Harmonic mitigations and cost savings in a quality milk dairy with Merus™ solutions
Achieving energy efficiency in the food industry is very important as megatrends intensify competition and put pressure on finding increasingly sustainable ways to produce food and energy, and to cover the food needs of the projected population. One way for the overall increase in energy efficiency can be found from the usage of more efficient production technologies. Improvements in the energy efficiency of the food production system are one of the main methods of reducing the environmental footprint without reducing food production itself. Our milk dairy customer company experienced severe harmonic distortions in their production lines, but after the installation of Merus™ solutions, great improvements were made for power quality.
Challenges in the customers milk dairy
Our customer’s quality milk dairy in USA had problems with high harmonic currents, which were mostly caused by the variable speed drives located in the dairy production which is operating 24/7. In order to eliminate penalties applied due the distortion in currents the dairy needed power quality equipment. A third party performed power quality measurements to help the dairy meet power quality standards. Based on the measurements, Merus™ A2-Active Harmonic Filter was chosen to be delivered to achieve the standard requirements.
Solutions that we found for the customer
An UL 508 certificated Merus™ A2-series Active Harmonic Filter was chosen to solve the harmonic distortion. Merus™ A2-Series devices have extremely fast response time, a small footprint, and very low audible noise level, thanks to the modern 3-level topology.
The sizing of the compensation system was based on power quality measurements data to meet IEEE 519-2014 standard limits. Based on the information, an A2-150A cubicle was delivered to the dairy and commissioning took place in March 2020. Production operates 24/7 and loading of production is never zero. The commissioning did not cause any downtime and it was done while the plant was operating normally.
Results and customer benefits
- Fulfill the power quality standards and elimination of penalties
- Effective mitigation of harmonics
- Small footprint
- Low noise
With the Merus™ Solution, 5th, 7th and 11th harmonics were mitigated by splitting the compensation capacity to all three harmonics to achieve the lowest total harmonic distortion (THD) compensation capacity. The THD(i) decreased by 14.6% and the dairy meets IEEE 519-2014 standard limits. Improving the quality of electricity brings direct and indirect savings to the dairy. The most significant direct savings are that they do not have to pay penalties for poor power quality.
Contact us to design solutions that fit for your purposes. Our products are modular and easy to scale for very different needs.