Reactive Power & Apple Iphone Storage

Aug. 24, 2015

When you are first introduced to reactive power, you are most likely informed that: reactive power performs useless work

Ahmed Mousa

When you are first introduced to reactive power, you are most likely informed that: reactive power performs useless work and in many locations customers do not pay for reactive power usage; you are then shown the beer example, where reactive power is compared to the beer foam.

I think a better illustration is the iPhone storage, i.e. after purchasing a 16Gb iPhone 6+ and taking few pictures, you will soon realize that you ran out of space; at that moment, you realize that you only have 11GB or so of storage to use for your pictures/videos and apps, where did the rest go? Well, the 4-5 GB, which represents 25-30% of the overall space is usually used by the operating system, etc.; there is an ongoing lawsuit against Apple for using too much of the user’s storage for their latest updates. The attached picture clearly shows the issue: 11.5GB+12.5MB is way less than 16GB.

Tdworld Com Sites Tdworld com Files Uploads 2015 06 Storage

Hate it or love it, we need an operating system for our phones, computers, etc. Remember many years back when you accidently deleted a windows’ file and your computer went haywire, nothing worked till you reinstalled the same file or reinstalled windows again.

To better understand the importance of reactive power, learn about the impact of the electric system/grid when there is a deficiency of reactive power. Reactive power is like the glue that keeps the electric grid intact, since voltage is the potential difference, i.e. pressure difference, think of reactive power as the tool needed to maintain proper pressure. Adequate reactive power is extremely crucial during emergency events when a generator, a transmission line, etc. is lost.

About the Author

Ahmed Mousa | Principal Engineer/Adjunct Professor/Board Member/Founder & CEO

Ahmed Mousa, M.S.E.E., has over 12 years of experience in transmission, sub-transmission, substations and distribution systems with industry leaders such as Consolidated Edison, PSE&G, PEPCO, and First Energy. He is a subject matter expert in transmission/sub-transmission, distribution and substation planning. Ahmed has years of expertise conducting PSS/E load flows, i.e. forced & scheduled outages analysis, phase angle studies, voltage analysis, network/non-network load transfers. Ahmed provides analysis and support during heat waves, storms and other system emergencies.

Mr. Mousa is an Adjunct Professor at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) teaching advanced topics graduate electrical engineering courses.

Mr. Mousa serves on the New Jersey Association of Energy Engineers board as a board member.

Mr. Mousa is currently the Principal Engineer at PSE&G in the Electric Delivery Planning section, where he is responsible for managing power system generation, transmission and distribution simulation studies, developing the short/ long range substation forecasts, analysis and load relief, performing short circuit studies, performing breaker duty analysis, developing transmission and distribution station and feeder designs, reviewing large customer demand proposals. Mr. Mousa is responsible for all Distributed Energy Resources technical evaluations and interconnection agreements.

Mr. Mousa is the Founder/CEO of The Electric Bridge Consulting firm assisting large and small utilities, colleges/universities & consulting firms by providing electric utility services, educational/training services, consulting services, leadership seminars, career consulting, lecturing services, electric professional engineering courses & national & international webinars.

Mr. Mousa was responsible for the short term, long term (1/5/10/20/30 years), and emergency planning for the area substation, transmission / sub-transmission feeders and the 4 kV system at Consolidated Edison. He has conducted several studies on the impact of electric vehicles, distributed generation, steam to AC conversion, energy efficiency models, and R&D initiatives on the distribution and transmission system.

Mr. Mousa was the project manager for a SCADA GE XA21 Energy Management System and the project manager and project engineer for President Obama’s Department of Energy stimulus grant for Consolidated Edison’s 4 kV system.

Awards include the 2009 3rd Quarter Distribution Engineering ALVA Award for 21st Century Leader, the 2012 “Sustain Energy Reliability” Team Award, and the 2013 Excellence in Design and Genius Engineer (EDGE) Award Nominee for “Developed Load Calculation Tools for System and Transmission Operations.” He has over eight years of experience in providing training in a wide range of subjects including PSS/E, 4 kV systems, distributed generation grid adoption, system operation outage analysis, transformer ratings, voltage studies, basic and advanced power flow, intermeshes, phase angle studies, capacitor bank impact on the grid, smart grid, plant information (PI), post contingency analysis, voltage reduction, and conservation voltage optimization. Mr. Mousa received his Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering from Stony Brook University and later a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering from Manhattan College and has completed the Siemens PTI Distribution and Transmission courses.