In today’s blog, we are going to discuss the silent “Pump Killer” of poor power quality. We’ll start out with a basic overview of what power quality actually is, where and when poor power quality occurs and we will wrap up by discussing the ways to mitigate poor power quality. We will get into a few technical aspects of electricity, but hang on, we’ll try to keep in simple, interesting, and applicable for both the homeowner, agriculture, and commercial users that require electricity to provide water for their home, gardens/agriculture, and processing facilities.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. For water pumps though, the leading cause of failure is linked to poor quality electricity supply! Poor quality of electricity can come in different flavors. In some cases the voltage is below or above the agreed-upon standards for electricity, in other cases, the power delivery is intermittent or flickers off and on, in some cases, poor power quality involves harmonics or “noise” in the electricity being delivered. Power companies are, in many cases, aware of the poor quality power already! Symcom products are a great way to protect your pump from low voltages, rapid cycling and other electrical problems that can lead to short pump life and a several thousand dollar repair or replacement bill!

Causes of poor quality power

• Limitations of the existing power production/distribution infrastructure often come from regulations limiting the type of power plants allowed and environmental impacts.

• Increased demands being placed on existing/old infrastructure when homes, businesses or agricultural uses are added to existing power distribution infrastructure that was originally designed with smaller loads in mind.

• New challenges are being placed on existing infrastructure. As just one of the new challenges, consider the large number of homes all over California that are pumping power into the grid in massive quantities in the middle of the day, but are major consumers during the evenings/nights and morning hours. The power companies must work to absorb the excess power generated in the middle of the day and do something productive with it, like fill elevated dams. During the evening’s power utilities must fill in the gaps when consumer generated solar power is lacking.

• Non-professional installation of pump equipment where proper wire size and proper wiring connections have not been considered. Wire sized too small will result in low voltage to the pump equipment!

When and Where are Power Quality Problems most noticeable?

Our technicians typically run into power quality problems when they are in more remote locations at the “end of the road” which often corresponds to the “end of the line” for electricity delivery. Many times these power lines have are very long and have many users on them. Since electricity is delivered through wires and wires have internal “resistance” to the flow of electricity, the people at the end of the line often get low voltages.

Poor power quality, specifically low voltage events coincide with heavy electricity usage. In our neck of the woods, heavy electricity usage comes in the summer and fall seasons. With 46,000 Acres (18,600 Ha) of Vineyards under cultivation in the Napa Valley, most of which is irrigated, you can appreciate that the power demands to get water on those vineyards are significant! Couple the agricultural demands with the demands from the air conditioning at thousands of homes, businesses & facilities on a hot summer day; and you can see how intense the power demands can be! When harvest season comes in late summer and early fall, the demands increase even more as wineries run round the clock cleaning, sorting, crushing, fermenting, and then cooling the grapes that go into creating nearly 2 millions of gallons of wine every year.

These power quality problems, when extreme, can cause lights to dim or flicker. In some cases equipment will shut down and refuse to function. In well pumps, both low and high voltages can cause the pump motor to overheat which will eventually damage the motor and lead to failure. At Oakville Pump, we design/install our pump systems to include pump protection products manufactured by Symcom/Littlefuse and Franklin Water! If the power quality is found to be outside of acceptable limits, these devices will turn your pump off to keep it from being damaged. A well pump that is turned off does not produce water, but a damaged well pump is an expensive item to replace!

What to you do when you encounter a power quality problem with your submersible well pump?

The first thing to do is to contact your local utility or have the electrician or licensed contractor that discovered and documented this problem report it to the utility. Be proactive in reporting the problem, but don’t stop there. Ensure that you have proper protection devices installed such as low voltage protection and surge arrestors. Since the hot weather can exacerbate many issues, have your electrician check your electrical panels for corrosion or faulty connections/circuit breakers. In some cases, the low voltage is a simple matter that your electrician/pump technician can deal with quickly.

During the harvest season, we occasionally get calls from grape growers that don’t have the water they need. They urgently need the water on the vineyards to maximize both their grape yield and quality, but the pumping equipment refuses to run. Our technicians arrive quickly, take the necessary measurements, and, in many cases, find that the well pump won’t run because the power being supplied is of very poor quality and protection devices have shut the equipment off to keep it from being damaged. But what if you need the water to protect a multi-million dollar crop? What are the options then?

1) Call the utility. Keep in mind they likely have many other people calling them and that they may not be able to rectify the problem immediately. Don’t plan on the utility fixing the problem, these problems have been around for years and if anything, have only persisted or increased in frequency and intensity.

2) Rent or purchase a generator and connect it appropriately to the generator. For large generators, you could be looking at hundreds of dollars per day in rental fees in addition to connection, fuel and pickup/delivery.

2) Bypass the pump protection and allow the pump to run with poor quality power. This may work, you may get water on your crop and think you got by with poor quality power. The damage is done though and the warranty on the equipment likely voided. The insulation in the pump will likely be damaged by overheating and the lifespan of the pump radically reduced. Claims against the utility may be very difficult to make or receive payment for.

3) Leave the pump off and hope that power quality improves after a period of time when the electrical demands on the grid decrease.

4) If you have a well pump system that is controlled with a variable frequency drive (VFD) you have more options! Variable Frequency drives, in short, take all the electricity from the grid and “recreate it” at the correct voltage and frequency to run the well pump. This means that regardless of low voltages or other power quality issues, many VFD controllers can still keep pump systems running. In some cases, the variable frequency drive reduces the maximum speed and output of the pump because it is not receiving enough power from the grid, but you still have limited water available. If a VFD is installed for the sole purpose of cleaning up poor-quality power so that your pump can continue to run in a poor power quality environment, make certain that you tell the installer/contractor that this is a key requirement. Some VFD’s manufacturers make equipment that is better suited to this than others. In addition, VFD’s that are installed to help with power quality problems should be significantly larger than the pump they will run. Some manufacturers recommend that the VFD rating should be twice as much as the pump rating if they will be required to run the pump in the event that one of the 3 phases that supply the pump is no longer functional.

Oakville Pump Service has been helping our Napa Valley customers provide water for their critical needs for over 30 years! Whether you are having problems with too much water or too little, our dedicated team of experienced professionals has helped someone through a similar challenge that you are experiencing. Give us a call today at (707)944-2471. If you have topics or questions you’d like us to write about in the blog, please contact us and we’ll work to generate meaningful content!

Hello Folks! This is Wes Lutz and I have been generating the blog content for Oakville Pump Service Since early 2019. OPS is a family business started by my father and owned and operated by my family since 1984. I grew up in the pump and water industry troubleshooting, repairing and designing pumping systems and equipment and have years of experience in the industry. In addition to hands on experience, I have degrees physics and engineering and certification from the California Dept. of Water Resources. Occasionally I will recommend products or tools that our team relys upon to provide the best components and service to our customers. Great products should be promoted! As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Rest assured, quality content and not advertisements will remain the primary focus of our blogs!