balancing panelboard loads in excel?
balancing panelboard loads in excel?
(OP)
Does anyone have a spreadsheet to balance the load of a three phase panelboard? I am currently using a simple spreadsheet to total the loads on the three phases but I need to modify my spreadsheet to balance the loads per phase to within 10 percent of one another.
Any information would be helpful.
Thanks
Any information would be helpful.
Thanks





RE: balancing panelboard loads in excel?
You probably need to come up with a merit equation; something like the rms variation of each phase from the mean and let Excel's solver find load values that minimize the rms variation.
TTFN
RE: balancing panelboard loads in excel?
http://www.mrplc.com/cgi-bin/code/filedisplay.cgi?category=excel
Download "Control Panel Power 1.5 SR"
See if you can use this to your likening.
Chris Elston
Automation & Controls Engineer
http://www.mrplc.com
Download Sample PLC Ladder Logic Code
at MrPLC.com
RE: balancing panelboard loads in excel?
http://members.rogers.com/g.cygalski/download.htm
at the bottom of page point to "Last updated...) link
and click or use the save us option and download the spreadsheet
It is in Excell 2000
RE: balancing panelboard loads in excel?
RE: balancing panelboard loads in excel?
I have projects that have as many as thirty panels and checking each panel manually is time consuming.
Do you have any suggestions on how to setup the spreadsheet so it will balance the loads automatically?
RE: balancing panelboard loads in excel?
RE: balancing panelboard loads in excel?
Start with a worksheet having four columns:
Phase, Way_No, Amps, Load_Name
Red 1 98 Kitchen
Yellow 1 7 AC Fan
Blue 1 44 Motor
Red 2 1 Small Motor
Yellow 2 150 Big Heater
Blue 2 22 Compressor
etc.
If you now select just the data in "Amps" and "Load_Name" columns and sort in either ascending or descending (doesn't matter which) magnitude of "Amps", the load will become reasonably balanced across all phases. You can have three cells displaying the individual phase totals as a check.
This really only works if the loads are spread fairly evenly across a range. If, for instance, the highest load is ten times larger than the next highest load, then the balance obtained will not be acceptable (probably).
I would suggest that you try it on several of your own typical real load figures and see how it turns out.
Let me know how you get on!!
(I'd probably need to use VBA to do anything much more sophisticated).
Brian
RE: balancing panelboard loads in excel?
RE: balancing panelboard loads in excel?
I might not have understood your requirements properly. I thought you were trying to balance the load across three phases on one panel board. Are you, in fact, trying to balance the load across more than one board?
If the boards are all adjacent to one another, that is just an extension of my suggested solution. If the boards are remote from each other, then voltage drop, etc will have a role to play (the board will really need to serve its nearby final circuits).
If you like, you can email me one of the spreadsheets and I'll have another look: my email address is brian.doherty@ntlworld.com.
Regards,
Brian
RE: balancing panelboard loads in excel?
My 2 cents regarding balancing of phases....
It seems to me that the panel/circuit identification process should be proactive. If all panels are balanced automatically, does that mean someone would have to go back and change circuit designations on plans? That sounds like a laborious process and reactive in nature.
Hbendilo's suggestion of changing cell color sounds like a great idea. The individual panel schedule would constantly update phase totals and change color when balancing exceeds preset criteria. When the color changes, additional loads added to the panel would be adjusted to bring the panel into balance.
It seems to me that one wouldn't know if an upstream panel goes out of balance because of circuit entry on a downstream panel. Not sure how best to address that condition. Unless there is some sort of link between the 2 worksheets...
Good Luck