Power Factor Equipment Install

Following on from a recent site maintenance from one of our engineers it was found that the existing panel-built Power Factor Equipment had failed and due to the age of many of the components being over 25 years old it was recommended that a new stand along Power Factor unit be installed. Due to the LV panel having no spare 400A switches it was decided that the new PFC unit was to be connected direct to the bus bars and a new 400A fuse switch would be installed inside the new equipment. This was done during sites next a scheduled LV shutdown.

The unit was close couped to the end of the existing mains panel and connected with new cables to the busbars as well as running a new C.T cable so the unit can see the sites loads.  Once the power was restored to site the unit was commissioned and left operating.

The New Power Factor unit consists of 2 stages of 25kVAr and 3 stages of 50kVAr, controlled by a 5 stage Lovato digital control relay. Having different sized capacitor stages allows the unit to provide finer correction at lower loads and the digital controller lets site to view information regarding the health of the Power Factor along with other readings such as KW, kVAr & KVA.