THE CUSTOMER
The customer is a world leader in the design, production and maintenance of ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle) systems, particularly suitable for distributed generation, which generate electricity and heat by exploiting multiple sources, such as renewables (biomass, geothermal, solar energy), traditional fuels and waste heat from industrial processes, waste incinerators, engines or gas turbines.
THE NEED
For the installation of the thermodynamic machine at the end user’s premises, the customer approached Ortea to solve the problem of the high content of harmonics circulating in the electrical system, with the risk of resonance with the MV/LV transformer.
OUR SOLUTION
Ortea’s solution was the 960kvar MULTImatic FH20 switchgear, in a special version: a single line arrival from above with an automatic circuit breaker as required by the customer for its system connection needs.
The FH20 range, with blocking chokes, is a solution that is used when a current with a high harmonic content (THD) and/or a high risk of resonance with the MV/LV transformer circulates in the electrical system.
In these cases, the installation of a ‘normal’ power factor correction device, without bus-bar inductances, can cause the rapid degradation of the capacitors and lead to dangerous electrical and mechanical stresses in the power components of the system (cables, busbars, switches, transformers).
Barring inductances protect the capacitors from harmonics and, at the same time, exclude the risk of resonances; however, they leave the harmonic content of the system’s current unaffected (if the system’s harmonic content is to be reduced, active filters must be installed).