We've got a serious situation with Entergy Louisiana. A pharmaceutical client has been charged $45,000 in power factor penalties over 8 months due to what appears to be a faulty PF meter. The facility has capacitor banks that should keep them above 0.95 but the meter is reading 0.78-0.82 consistently. Plant electricians verified the caps are working and local PF measurements show 0.96. Anyone dealt with Entergy on meter disputes? They're being very resistant to testing.
Entergy Louisiana PF meter malfunction - $45K in penalties
Juan, that's a huge discrepancy. Georgia Power had similar issues with some older electromechanical PF meters. The key is getting them to do a side-by-side test with a portable analyzer. Document everything with timestamps and photos. In Georgia, we had to threaten PSC involvement before they took it seriously.
Had a similar issue with KUB here in Knoxville. Turned out the CT ratio was wrong in the meter shop. Juan, make sure they verify the current transformer ratios match the meter programming. A 200:5 programmed as 100:5 would give you exactly that kind of error.
Gary, that's a great point about CT ratios. I'll have our electrical contractor verify the nameplate ratios against the meter constants. Greg, did Georgia Power reimburse the overcharges once they found the meter problem?
Yes, but it took 4 months and we had to provide detailed load studies proving the facility's actual power factor. They credited about 85% of the penalties - claimed some periods were legitimately low PF. Better than nothing but still frustrating.
Juan, Westar here in Kansas requires a formal meter test request through their customer service engineering group. Costs about $500 but if the meter is wrong, they refund the fee plus penalties. Might be worth checking if Entergy has similar procedures.
Filed the formal request with Entergy. They're scheduling a meter test for next month. Meanwhile, I've installed a data logger to capture the real-time PF readings for comparison. This client runs 24/7 so we should have plenty of data points.
Juan, curious what type of loads this pharma plant has. We see a lot of PF issues with variable frequency drives that aren't properly filtered. Sometimes the harmonics can throw off older meters even when the fundamental PF is good.
Tom, good point about harmonics. They do have several large VFDs on process pumps. The facility was built in 2010 so the electrical design should account for harmonics but worth investigating. The meter test showed a 3% error - not huge but significant over 8 months of penalties.
3% error on power factor calculations can easily translate to thousands in penalties on a large account. Juan, did Entergy agree the error was significant enough to warrant credits?
They agreed to credit $38,000 out of the $45,000. Still fighting over the remaining $7,000 but considering the months of effort, the client is satisfied. New meter installed and readings are now consistent with our data logger. Thanks everyone for the advice.
Great persistence Juan! For future reference, MLGW here in Memphis has started using smart meters with better PF accuracy and data logging. Might be worth suggesting to Entergy as they upgrade their metering infrastructure. These kinds of disputes should become less common with better technology.