A leading chocolate and confectionery manufacturer was losing hours of production to momentary power events. Mobile Automation designed and installed a 750 kVA kinetic UPS so those events stop before they reach the plant.
What the power events were costing
The losses came from brief disturbances rather than long outages.
- Spikes and flickers on the incoming supply crashing the computer-controlled lines
- Every restart costing production time
- Every restart costing finished product
Fifteen seconds of ride-through, no batteries
The system stores energy in flywheels rather than a battery bank.
- 750 kVA of capacity from three 250 kVA flywheel units
- Around 15 seconds of ride-through on loss of supply
- Enough to carry the plant through virtually all mains events
Tied into a live main switchboard
The system was cut in around the plant's production schedule.
- New 1600 A circuit breaker installed on the main switchboard
- New UPS distribution boards installed and sub-circuits rerouted through them
- Changeover cabling carried out outside production times so the plant was not affected
The results
- Momentary power events no longer reach production
- Ride-through delivered without batteries to maintain
- Delivered on time and on budget
- Critical-power engineering, switchboard works and installation all by one team