Help!: 415v Power Distribution Question

[waxensens]

Hi Everyone,

I'm designing an electrical system and I have a question about 415v/240v power distribution units (PDU's) that I cannot find the answer to online. The facility I'm working on has 13.2kV coming in from the utility and we are planning on transforming directly to 208v. It would be much easier to transform to 480v, but the cost saving in labor and additional materials it would take to have a final output of 208 makes the transformation directly to 208v more practical.

However, I have stumbled upon a few companies that offer 415v/240v power distribution units (PDU's). 240v is fully usable for our equipment, so this option looks attractive. I cannot find out how we would feed in 415v. 13.2kV to 415Y transformers do not look like they exist in the capacity we need, and I'm not positive that a 480 transformer can directly connect to a 415v panel.

Can 480v feed a 415v/240v panel? Any help would be very appreciated.

Thanks!

[Jean_Commeignes]

Thanks for your quite interesting question, @waxensens !

We understand that your question has two parts:

• Do 13.2kV to 415V transformers exist, in the capacity you need?
  
  
  • Could you please validate this is one part of your question?
  • Could you please indicate for which country you are looking for such offers, and what is the capacity you need?
• Can 480V transformer output feed a 415V/240V panel? 

Looking forward to reading your additional indications to best orient our answers.

Best

jean

[MathieuGuillot · Accepted solution]

Hello @waxensens ,

In addition to the answer from @Jean_Commeignes for clarification, I would like to add the following :

480Vac / 208Vac (60Hz) voltage are very common in North America and are usually coming with UL / NFPA NEC set of requirements.

In IEC / EN family of standard, 400Vac (up to 415Vac) / 230V (240V) is the standard value for Low Voltage distribution.

Some seldom product or equipment may cover both families of standard but usually it is not the more cost effective soultion if you don't need it.

So my recomendaton is to clarify the family of standard for electrical distribution you want:

- IEC 60364 "Low voltage electrical installation"  family or related national wiring rules such as BS7671, NFC15100...) it will define the type of product and equipment (IEC/EN 61439 for panel for example, IEC/EN 60947 for devices..)

- NFPA70 ("US National Electric code : NEC") that will set another family of standard such as UL/NEMA panel, UL489 circuit-breakers...

And then select the voltage accordingly.

From a transformer perspective everything is virtually possible, of course some special voltages will not be standard and price and delivery time of the transformer will be affected but everything will be much simpler downstream if you go for IEC voltage if you want IEC equipment, or North America voltage if you want UL equipment and NFPA 70 - NEC type of electrical distribution. 

Regards