our services

PBE Engineers Customer Groups

What are PQ Engineering Services?

PBE’s nine core PQ engineering services are designed to identify the causes of problems with your building’s electrical system & electrical/electronic equipment, determine a solution to these problems & help you avoid them next time. Our services include:

Our Special Projects service is designed to address the unusual power quality problems (low & high frequency) that occur with power, building & equipment.

Customer Building PQ & EMI Investigations

Customer building PQ & EMI investigations are necessary, so that the causes of your system & equipment problems can be identified, solved & prevented. PBE already understands how, why, when & where they occur. The only thing left to do is engage a PBE field engineering team to comb through your building electrical system to find & document the specific problems causing your system & equipment to malfunction & fail, causing your business to lose money.

Power Quality (PQ) Monitoring

PBE installs temporary & permanent PQ monitors to aid our engineers in the investigation of customer electrical system & equipment problems. PBE uses monitors capable of recording all of the voltage & current behavior. Selecting the right monitoring point, installing the voltage & current probes, programming the monitor’s thresholds & correct interpretation of the monitoring data are critical when needing to understand, identify, solve & prevent PQ problems. 

Training

Training delivered by energy, power & power quality experts with decades of experience develops customer knowledge, prepares new and experienced electricians & engineers interested in solving the real electrical problems they encounter with their customers. PBE Engineers offers five training options, based on proven e-Learning platforms and face-to-face training venues. This helps us help you meet your needs and expectations. All of our courses are offered in each training option.

PQ Engineering Review Of Building Electrical Systems & Equipment Power Supplies

Whether you’re designing the electrical system for a new building (or campus), adding an electrical system to an existing building, or designing in a new production line (or system), an electronic power supply or piece of equipment into an existing building, having PBE review your design for PQ performance will help you & your customer reduce the risk of malfunctions, damage & failures. Architects & Engineers should design electrical systems that can minimize & control electrical instabilities when utility disturbances, thunderstorms & customer load operations / switching occur. Offering this service to your customers as part of you’re A & E service will help you secure the job & build the confidence needed to ensure you are the right A & E firm to do the work.

PQ Engineering Review Of Energy Efficiency Products

Utilities do more than sell power. They are engaged in maintaining their own power quality and helping customers learn about energy savings, energy efficiency and how to reduce consumption & greenhouse gases. This is a large area for utilities as they are mandated by public service commissions (PSCs) to save a specific amount of energy annually or every so many years. To do this, utilities must be aware of the energy efficiency technologies available on the market.

Lightning Studies

All areas on the Earth’s surface are at some level of risk of damage caused by thunderstorms & lightning strikes. Similarly, objects above & below the surface are at risk as well. No one can determine when lightning will strike, where it will strike, or the paths lightning currents take. Lightning current can flow through metal & the air but also through wood, concrete & soil among many other not-so-obvious conductors. Lightning currents can reach hundreds of amp at millions of volts. Unfortunately, lightning has caused many injuries, deaths & damage to utility & customer electrical systems & electrical/electronic equipment. Moreover, many customers who need a lightning protection system (LPS) installed on their facilities don’t have them.

Special Projects

In many cases, customers—utilities, A&E firms, equipment manufacturers & end users need special PQ projects designed & implemented to reduce & control the risk of system & equipment malfunctions, damage & failures in common every day electrical environments. PBE Engineer’s Special Projects service allows you to package several customized services. Examples include electric vehicle (EV) projects combined with distributed generation projects or testing specialized electrical & electronic equipment in very unique mission-critical environments including those associated with US Government agencies.

E-Learning

Utilities, architectural & engineering firms, building designers & end users are becoming more interested in power quality (PQ) as power becomes a more critical commodity for operating their customers’ businesses. Utilities are receiving more complaints about poor PQ. Utility customers are demanding more reliable and available power with fewer disturbances. Our digital society depends on power injected at nearly every point to keep our economy and businesses ticking. These needs are attracting more engineers to learn about the PQ industry. However, although the demand for quality power increases beginners, intermediate learners & advanced students. These training courses are offered through our PBE e-Learning Center.

Power Systems & PQ Studies

Power Systems and Power Quality (PQ) engineering studies provide the capability to evaluate utility and customer system problems and mitigation techniques, distribution system planning and operations, distributed generation, energy conservation, energy conversion, and end-user power quality requirements. Our power system modeling and analysis capabilities provide the foundation for all other activities within this core area of PBE’s expertise. Primary activities include computer modeling and simulation and analysis for the evaluation of power systems harmonic and transient phenomena. Additional expertise includes traditional power system analysis functions, such as distribution planning, stability, short circuit, and load flow. Important capabilities include voltage variation analysis, surge studies, harmonic studies, utility capacitor-switching analysis, insulation coordination analysis, loss reduction analysis & load upgrade / impact analysis.

Arc Flash Studies

An arc-flash hazard study is an analysis of the arc-flash hazards at a facility or site. The purpose of an arc flash study is to determine the appropriate Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) and safe distances at various pieces of electrical equipment inside and around the facility including substations, switchboards, switchgear, power distribution panel boards, branch circuit panels and motor control centers. The Arc-Flash Hazard Analysis takes the short circuit analysis and protective device coordination study another step forward by determining incident energy levels, required PPE, and boundary distances between humans and energized electrical equipment. This information is printed on a serial-numbered industry-approved label that must be attached to the front of electrical equipment. The information on the label provides the required information enabling the facility owner, plant manager or site electrical engineer to comply with the NFPA/IEEE guidelines that are enforced by OSHA standards and inspectors.

Customer building PQ & EMI investigations are necessary, so that the causes of your system & equipment problems can be identified, solved & prevented. PBE already understands how, why, when & where they occur. The only thing left to do is engage a PBE field engineering team to comb through your building electrical system to find & document the specific problems causing your system & equipment to malfunction & fail, causing your business to lose money.

Power Quality (PQ) Monitoring

PBE installs temporary & permanent PQ monitors to aid our engineers in the investigation of customer electrical system & equipment problems. PBE uses monitors capable of recording all of the voltage & current behavior. Selecting the right monitoring point, installing the voltage & current probes, programming the monitor’s thresholds & correct interpretation of the monitoring data are critical when needed to understand, identify, solve & prevent PQ problems. 

Training

Training delivered by energy, power & power quality experts with decades of experience develops customer knowledge, prepares new and experienced electricians & engineers interested in solving the real electrical problems they encounter with their customers. PBE Engineers offers five training options, based on proven e-Learning platforms and face-to-face training venues. This helps us help you meet your needs and expectations. All of our courses are offered in each training option.

PQ Engineering Review Of Building Electrical Systems & Equipment Power Supplies

Whether you’re designing the electrical system for a new building (or campus), adding an electrical system to an existing building, or designing in a new production line (or system), an electronic power supply or piece of equipment into an existing building, having PBE review your design for PQ performance will help you & your customer reduce the risk of malfunctions, damage & failures. Architects & Engineers should design electrical systems that can minimize & control electrical instabilities when utility disturbances, thunderstorms & customer load operations / switching occur. Offering this service to your customers as part of you’re A & E service will help you secure the job & build the confidence needed to ensure you are the right A & E firm to do the work.

PQ Engineering Review Of Energy Efficiency Products

Utilities do more than sell power. They are engaged in maintaining their own power quality and helping customers learn about energy savings, energy efficiency and how to reduce consumption & greenhouse gases. This is a large area for utilities as they are mandated by public service commissions (PSCs) to save a specific amount of energy annually or every so many years. To do this, utilities must be aware of the energy efficiency technologies available on the market.

Lightning Studies


All areas on the Earth’s surface are at some level of risk of damage caused by thunderstorms & lightning strikes. Similarly, objects above & below the surface are at risk as well. No one can determine when lightning will strike, where it will strike, or the paths lightning currents take. Lightning current can flow through metal & the air but also through wood, concrete & soil among many other not-so-obvious conductors. Lightning currents can reach millions of amps. Unfortunately, lightning has caused many injuries, deaths & damage to utility & customer electrical systems & electrical/electronic equipment. Moreover, many customers who need a lightning protection system (LPS) installed on their facilities don’t have them.

e-Knowledge Learning Course

PBE Engineers provides the world’s best e-knowledge online system for beginning and advanced power quality engineers.