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Active Contributor

Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 17

Electrical Protection

03/08/2009 5:16 AM

Can anybody tell me how I can protect my site from bad electrical supply from our National supplier.

We are in a remote part of Mozambique and before I get lots of local electricians trying to sell me lots of different products, I would like to find out the best way to protect our site.

The supplier of power sends us all sorts of different voltages, we are on three phase 380 volt 50hz however sometimes we get 480 volts and sometimes only 180 volts on different phases.

My problem is because of these power fluctuations we have had a number of our switches burn out and I am really worried about us having a fire.

We are drawing about 160 kva

What I am trying to achieve is not to cut off the power supply every 10 minutes but if there is any major fluctuation then we would like to cut this supply for a predetermined time period.

We do have a backup generator.

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Active Contributor

Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 22
#1

Re: Electrical Protection

03/08/2009 8:41 AM

You can choose suitable servo controlled voltage stabilzer for incoming national supply.It will take care about voltage variations.If you dont get in your country ,you can get from India.

best of luck

lavurk

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Guru
Safety - ESD - New Member India - Member - New Member Engineering Fields - Energy Engineering - New Member

Join Date: May 2007
Location: Pune , India
Posts: 875
Good Answers: 42
#2

Re: Electrical Protection

03/08/2009 2:45 PM

The best solution I suggest is buy a 160 kVA servo controlled voltage stabiliser and install at your main receiving . This will protect all your equipments and also you do not have to shutdown the plant due to power for voltage fluctuations. I did solve a similar problem by installing one manufactured by Automatic Electric which gave me trouble free service for many years and with improved production my pay back period was little more than a year.

http://www.aelindia.com/isite.htm

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Anonymous Poster
#4
In reply to #2

Re: Electrical Protection

03/09/2009 1:30 AM

Definitely,

you need a voltage regulating device of suitable current carrying capacity. Single phase ones normally give 230V output from 180V - 280V input.

When power is as bad as yours it is generally very noisy too. So a voltage reulating device with an active tracking filter would be necessary. Sensitive electronic equipment is very sensitive to this.

Your choice is whether you need to regulate the three phase power, or just those phases as needed. For example for your computers you would need the full deal, but for motors and relays just voltage regulation would be adequate.

Regards......Ralph.

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Power-User
Ireland - Member - New Member Engineering Fields - Energy Engineering - New Member

Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Northern Ireland
Posts: 197
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#3

Re: Electrical Protection

03/09/2009 1:29 AM

This is a product I have used successfully, for such users as Weta Workshops

http://www.vectek.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3&Itemid=11

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Participant

Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 4
Good Answers: 1
#5

Re: Electrical Protection

03/09/2009 9:58 AM

A good solution is to get a good UPS system which can take the voltage/frequency fluctuations to power a bank of batteries and capacitors. The UPS will have an output that is clean. There are several of these available from Marine contractors and are used on drilling rigs and ships that also have sensitive navigation and switch gear devices. Elgar is one manufacturer that I have experience with-especially running logging units in remote areas like Nigeria and Angola.

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Anonymous Poster (1); BabyGuinness (1); lavurk (1); mleiwig (1); V.I.Abraham (1)

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