Elplek

Elplek is a lightweight and portable piece of kit that enables you to calculate all currents in a network in the event of different faults, such as line-to-line or line-to-earth fault.

Since there is no installation involved, you can drop the program files in a custom location on the disk and simply click the executable to launch Elplek. There is also the option to save it to a USB flash drive to be able to run it on any PC with minimum effort. Unlike most installers, it doesn't modify Windows registry settings.

Represented by a large window that shows all available components, the interface seems outdated. However, it's quite easy to navigate. These objects can be inserted into the project using drag-and-drop support.

Supported components include impedance, capacitor, load or PQ source (or bus), feeder, unsymmetrical load, generator, asynchronous motor or generator, isolating, grounding and mutual impedance, various transformators (e.g. three-winding, ideal 1:1 YD, sum current), breaker, wire, terminating start, electromechanical and polygonal distance relay, and short circuit, among others.

It's possible to customize the color of each module, edit properties, enable filters, copy a component's properties to the Clipboard and paste them into another component, open breakers from external text documents, locate nodes, build and analyze reports, write notes, and change measurement units.

Several calculators are available for various aspects, such as per unit, k0, impedance sum, shunt capacitor, relay coordinations and PGQ relay equations. What's more, you can export the entire diagram to BMP, WMF, DAT, ATP or JPG files, as well as save currents and impedances with times.

No error dialogs popped up in our tests, and the software application didn't freeze or crash. Its impact on the overall performance of the machine was minimal, as it needed low CPU and RAM to work properly.

Too bad that Elplek is not that intuitive for less experienced users. Plus, its interface could use some improvements in the visual department. Otherwise, the tool features rich options and configuration settings to help you calculate and analyze currents within an electrical network.