Industry
MV/LV transformer substation for an engineering plant
A new 1,250 kVA delivery and transformer substation for a metalworking firm, designed to double available capacity without stopping production.
The problem
The plant had been running at the ceiling of its contracted capacity for years. Two new machining centres would need more power than the existing substation — built in the early nineties — could deliver. The binding constraint, though, was not technical: production could not stop for longer than a single weekend.
What we did
We designed a new 1,250 kVA delivery and transformer substation in a standalone external structure, so that it could be built and wired in full while the old installation stayed in service. The changeover happened inside a thirty-six hour window during the August shutdown.
The design covered MV and LV switchgear sizing, the protection scheme to CEI 0-16, a new earthing system and automatic power factor correction. We handled the grid connection application with the distribution operator directly — which turned out to be the longest single item in the whole job.
The outcome
Available capacity doubled, with room in the switchboards for a further expansion the client already has in mind. Automatic power factor correction removed the low-power-factor penalties from their bills, and that saving alone paid back its share of the investment in a little under three years.
