Reducing System Losses for Utilities and Distribution and Transmission companies

A transformer is the core and among the most essential equipment for transmission and distribution of electricity. According to estimates, every megawatt of power capacity needs around 6MVA of power transformer. Distribution losses in India account for almost 18% of the total transmission and distribution (T&D) losses of around 26%. The no-load losses of a 100KVA distribution transformer is around 360 watts, and this can reduced by 3/4 by providing suitable VAR compensation using Automatically Switched shunt Capacitor Banks at the secondary side.

 

SSL is the technological leader in configuring, manufacturing, and installing such automated solutions for the Utilities' transmission and distribution network, using the CSCI technologies designs that are state of the art worldwide. The Company typically refers to these products as "Mains APFC Panels". We are a vital solution partner of any Utility with high T&D losses in India.

 

An Analogy for the non technical

To help understand the concept more readily, one might imagine that an Electric Utility's total distribution capacity is a reservoir of water, which is supplied through a mains pipe. Smaller pipes run off this to supply each consumer. These individual pipes must be of sufficient diameter to supply each consumer's peak demand (kVA), in other words the amount of water needed to supply all their taps when turned on full at any one time.

 

In addition, this water has to be held in each consumer's pipe regardless of whether it is being used or not, and therefore cannot be supplied to someone else. However, if by reducing their peak demand (kVA), each consumer's pipe can be of smaller diameter, then more water is left to flow through to other consumers.

 

This peak demand (kVA) can be reduced simply by making sure that the water in the supply pipe flows as efficiently as possible from each tap. Power Factor is the proportion of the water in the consumer's supply pipe, which actually ends up flowing through its taps. If its Power Factor is low, more water has to be stored in its supply pipe than is really necessary to meet its actual needs. By improving its Power Factor, less water has to be stored to do the same job.

 

This means the consumer could have a smaller diameter supply pipe and more water could be available to other consumers without the need for the construction of additional substations or upgrading of cables. Utilities can therefore satisfy existing consumers more adequately, and satisfy new consumers within its given capacity with little or no investment at all. In this respect, Power Factor Correction does not only offer value to the consumer, but also to the Utility company supplying power to many such consumers.

 

Value to the Utility for conducting Wide Area DSM

Improving Power Factor at the consumer's site can also mean a significant benefit to the Electric Utility Company servicing those consumers. Raising the Power Factor for a consumer does not appreciably change its demand for electric power (KW), nor does it appreciably change the total amount of electric energy (KWH) that it may consume. However, from a Utility Company's point of view, it can significantly reduce the amount of electric current required by its consumers' facilities. This reduction means that a portion of the Utility Company's capacity is freed up for sale elsewhere, and this extra sale can have a significant impact on the Utility's bottom line.

 

Furthermore, higher than necessary demand for current, also means that the Utility makes unnecessary investments in equipment which ultimate cost consumers in higher costs of energy. Nearly everything a power utility company builds is geared to supply electric current. Not only must a utility build sufficient generating capacity to meet demand for electric current, but it must also have adequate lines, transformers, and sub-stations to transmit, transform, distribute and ultimately deliver electric current to its consumers. The transmission of unnecessary current leads to line loss and wasted fuel, and also reduces the available capacity of existing distribution systems, which lead to poor utilization of capital and power and higher cost to consumers.

 

Wide Area DSM Programs

Saha Sprague Limited  conducts "wide area" Demand Side Programs where it provides Energy Conservation Measures & Services to a Utility's entire consumer base within specific geographical territories. In these programs, the Utility and Saha Sprague Limited jointly educate and advise electric consumers of potential savings, which may be financed through scheduled payments from these consumers as part of the utilities' billing process, or by offering consumers direct finance via Saha Sprague's Finance Partners participating in such programs.

Energy Conservation Measures are based on multiple technologies and products that include Lighting Controls; HVAC; Motor Controllers; Efficient Motors; Variable Speed Drives; Central Plant operation; Energy/load Management Systems; Power Factor Correction; Boiler and Chiller installation and retrofit; and other technologies that may contribute to reasonably significant energy savings.