Canceling harmonic current distortion and securing reliability of operations in a sweet bakery

In food production, the reliability of operations basically determines the availability of products to customers. If production equipment does not work smoothly and reliably, production will be disrupted, and this will affect availability, customer satisfaction, and finally the company’s revenue. In the process industry, production processes are often automated and need a steady stream of electricity to support continuous and fast process operations. The machines used in production are prone to harmonic distortions. As our customer’s business grew, problems related to harmonic distortions could be anticipated and prepared for in advance with our solutions.

Challenges in the customer’s sweet bakery

Sweet bakery manufacturer Rich Products UK decided to consolidate its production from 4 different locations to a single newly built state-of-the-art manufacturing facility. Built on a 15-Acre site, the new manufacturing facility size is equal to 11 football pitches. Fully automated food production processes at the new facility demanded enhanced reliability and availability in order to meet growing customer demands for quality and on-time delivery.

Due to the presence of a majority of non-linear loads at the site in the form of AC drives, SMPS, and UPS, the harmonic current distortion was expected to be significantly high. Ensuring the best-in-class reliability of highly critical processes remained a challenge with such extreme harmonic distortions. Therefore, the design consulting firm specified active harmonic filters in the project.

Our Merus^® Solution

Merus Power’s local partner Power Capacitors Ltd proposed Merus^® A2-series Active Harmonic Filters to the customer in two different locations at the factory. Merus^® A2-series Active Harmonic Filters successfully complied with the stringent product technical specifications. Initial sizing of the active harmonic filters was done based on the current loads at the factory. However, the consultants also wanted to have contingency for a future increase. Therefore, the active harmonic filter solutions were re-sized to make them a future-proof solution.

Factory-tested Merus^® A2-series Active Harmonic Filters were shipped on time in IP20 format and were integrated into IP54 cabinets in the UK by Power Capacitors Ltd. Installation was made in closed-loop connection while the selectable mode was chosen to mitigate the specific harmonic frequencies having the most disruptive effects.