR; failures can cause disruption, but recovery (actually failover) appears to
happen very quickly. In more modern usage, HA is usually interpreted as addressing frequency
as well as duration of downtime, including downtime resulting from upgrades and
reconfigurations as well as failures, but I think this is more a refinement of the concept than an
essential change. The fact remains that, while HA and FT often involve similar implementation
strategies and are often combined in a single system, they're fundamentally different goals.

Contra Oscar, I never heard of either definition including a guarantee of full performance. In
fact, the performance-preserving idle standby he mentions is much more likely to be a feature of
an FT system than an HA one.

4. With an increased demand for reliable and performant infrastructures designed to


serve critical systems, the terms scalability and high availability couldn’t be more
popular. While handling increased system load is a common concern, decreasing
downtime and eliminating single points of failure are just as important. High availability
is a quality of infrastructure design at scale that addresses these latter considerations.

In this guide, we will discuss what exactly high availability means and how it can
improve your infrastructure’s reliability.

5. What Is High Availability?

In computing, the term availability is used to describe the period of time when a service
is available, as well as the time required by a system to respond to a request made by a
user. High availability is a quality of a system or component that assures a high level of
operational performance for a given period of time.

Measuring Availability

Availability is often expressed as a percentage indicating how much uptime is expected


from a particular system or component in a given period of time, where a value of 100%
would indicate that the system never fails. For instance, a system that guarantees 99% of
availability in a period of one year can have up to 3.65 days of downtime (1%).

These values are calculated based on several factors, including both scheduled and
unscheduled maintenance periods, as well as the time to recover from a possible system
failure.

How Does High Availability Work ?

High availability functions as a failure response mechanism for infrastructure. The way
that it works is quite simple conceptually but typically requires some specialized
software and configuration.

When Is High Availability Important ?


When setting up robust production systems, minimizing downtime and service
interruptions is often a high priority. Regardless of how reliable your systems and
software are, problems can occur that can bring down your applications or your servers.

Implementing high availability for your infrastructure is a useful strategy to reduce the
impact of these types of events. Highly available systems can recover from server or
component failure automatically.

What Makes a System Highly Available?

One of the goals of high availability is to eliminate single points of failure in your
infrastructure. A single point of failure is a component of your technology stack that
would cause a service interruption if it became unavailable. As such, any component
that is a requisite for the proper functionality of your application that does not have
redundancy is considered to be a single point of failure.

6. Just 4 points.

1. Fault tolerance is mostly associated with components in a system. HA refers to the


system in particular. A highly FT system is highly available but not the reverse.

2. A highly available system can have single points of failure, whereas a FT system
always has redundancy for any component.

3. Due to complete redundancy in all components of the system, FT systems are far
more expensive than HA systems.

4. HA systems are bound by SLA and most of the times 5 nines (99.999% of availability)
is enough for most real world applications. FT systems are used in systems wherein
downtime (planned / unplanned) is not an option eg, ATC, financial trading.
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7. I have been working on FT and HA for a while now and the answers above are round about
right but not really. So, here is my view-

1. In FT, any failure of a component is replaced (somehow) by a similar component in a due


coarse and the system recovers without compromising "Integrity". Thus, a failure of a
component keeps stored data and ongoing service requests conclude normally.

2. FT does not guarantee sustained capacity. It is possible that a certain duration may result into
mutated capacity but still full "integrity".

2a. Thus, FT system under stress, may show degraded performance but not functionality.

3. HA is completely in different angle. It says that, under failure conditions, there is enough
redundant capacity that the system will sustain same functionality and performance under
stress situation.

4. HA is normally a function of automatic readjustment of running resources to accommodate


loss of capacity so that the end user may not notice degradation of service levels.

5. HA does not suggest any integrity after the failure of a running request in the system. The
failed request may not conclude cleanly.

6. HA gives a service functionality guarantee with a service level capacity.

8. Fault tolerance refers to a server's ability to continue operation despite the failure of a single
component (usually hardware). Common features of a fault-tolerant server would be redundant
components like dual-power supplies, error correcting RAM, RAID arrays, and modular cooling
fans. What fault tolerance implies, as well, is that the server can still fail, but the likelihood of
that happening is made significantly smaller by the various hardware redundancy techniques
that are applied.

High-availability, on the other hand, refers to a system's ability to work around the failure of a
server. It's a software approach to reducing downtime which often takes the form of server
clusters. In a cluster, the various server nodes -- which may or may not be fault-tolerant servers
in their own right -- constantly monitor each other and stand ready to take over operation
should one of the nodes fail. Of course there's still a possibility that all nodes in the cluster could
fail, but the idea behind clustering multiple fault-tolerant servers together is that the possibility
of an unrecoverable failure is exponentially smaller.

The problem with both of these terms is that they're burdened by marketing speak and blurred
by the fact that there's less of a clear line between hardware and software approaches to
redundancy now. A better approach is to focus on desired outcomes instead. List out the
minimum requirements for the service being provided -- and be honest. Yes, we'd love 100%
uptime for everything, but pick a number that really is the minimum tolerable value for
downtime. Then work backwards from there to select all of the hardware and software features
needed to deliver that outcome.
9. A somewhat different aspect of HA is the notion of being 'eventually consistent'. Some
distributed databases do extensive caching as part of their FT/HA architecture. They are are less
'transactional' (it may take a while for changes to get committed and be made visible throughout
the network). While this can be a problem for business requirements, it is often acceptable in
other environments such as social media or research.
10. Please excuse me but I'd like to try summarizing what I think everyone is saying.

Availability is generally defined using only MTTF and MTTR without regard to functional
failure. Therefore a system with very low MTTR may exhibit a functional failure.

Fault tolerance generally refers to systems that can recognize and recover from abnormal
operating conditions and recover from them preventing a fault from becoming a failure.

Why do distributed systems require such high


availability?
1. You’re mixing two different things - high availability & distributed systems are
separate issues.

High availability is generally a design requirement for specific applications, which is


often achieved through replication (as distinct from distribution).

Distributed systems are often designed to put resources and processing close to where
they’re used (e.g., input processing & data reduction close to data sources, data access
close to users) - as much for performance reasons as anything else.

Now, since the availability of a distributed system is a function of its component parts,
that implies that high availability for the entire system requires that components also be
highly availability (no single points of failure).

2. You’re confusing the system with the component.

A component of a recoverable / fault-tolerant distributed system might only have 98%


availability.

One of the reasons for building the system as a distributed system is so that missing
2% can be compensated for by other components within the system.

So a distributed system may be composed of components whose availability falls short


of being awe-inspiring, yet the overall system may itself exhibit 5–9s availability.

3. Systems have redundancy so that they can make their availability goals. Those goals
exist because it is required to sell the service. Either it’s a basic expectation of the
service, a contractural requirement, or a service level agreement.

Many systems today are at 5 9’s in reliability. That’s no more than 5 minutes of
downtime per year.
I’ve been involved in this because that’s the availability that carriers want out of high
end routers. Because no one wants part of the Internet being down more than 5 mins
per year.

4. 98% availability means more than 14 hours of unavailability in a month. Would you
use a service that is unavailable for 14 hours every month? If you are unlucky those 14
hours are always when you want to use that service.

High availability is required to get and retain users. Lower the availability easier it is to
manage a system and lower the number of users. It’s your choice!

Why are there only 3-phase electrical power


systems? why not 6-phase, 9-phase, 12-phase, or
some other number of phases?
1. 3-phase offers enormous advantages for industrial applications
(see http://www.quora.com/Why-is-power-transmitted-in-3-phase) over 1-phase
without needing an enormous additional amount of infrastructure and wiring. In
particular 3-phase can be carried on 3 wires plus an optional neutral that does not bear
much current load, at least not from 3-phase motors which don't need the neutral.

3-phase is also already "ideal" in that the sum of power output from all three phases is
constant, meaning that your motors are all being driven with constant torque without
AC frequency components. Motor design is also simplified by the fact that 3 phases
defines a direction of motion, which 1 phase does not.

sin(ωt)2+sin(ωt−2π/3)2+sin(ωt−4π/3)2=1.5sin⁡(ωt)2+sin⁡(ωt−2π/3)2+sin⁡(ωt
−4π/3)2=1.5

6-phase or 9-phase would require 6-7 or 9-10 wires, respectively, and in most cases
there is no really any good engineering advantage for needing 6-phase or 9-phase. In
addition, by rigging up that many wires you also increase the potential for failures of
various sorts, including short circuits and broken lines. You might also get people on
legacy equipment using only 3 of your 9 phases which throws off your whole balanced
advantage from the power infrastructure perspective.

In short, for most applications, there's really no point -- 3-phase is already "ideal" in
many ways; it's not true that "more phases is better". It's a lot like how tripods have
clear advantages over monopods, but a 6-legged, or 9-legged device isn't going to do
anything useful for your photography -- the tripod is already "ideal". :)

2. There was actually a 2-phase system in which the phases were separated by 90°. The
advantage was that it made it easy to make self-starting AC motors, as with 3-phase, but
the disadvantage vs. 3-phase is that the neutral currents don't cancel, so you need four
conductors (or three conductors with one sized for the vector sum of the phase
currents).

Source

Since 3-phase is better than 2-phase, 2-phase has mostly died out, but apparently, some
old buildings in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, still have 2-phase 5-wire (!) service, in
which (as far as I can understand) the two phases are center-tapped with the centers
connected together and to earth, so you get four hots and a neutral. Two-phase motors
are also used as servos in industrial controls.

It's possible to convert between 2-phase and 3-phase with a Scott-T transformer or
a motor–generator (rotary converter).
3. Like most engineering decisions its about balancing trade-offs. More phases means smoother
power delivery but more cost (need a wire for each phase plus, possibly a neutral wire) and
complexity. It turns out that 3 phases tends to be the 'sweet spot.'
First note that in a n phase system the n phases should be symmetrically spaced, i.e.
spaced 360\degreen360\degreen apart. On top of making the system simpler, it allows the
removal of the neutral line from the transmission system if the three phases have balanced loads
since the sum of the currents across the phases will always be zero; that's why many three phase
lines do not have a fourth neutral wire, the neutral line is only needed if the phases have
unbalanced loads (or for safety reasons i.e. to protect against certain types of faults). So this
rules out those two phase at 90 degree systems (it could be argued that these are really 4 phase
systems).

A symmetric two phase system (common in houses in the US) would consist of two live wires
plus a neutral (note that if the load between the two phases were perfectly balanced the neutral
wouldn't be necessary but in the case of the house they generally will not be balanced), where
the two phases are 180 degrees apart, that is each phase is the negative of the other. Note that
the voltage across the two phases is really just a single phase at twice the voltage.

A two phase system is great for houses, but if you look at the voltage waveform, it crosses
through zero twice per cycle, so there are two instances where per cycle when zero power is
delivered, not a good thing if you're trying to keep the power flow as smooth as possible (e.g. this
reduces wear on equipment). By adding a third phase, the power delivered to the load will never
be zero. Plus there's the added benefit that adding the third phase creates a natural direction of
rotation between the three phases, that's great for getting motors started spinning.

It turns out that beyond three phases, you don't get much benefit by adding more phases but you
do add cost and complexity, so three phases is typically what is used.
4. A three phase system can transmit three times the power of single phase with only one extra
conductor. Three phase achieves this utilization because in a balanced scenario, i.e. where each
phase experiences the same load, the sum of the currents in the any two conductors at any time
is equal to the current in the other conductor. Therefore no return or ground wire is required.
This maximum copper utilization cannot be achieved with a greater or lesser number of phases.
Also three phase provides a rotating magnetic field that can enable an induction motor to self
start. Other phase numbers can do this as well, but three is sufficient.

5. First of all, whenever a “n” phase machine is mentioned then it indicates that the
machine has “n” windings.

So a 3-ph machine would have 3 windings and 6-ph machine would have 6 windings.

We are very much familiar with the type of connections of 3-ph windings. They are star
and delta connection. In star connection, the angle between any two windings will
always remain 120degree. It means that there is always symmetry of arrangement of
windings. This symmetry is helpful in producing a perfect sinusoidal wave. Similarly in
delta connection, the angle always remains same between any two windings.

But in 6-ph machines, this condition is violated.why only 6-ph, actually in all phases
other than 3, we can find that the symmetry of angle is not fulfilled.

In figure below, angle between any combination of A1, A2 or A3 remains same in 3-pH
connection but this is violated in 6-ph connection.
5. Cost, but some do use 6, 9 12 etc.

Three pbase power is the simplest form of balanced AC. Balanced meaning the power
flow can be constant. A single phase system is really a two phase system, and the power
through this system varies with time.

6 phases, and even higher (9, 12, 18, 24, etc) systems do exist, and each has small
advantages. For example, in a balanced 6 phase system, the 5th and 7th harmonics do
not cause torque oscillation or rotor heating in motors and generators The contributions
from each 3-phase parts cancel. AC to DC rectifiers often employ AC transformers with
multiple, phase shifted windings. A 3 to 6 phase transformer can be made simply by
connecting the two sets of simple secondaries one in delta and the other in wye. 12 phase
versions allow the input power quality reflected to the three-phase side to meet most
specifications.

The reasons these higher order systems are not used in a commercially wide spread
fashion are 1) cost and 2) the systems are indeterminate (they have more states
(independent variables) than necessary for a given steady state conviction). For
example, to provide constant power in six phase system, either subordinate three phase
set can provide any fraction of the power necessary, unless another control is instituted
such as the two three phase set must be the same. This is just more control and
complication.

Cost is the main reason. Rotating electric machines must has at least one stator slot per
phase per pole. A six phase machine has at least twice as many windings as a three
phase machine. Breakers need twice as many poles, and cabling must have twice as
many insulated conductors.

Just an aside. Non-triplen systems work as well. Some papers on 5 phase machines were
published in the 80s and 90s, asserting certain benefits in motors. Some such machines
have been built. They work.

What you ask has been considered and is employed in limited subsystems, but for main
distribution, 3-phase is simple, cost effective and mathematically elegant.

6. A single phase system provides marginal motor performance. It is usable up to 10 hp


or so, but beyond that poly phase motors are far more economically attractive.

A two phase system would operate motors approximately as well as three phase, but still
requires three conductors. Three phases balance the current a little better and transfer
an equal amount of power using a bit less inductor area, so this is economical.

More than three phases don't offer any significant performance advantage and
complicates motor, generator, transformer, breaker, switch gear, and transmission line
construction, so would add significant cost.

Short answer: three phases is optimal with regard to performance vs. cost.

7. Thanks for A2A.


Basically We can use 6 phase and in fact it is being used in certain research laboratories involved
in particle physics and stuff. Experiments were done upto 12 phase.
For explanation of why 6 phase is limited to special cases and not common in day today life -
kindly look at this post
Why are there only 3-phase electrical power systems? why not 6-phase, 9-phase, 12-phase, or
some other number of phases?

8. yes! why not! you can make as many number of phase you want. But as per the power
system is concerned there are several other factors that are significant for successful
operation say, ease of operation, better coupling with other power equipment and
substation and obviously the cost of the operation.

Now 3 phase power will have 3 power line conductors, 3 circuit breakers and 3 busbars.
That will be taken inside the transformer for stepping up or down the voltage levels.

now consider 6 phase supply. There will be six such circuit breaker, 6 busbars. Now this
will make the whole arrangement complex to integrate with other systems. Also
Operation and Maintenance cost will be high.

similarly for 12 phase things will be even more complicated.

so, it is recommended to stay in 3 Phase only.

9. I'd like to add a tiny amount of explanation to what Dr. Venkatraman answered. Basically
any number of phases are possible but in case of "even" number phases like 2, 4, 6...., they have
to be evenly distributed in space, they will have have equal angle in them and as such a pair of
phases in such system will always be in opposite direction to each other. This would mean that
the I^2R losses for the neutral return wire would increase significantly as the neutral now serves
as a current return path for both the pair of phases which are in phase opposition.
In a 3 phase power system, none of the phases are in exact phase opposition and hence, the
current through the neutral is most definitely smaller than the previous case, thereby reducing
the I^2R losses. Further, 5,7,9... all the odd ones are possible too but there isn't any significant
increase in the current and hence are generally not used!!

10. 6-phase power does exist; it's basically two 3-phase systems 180° out of phase. And it is used,
as you might expect, in very high power systems. There are also a few 12-phase systems in
existence.

4-phase power does not exist, because it offers no advantages over 3-phase. The "magic" of 3-
phase power is that the power delivered in each of the three phases adds up to a constant,
precisely. You don't get that with n-phase systems where n is not a multiple of three.

EDIT: That last statement is actually not true; you do get constant power with n-phase systems,
too. (I was thinking of something unrelated when I wrote that.) A three-phase system offers 3×
the load-carrying capacity of a single-phase system while requiring only 1.5× times the wiring. A
four-phase system does not offer that advantage.

11. Actually 6 phase and 9 phase electricity exists and is being used rather commonly these days.
VFDs (Variable Frequency Drives) accomplish this task for motors. These drives take AC current
and turn it into DC and then back into AC by rapidly switching the current on and off. These
VFD drives can then control how a motor starts and how fast it runs. Often these drives will have
6, 9 and even 12 leads going into a motor. These pulses of DC coming from the VFD will appear
much like a sine wave to the motor and on a scope appear to be very much like 6, 9 or 12 phases.
Due to "energy efficiency" and trying to keep utilities from penalizing someone having a large
inductive load on the power grid many buildings are using these drives to mask the air handling
motor's inductance on their power consumption. (all the utility will see is the rectifier)

12.

 any balanced supply system (instantaneous power should be a DC quantity not


having any supply harmonics) would be advantageous
 If one has more phases: the transmission and distribution must carry that
many conductors atleast… more insulators, more requirements on towers etc..
 Similarly the loads specially the motors’ design cost would have to be looked
at…
 However as of now… too much investment has gone into three phase systems
so it is not practical/feasible to change that now…
 Overall : Technically possible but economically a BIG BIG NO…
 We can still have some exceptions here and there…

13. Economics.

You can build polyphase systems with as many poles as you like. Some stepper motors
use 4phases (of course, they aren't sinusoidal either, but that's another story). Some
synchro systems used as compass repeaters on ships etc. use 6, largely for reasons of
backwards compatibility with early devices.

Polyphase systems are a trick to transfer the rotating magnetic field inside one device
(the generator) to another (the motor). The minimum number of wires to do this is 3,
and since wires cost money we use the minimum.

2 won't do it, because there is a 180 degree ambiguity in two wires. A single phase
induction motor will run equally well in either direction. (Single phase induction motors
have some sort of local gadget to make them start, such as a phase shift capacitor, and
that chooses one direction. Remove it and start them by flicking and they can go either
way)

14. Because three phase induction motors are simple and efficient. We have Mr. Nikola Tesla to
thank for that. Three phase induction motors are widely used for many industrial applications,
e.g. pumps, conveyors, rollers, presses, etc. A significant percentage of electric power produced
is used to drive AC induction motors for heavy industry.
You could make an efficient two phase induction motor (90 degree phase shift), but that would
require four wires of equal gauge. Three phase power (wye) can be transmitted with three low
gauge (thick) wires and one higher gauge wire (thinner neutral), so three phase requires less
copper than two phase quadrature. It is possible to use more than three phases (some traction
motor applications do this), but it is more expensive for long distance transmission.
As has been mentioned, residential applications generally do not require large, efficient motors,
so a single phase is good enough for your house.
14. Three-phase is the smallest number of phases that is capable of providing autorotation,
making for much simpler (and thus more reliable) motor designs. In most cases, adding phases
beyond three doesn't add enough benefit to justify the added complexity, and so three is the
magic number. The copper savings of three-phase are not realized again when going to six-
phase.

However, there are some applications (mainly rectifiers and generators, and high voltage
transmission) where hexaphase or dodecaphase power shows promise; the use of more phases
(requiring more copper) is offset by lower voltages for the same delivered power, and a better
ability to deal with power line harmonics.
15. Because in terms of cost, ability to transmit adequate levels of power, and system simplicity,
the three phase system is the best choice over a six phase or nine phase system.

Designing generators, transformers, substations, power circuit breakers, relaying system and
other equipment, assuming you could even do it, would be a technical nightmare and would be
unnecessarily complex. The controls/protection for such a system would just be ridiculous. As it
is, three-phase systems present enough technical challenges to the power engineers, and there is
no reason to deal with that if you don't have to, and we don't have to. The system we have now
works just fine and meets the needs of the power using public. Three or six more phases,
well..yikes.

So, you go as simple as you can, and that would be a three-phase system at this time.

16. Considering the three phase voltage waveforms shown in the figure.

At every instant the instantaneous voltage of any one of the three waveforms is at the
peak value or near to the peak value (consider any one direction either positive or
negative). This implies that a constant voltage with magnitude near to the peak value is
supplied all the time.

By using more number of phases (more than three phases) this voltage is almost equal
to peak voltage. But usage of more phases require more conductors which increases the
cost largely with less improvement in this voltage (ie does not have much improvement).

With two phases this affect is not achieved.


Hence three phases are used.
17. First, why 3 phase instead of single phase? Two reasons. 1) It enables delivery of 1.73
times more power for a given amount of conductor, due to the increased "fill-in" of the
current sine wave-form with the timing of the wave-forms. 2) It can provide
automatically a rotating magnetic field for motors.

Second, why not the others you mention?


-- 2 phase power provides advantage 2) from above, but not 1). 2 phase at 180 degrees
separation would be indistinguishable from single phase in it's effects for motors. 2
phase at 90 degrees separation is commonly used to start motors on single phase
systems, with the second phase generated at approximately 90 degrees with the
(usually) temporary connection of capacitors at the motor.

-- 4 phase power provides advantage 2) from above, but not 1). 4 phase at 90 degrees
separation would be indistinguishable from 2 phase at 90 degrees separation, see -- 2
phase above.

-- 6 phase at 120 degrees separation would be indistinguishable from current standard 3


phase. (so why do it?). 6 phase at 60 degrees separation would provide advantage 1) and
2) from above and run motors designed specially for it slightly more smoothly, but at the
added cost of 6 contactor poles and isolator switch contacts and overload protectors.
Not worth it.

18. Firstly, three-phase is entrenched into the industry. Changing it would be comparable to
getting the general community to migrate from the much-maligned but consistently tolerated
QWERTY keyboard.

Secondly, I'm sure that higher numbers of AC phases have been tried on a small scale and I
would predict that there was no justifiably significant improvement in efficiency of transmission
or operation.

The same principle applies to the number of poles on a DC stepper motor. 3 poles would be
adequate, but 4 poles are used for easier computer coding. In order to double the number of
"steps" to adjacent poles can be turned on together holding the stepper motor between the two
poles. One could engineer a 32-pole stepper motor, but any efficiency gains would be defeated
by the complication of the driver circuitry.
19. The answer is simple: the engineers that created the first multi-phase systems did their
homework. A 3-phase system is sufficient to create a rotating field (in a motor) with defined
rotation direction, and any more phases would add so much extra cost to the whole systen from
generator to high power lines to transformers. that it would make BAD BUSINESS !!!
20. A 3-phase system is always rather than 4-phase or so because in a 3-phase system,each
system is at a phase difference of 120 degrees .........so now what happens is consider 3-phase
(say R, Y ,B) ...now in 3-phase system what will happen is that phase Y will lead phase R by 120
degrees and at the same time will lag behind phase B with 120 degrees .....this process continues
with the time when an AC supplied is given ....and this phenomenon of leading and lagging takes
place for every phase only the difference is that this process takes with time and time relates to
the AC power supplied ( as u might be knowing that a AC supply is an variable supply (i.e; it
changes with time or say it is an sine wave )

Uses of 3-phase system :


1.Balanced and regular is supplied to the load .

2. Maximum power can be transmitted towards the load .

3. Harmonics are low in this type of system .

Thank You
Hope your problem is solved .

21. They exist, but have no real advantages over a 3-phase system for transmission.

The one place in power engineering where additional phases really are advantageous is
in the conversion of AC to DC at extremely high power levels, e.g., on long-haul HVDC
transmission lines. At the rectifier site, networks of cross-connected transformers are
used to synthesize additional phases from the incoming 3-phase supply to reduce the
"ripple" on the resulting DC and to improve the power factor seen on the AC side. 6-
phase AC (12 pulses/cycle) is common.

22. I have only come across 6 phases in permanent magnet excitation (PMX) systems for
synchronous alternators.

So the PMX has a set of permananet magnets on the rotor. The rotor shaft is sized for
the power of the machine, so can be a decent diameter, so the magnets either have to be
big, or more of them. Its easier to manufacter several smaller ones. So then a PMX
stator is made to fit.

The output from this stator winding can then be rectified, passed through some control
electronics, and back into the main exciter, thus into the main exciter rotator, through
some diodes and into the main rotor windings.

I have to admit never seeing other examples, maybe there are some specialised
applications.

23. Well, for starters we do use 2 phase power. It is very common in residences. Very old
homes might only have a single feed of 120 power for the feeder line into the building.
Newer or renovated homes usually get upgraded to a 240 V feeder line. This 240 line
can be considered 2 phase as the 240V is derived from two 120 V lines that are 180
degrees out of phase.
To answer the question about higher number of phases, why make something more
complicated and expensive than it has to be? More phases means more windings,
copper, weight, metering, etc. What's the point?

24. Complexity of winding increases as number of phases increase so more the number of phases
construction is more difficult. For 3 phase system you require 3 wires with 120 phase shift for 9
phases it would be 9 wires just imagine the complexity and imagine the winding diagram of 9
phase motor. Plus 3 phase motor gives farely good efficiency.

25. Of course we can. In fact, six-phase systems can be well suited for voltage transmission in
case of extra and ultra high voltage systems. But there will be increase in amount of conductor
required and increased equipment requirement hence increased system cost.
Since the phase to phase voltage decreases for the same amount of power transferred as in
three-phase system, the conductor spacing can be reduced. Transposition again becomes
difficult with six-phase system.
26. Three phase power is about 1 1/2 times more efficient for motors than single phase because
there is never a moment during the cycles, spaced 120 degrees apart, when power is not being
delivered. It is used in industrial and agricultural applications because it offers the best balance
between efficiency and cost. More phases could provide small incremental improvements in
efficiency but would dramatically increase the cost and complexity of the motors and wiring. In
applications, such as aluminum processing, where as many as 48 phases might be used, three
phase power can be converted/mulplied at the site.
27. I vaguely recall this from a lesson in an early power systems course - another one of the
advantages of three-phase is that no two phases are 180 degrees out of phase with the other - the
maximum voltage between phases is sqrt(3) of the phase to neutral voltage. Aside from the
economies of scale achieved with needing only 3 main conductors (plus an undersized neutral),
there was a savings on insulation level required. A 480/277 system can use 600V insulation, but
those voltages could easily vary by ±10% in voltage. If it rises by 10%, you'd have two phases
which are 2 x 277 x 110% = 609V apart - to be safe you'd require 1000V insulation, which is
marginally more expensive than the 600V insulation typical of a 480/277 system.
28. yes it can existing upto 12 phase system now-a-days, through HVDC transmission lines.
ADVANTAGES
it will reduce power transmission losses.
it gives effective operation
transmission of power will be simple and economic
though the circuit is complex, it is very easy to understand

29. The higher the number of phases, the more complicated and expensive the electrical
distribution system. The motors and generators used to consume & produce that power
also become more complicated and expensive. The one benefit to more phases is that
rectification of that power (into DC) will yield less voltage ripple.

3-phase power is the fewest number of phases which allows direct connection to a motor
to cause rotation in a known direction.
A motor designed for two-phase power would spin in an arbitrary direction (or simply
vibrate between two poles) each time it was started.

30. The Power handled per conductor ratio increases with the increase in number of phases and
simultaneously the complications of conductor configuration and arrangement also increases.
After 3-phase the increase in Power per conductor is not significant but the increase in
complication of arranging more conductors is more problematic. So the 3-phase configuration
was standardized as it was considered optimum looking into both the above factors. Once done
you do not change for obvious reasons.

31. Multiphase allows for rotation control of motors which is somewhat important.

More than three phases complicates (more money) power distribution requiring more
wires per tower and fancier transformers and generators.

One phase is simpler but has some disadvantages.

Two phase is really a form of one phase with a center tap or neutral. So three phase is
the lowest cost multiphase system.

32. Because of the HARMONICS. In a three phase system upto fifth harmonics are taken into
account and beyond that it is neglected . In case of 4- or 6-phase system the harmonics of higher
order will have to be taken in account and hence the complexity increases.
33. Three is the minimum number of phase required to "fill" the available phase space. Two will
not, and more than three are not necessary. A phase space filled in this way turns out to be
powerfully effective in implementing the rotating magnetic fields used in high-horsepower
motors and high power generators. And if you think of conductors, spaced apart to increase
breakdown voltage, the third can be added without much increase in the "cylindrical volume"
required to maintain the spacing. A fourth or fifth? "not so easily."
34.
1. Three is the minimum number of phases to get uniform stress and torque over its
entire rotation.
2. It is the minimum number of wires for transmission over long distances with
lower current level than single phase supply.
3. All 3 phases are uniformly distributed at 120 degree spacing.
These are among the main reasons, while there are some other factors also.

35. There are two reasons: (1) using three phases results in the lowest conductor cost/watt to
transmit power; (2) using three phases displaced in space around a cylinder by 120 degrees
results in a rotating magnetic field when the three phases are excited by three voltage sources
displaced in time by 120 electrical degrees - this is a fundamental energy conversion principle
for the operation of AC motors and generators.
36. 3 phase system is economically beneficial than single phase system at the same line to
ground voltage, as it uses less conductor material to transmit a given amount of electrical power
as compared to single phase system that uses two conductor,in three phase system which no
neutral and the same ground to phase voltage and current carrying capacity can transmit 3
times as much power using just 1.5 Times as many wires
What does "Reliability" mean in Power System?
1. As the name clearly suggests “Reliability “ means “the quality of being
trustworthy”.

Electrical systems are not exception to this definition.Lesser the number of system
outages of the Power supply, more reliable the system is.

Why Reliability ?

Ideally, electricity should be available to every customer all the time, no exceptions. But
the scenario is different in the real world. So we tend to measure number of times the
outage occurs which is inversely proportional to reliability. For exact formula, you can
refer any power System book, i have just given you a simple explanation.

Example :

Reliability is more in urban cities in india like Mumbai, Bangalore,chennai etc whereas
it is lower in many rural areas where frequent power cuts happen leading lesser
reliability.

2. The task of power system is to provide all customers with continuous, quality
qualified electricity.Power system reliability,can list into 2 kind:

1. Adequacy- The former refers to the power system has enough power
generation capacity and enough transmission capacity, at any time can satisfy
the requirement of the user on peak, characterization of the steady state
performance of power grid;
2. Safety- refers to the power system in the safety of the accident situation and
avoid a chain reaction and won't cause out of control and the ability of
blackouts.

3. This Requires elaboration, for which I don’t have time now. However, please note, although
reliability and power quality are somewhat related, they are really two separate issues. The
simplest definition for reliability is power that's there when it's needed. Power quality can be
defined as the degree to which power supplied by the utility conforms to "pure" sinusoidal
waveforms of exactly 60 cycles(or 50 cycles) per second.

How can I use poisson distribution to check the


reliability of power systems?
1. Failure probability is modeled after Poisson process. This is because, when a system runs
for a certain limit of time, its probability of failure will increase exponentially as time grow
large. For an example, A Newly built power plant will have low probability of failure. An old
power plant, will have a higher probability of failure.

Poisson distribution is used to calculate the probability of number of failures within an


interval of time.

How this translate to reliability? Basically you want to understand more about Mean Time
Between Failure (Failure rate).

5 questions you need to ask when dealing with


aging electrical distribution equipment
Aging electrical equipment and components are not only inefficient, they’re potentially
dangerous. Overheating in electrical enclosures, usually caused by loose connections and friction
(due to lack of or improper lubrication) can shorten the life of the equipment or worse, lead to
costly downtime. Listed below are commonly asked industry questions and answers regarding
the risk of aging electrical equipment?

Q: How do I know which aging equipment could put my facility at risk?

A: Facility managers can feel overwhelmed by the daunting task of applying limited operating
and maintenance and capital funds in the right places. Having an OSHA-required arc flash risk
assessment performed is a good starting point. The study will identify improvements to the
electrical system that can improve safety and reliability, while providing updated single-lines,
equipment condition inspection, maintenance assessment, and other productivity-enhancing
recommendations.

Q: What maintenance mistakes are commonly made with existing equipment?

A: A lack of maintenance being performed! Electrical equipment gets installed and forgotten
about. Regular maintenance is essential for the upkeep and longevity of any system. Where
maintenance is being performed, not following specific guidelines and procedures (torque
settings, etc.) have caused financial and human damages. In addition, many facilities do not have
current documentation of their electrical systems, like single-line drawings. These are essential
for supporting vital tasks like lock-out/tag-out (which is fundamental to any maintenance
procedure), testing and troubleshooting, and load balancing.

Q: Can modern equipment warn about imminent failures?

A: Yes, absolutely, with the downsizing in labor forces there are fewer opportunities to do in-
person inspections by qualified personnel. The ability to program alarming for indication of
potential failures is indispensable. Today’s intelligent power monitoring and controls systems
can also support migration from time-based maintenance, to condition-based, where maintenance
cycles can be based on actual circuit conditions instead of specific time intervals.

Q: Is it worth upgrading my existing electrical equipment?


A: The reality today is that facilities are facing rising energy costs issues AND changing code
requirements. Upgrading aging electrical equipment allows for more flexible, scalable power
availability.

Q: What should I consider regarding electrical system and/or component upgrades?

A: Aging or legacy equipment may not have to be replaced in order to upgrade the power
system. A variety of life-extension, refurbishment, and reconditioning options are
available. Switchgear modernization solutions, for example, leave the footprint of the existing
equipment intact while upgrading the line-up with new low- or medium-voltage circuit breakers
to current technology, which reduces the need for hard to find spare parts. Utilizing the existing
structure and footprint saves time and money.

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