You have upgraded your equipment to modern efficiency - now what?
Up through the 1960s, most of the electric loads found in America were linear loads. In other words, the current flowing through the appliances was a perfect sine wave. These appliances include induction motors, domestic lighting stoves, and most household appliances.
Now, facilities are upgrading to modern VFDs, computerized robotics systems, LED lighting, and other digital systems as prescribed by the US Energy Commission and local utilities. Upgrades intended to help manage usage and reduce carbon footprints have instead resulted in even greater power quality issues within a facility. It turns out that many of these upgrades such as LED lighting, variable frequency drives and UPS systems, constitute a significant source of harmonic distortions being injected into the electrical system. These harmonics can affect other plant parts and even the grid without proper protection.
Industrial / Agricultural / Manufacturing buildings across America are often the epicenter for kVAR.
Why is kVAR important?
Reactive power (KVAR) required by inductive loads increases the amount of apparent power (KVA) in our distribution system. This increase in reactive and apparent power results in a larger angle θ (measured between KW and KVA). So, inductive loads (with large KVAR) result in low power factor. This imbalance between inertia and supplied electrical demand causes many problems internally for facility managers.
What can be done about this?
Thirty years ago, USES® Power Shavers magnetic shunt system was developed. The USES® technology is dynamic, passive, resonance-free and reduces kW demand and kWh consumption through FIVE methods:
First: The USES® system employs magnetic phase balancing of voltage and current to reduce loads’ waste, demand, friction and heat.
Second: Passive resonance-free power factor correction reduces the demand for reactive non-power currents and the associated penalties.
Third: Harmonic filtering of non-power currents and harmonics to reduce the billed kWh consumption and improve power quality.
Fourth: USES® utilizes transient energy conversion through one of the surge protections self-healing magnetic chokes. Electrical energy above and below the operational voltage of a facility is absorbed, reconstituted, and returned to the customer as usable power.
Fifth: Is the ability, through its proprietary chokes, to generate wattage from the magnetic field of each phase, per Faraday’s and Lenz’s Laws, injected into the adjacent phases as usable power, further reducing magnetic fields. The unique arrangement of chokes provides substantial reductions in power usage, especially for inductive loads in an industrial application. The immediate benefit is a verifiable reduction of electric utility bills. Additionally, equipment life increases while costly equipment maintenance and downtime is reduced. The USES® technology employs self-healing magnetic chokes and metal oxide varistors as its two forms of surge and spike protection. The USES® units are not custom-built per loads but are specifically and intentionally placed throughout a facility according to the operational demands. They will protect against damage from surges, sags, and phasing, and USES® systems are maintenance-free. Life expectancy is now approximately 15 to 20 years. USES® is VFD or any control system compatible.
We believe that energy should be treated as a critical asset by the industry. As such, any effort to optimize consumption and increase the efficiency of the plant should be encouraged. Energy efficiency has the added benefit of reducing the facilities overall carbon footprint.
Contact us to discuss how this can work for your facility, and one of our qualified specialists will set up a comprehensive review of your current electrical system.
