Glossary

Process Impact Alarm

Process impact alarms are used by the Power Quality Performance module. These alarms indicate that a monitored process has been disrupted. If the disruption coincides with a power quality event, then the Power Quality Performance module assumes that it was caused by the event. The module then applies a flat-rate cost estimate to the duration of the process impact alarm to calculate an impact cost.

Process impact alarms can be generated based on:

  • An electrical value, for example a current, voltage, or power measurement, taken by a power monitoring device. The software detects the process impact based on certain conditions for the measurement, for example a drop or increase.
  • A process impact signal from a third party system or equipment, such as:
    • A digital or analog value that is hard wired to the input of a power monitor, or PLC, which is connected to the software.
    • An OPC tag served up by an OPC server and read by the software through it's OPC client capabilities.
Software Features

A feature is a system functions that can be used without requiring custom engineering. Most features require some configuration, such as selecting the input parameters for a report, or the specification of sources, measurements and time ranges for dashboard gadgets. Examples of features include the Dashboards, Diagrams, Trends, Alarms, and Reports applications.

Software Modules

Software modules combine different software features and capabilities to create a specific set of deliverables. Software modules are designed around a particular application. Examples of software modules include the Power Quality Performance Module, the Energy Analysis Reports Module, and the Breaker Performance Module.

System databases

Power Monitoring Expert uses four databases to store device communication parameters, system configuration settings, and logged historical data:

Database Description
ApplicationModules Contains all of the configuration data for the Web Applications component.
ION_Data Contains the logged historical data, events, and waveforms from devices.
ION_Network Contains device communication information and general settings.
ION_SystemLog Contains system events that occur during the operation of the software.
System migration

A system migration is when you move a Power Monitoring Expert system from one computer to another, or uninstall and re-install it on the same computer.

Alarm

A condition that is being monitored for a particular source in the system. Example: Monitoring for an over voltage on feeder X.

Occurrence

The alarm condition for the monitored source is met and the alarm goes active. Example: The voltage on feeder X exceeds the threshold

Alarm Instance

The time period during which an alarm is active, starting when it goes active, ending when it goes inactive.

Alarm Status

The state the alarm is in. Alarm Status is either active or inactive.