The modern world has come to rely greatly on electricity, which is essential for our daily lives as well as for the operation of every industry. The Fukushima nuclear crisis of Japan in 2011 that evolved from one country's power supply problem, has affected many industrial supply chains around the world, and has increased industry's awareness of the importance of power. However, the generation of power depends on non-renewable resources that are being exhausted at unprecedented speed. Since renewable energy technology has not yet matured enough to become a main source of power, our responsibility is to cherish our limited resources.
To make the best use of limited resources, the energy conversion rate is key, and power quality, which is related to variation of voltage, current waveform and frequency, is of core importance. With the development of electronics, a great number of inverters, UPSs, switching power supplies, and many other devices are required for today's industrial applications. However proportional harmonics, reactive power and a low power factor can reduce energy efficiency and overheating problems can cause system malfunction or damage to production facilities. Given this impact, most power utilities in the world have put restrictions on power factors for industry accounts. In China, if a user's power factor is lower than 0.9, every 0.1 drop in the power factor will result in a 5% fine added to their total electricity bill, while every 0.05 improvement in the power factor, the user will receive a 0.15% discount on their bill.
Power quality is of crucial relevance to manufacturing productivity. In Zhejiang, China, a listed company producing cooking utensils with a dominant market share of China's domestic market encountered power quality problems that affected their productivity and operation. The company adopted large-power silicon controlled rectifiers to ensure the processing quality of electrolyzing and electroplating. The rectifiers, however, caused serious harmonic distortion to the low-voltage power grid, damage to the capacitor cabinets, overheating of the transformers and power distribution room, and the high-frequency resonance brought by harmonics also caused extreme noise that made it a challenging environment for people to work in. Once the system started to operate, a huge amount of energy was wasted. The inferior power quality brought the company fines from power utilities and system instability, which in worst case scenario, could pose a fire hazard that endangered the whole facility.
With concern for environmental issues and corporate sustainability as well as years of experience in power electronics, Delta provides a solution that effectively improves power quality and the energy conversion rate. Addressing the power quality issues the company in Zhejiang, China faced, Delta proposed a solution with rectifier sides. Six of Delta's APF2000 series active power filters were allocated to the sides of three electroplating systems in parallel connection to the power grid. These filter devices monitored the load current in real time using a current transformer and injected the exact opposite phase to the network of components that were to be filtered, making an effective and dynamic harmonic compensation with a harmonic management rate of 96%.
With Delta's power quality solution the company's power factor improved to 0.95, and the voltage and current harmonic distortion rate was significantly reduced to less than 5%. The company saved big on power bills as they were free from fines, and their operations, manufacturing productivity, and safety all improved as the systems no longer experienced harmonic distortion interference.
Every power resource matters. Delta's power quality series of products include the AFE2000 series active front ends, the APF2000 series active power filters, and the SVG2000 series of static var generators, which provide users with a multi-dimensional package to solve issues caused by power quality problems, such as the loss of productivity, system expenditure, maintenance cost and the safety and health of operation staff. Delta's power quality solutions also help users make the best use of the limited power resources and provide safety, reliability, efficiency, and energy savings for production systems and the environment. Delta's power quality solution helps users improve their competitiveness. It also represents Delta's long term endeavor to the world's sustainable development and the realization of Delta's brand promise “Smarter. Greener. Together.”