A machine I have to power up calls for 400v AC plus or minus 10%, 3 Ph, + PE 50 or 60Hz 15kVA 63 amp. Whats the PE stand for in the 50 or 60 Hz.
There is 277/480v avialable panel. I should be able to run a Brown orange yellow #6 with a neutral and ground. The 400v machine should be vary somewhat, probably made in another country. 480 volt 3 ph should work because of the 10% variable, correct?
I know they use 50 Hz in Europe.

On the front of the panel door I would use it says 50/14K 22.8 max amp avialable at this location. What do they mean by this?
It looks like a standard 277/480volt 3ph panel, probably 400 or 600 amp, didn't check the wire size coming in from the service section, but looks like there is a lot of room in the panel to add breakers. There are only 3 - 3ph 60a breakers and about 6 - 277 volt lighting circuits. It also feeds a transformer which feeds a 120/208 panel.

Lets see.. 10% of 400v is 40v.. 480v would be 20% high.. I'd say the acceptable range would be 360-440v.

would PE be Protective Earth? (ie: ground.)

How about using Buck transformers at 20% to get 400V?

I would think they would set it up to be able to use on common american machines.

PE is used with some equipment to be the terminal for Safety Ground. This means that PE must be connected to your system ground.

Something about the numbers don't add up. For example, the full-load current for a 15kva machine is 21.6 Amps at 400V, not 63 as indicated.

Could the "50/14K 22.8 max amps available" be shorthand for the available short circuit current at the main lugs of the panelboard and the interrupting capacity of the main breaker? Again, the numbers don't sound right for the fault current rating.

(Could the "50/14K 22.8 max amps available" be shorthand for the available short circuit current at the main lugs of the panelboard and the interrupting capacity of the main breaker? Again, the numbers don't sound right for the fault current rating.)

There is no main breaker, it is fed from a service section cut-off switch with fuses.
Ya, not sure what they mean by that on the main panel.

No neutral necessary.
PE is IEC for BE earth/ AE ground
there must be two different Amp ratings, one for 230 in delta and the other for 400 in Y.

I suppose a tranny is mandatory (as far as I can see that from Germany)

400V +/- 10% means it's designed for a nominal voltage of 400V but the actual voltage can be up to 10% above or below the nominal value without damaging the equipment. This tolernace is intended to compensate voltage drop due to feeder length, voltage fluctuations under heavy load,... and the US 480V sure have a tolernace range too! (IIRC the US 120V are +/- 5% for example). So if you take a 5% tolerance the 480 might actually go up to 504V! And that will for sure kill the 400V machine.

You're going to need a transformer. "400" volt appears to be the newer configuration for Euro machines like yours. If you find an older transformer the secondary is likely to be "380" volt, which will generally work just as well.

The "50/14K 28.8" is probably someones short hand that means: This is a short circuit series rated panelboard that allows the use of 14kA breakers on a system with up to 50kA available, but the utility is currently only providing 28.8kA.

JBD, it did say something about it being series rated.. or something, never seen that before on a panel, what do they mean by that?

Looks like I may need a transformer, The customer hasn't ordered the machine, he might get a different brand. He was checking with me if the correct hookup was there.

The 400-volt rating comes from the current European standard for 4-wire wye systems which was introduced a few years ago.

Britain had standardized on 240/415, whereas many other European countries had adopted 220/380. The 230/400 nominal rating was adopted as a "midway" standard for the whole of Europe.

You'll certainly need a transformer to hook up, as 480V with its tolerances is much too high.

And yes, PE is Protective Earth -- The equipment grounding conductor in American parlance.

Since the feeder conductors size and size of the OC protection hasn't been determined, could the "22.8 max amp available" mean that the calculated load of existing circuits allows for a 22.8A load of new circuitry can be added to the panel?

steve

stamcon, That 22.8a is too low, there are 60a breakers in them for the A/C's

aldav,
I'd suggest using the 'search' feature of this site to look up the following terms: 'series rating', 'available short circuit current', 'SSCR'. You will find lots to read up on.

In a nut shell, when you have a short circuit, the current flow is limited by the characteristics of the supply transformer, the circuit up to the point of the fault, and possibly any motors connected to the system that could regenerate power into the fault. The circuit breaker itself does _not_ limit the current flow significantly. It is the job of the circuit breaker to _interrupt_ this current flow. Available fault current is generally much greater than the continuous rating of the loads served; in residential applications with 100A services, fault current requirements of 2500A to 10000A are quite common.

If the short circuit current flow is too high, then the circuit breaker will _fail_. The current that a breaker is capable of interrupting is one of the ratings of the breaker, just like voltage or trip current. The breaker must be rated to interrupt the available fault current.

A 'series rating' is an exception to this general rule. Generally you have multiple breakers in series, eg. the main breaker at the service, followed by a breaker supplying a feeder to a panel, followed by a branch circuit breaker in the subpanel. The 'series rating' permits you to use specific combinations of upstream and downstream breakers, where only the upstream breaker is rated for the available fault current. To use a 'series rating' you are limited to using those _specific_ breaker combinations that have been tested. You need to evaluate the feeder as well as the panel that you are looking at to select a suitable branch circuit breaker.

-Jon

Acme makes a 15KVA transformer to step down from 575v 3ph primary side to 460v sec side. If I apply 277/480v pri side, supposed to get about 404v out sec side, Acme says.

If it is a 575:460V step down transformer, and you use it with an input of 480V, then the output will be 384V.

Additionally, if it is rated for 15KVA at 575V input and you use it with 480V input, then it will only have about 12.5KVA of capacity.

Finally, you should consider using 'buck-boost' transformers. These are auto-transformers rather than isolating transformers, where the KVA rating of the transformer only needs to be the output current times the _difference_ between supply and output voltage. You could adjust the 480V supply to the desired 400V output, at 15KVA on the output, with as little as pair of 1KVA transformers in an open delta connection...however for your application SOLA appears to recommend 3 of their 1KVA transformers in and 'auto-wye' configuration. See http://www.solaheviduty.com/products/transformers/BuckBoost/index.html and go through their 'selection steps'

-Jon