Cement Manufacturer

Cement manufacturer — energy audit & power factor correction

A cement producer was paying heavy utility surcharges and could not explain where the energy went. Large motor loads ran uncorrected, and the plant’s power factor sat well below the utility threshold month after month.

The challenge

Mills, crushers and fans imposed a large inductive load with significant harmonic content from existing drives. Uncorrected, this meant reactive-power penalties, hot cables and transformers running closer to their limits than the load justified.

What NPE built

• ✓A metered energy audit across incomers and major feeders to map real and reactive consumption
• ✓Automatic power factor correction panels with microprocessor regulators and multi-step capacitor switching
• ✓Detuned reactor stages so correction holds safely in the harmonic-rich sections of the plant
• ✓HRC-fuse protection and ventilated enclosures rated for the mill environment
• ✓Power analysers at the incomers so the plant can watch its own power factor and consumption trends

The results

Power factor now holds at 0.97 at the point of supply, eliminating reactive penalties, and released capacity deferred a planned transformer upgrade. The correction plant paid for itself in nine months; the monitoring NPE installed keeps proving the saving every billing cycle.