Focusing on medium voltage IGBT solutions to be available in the near future

By OEM Update Editorial February 1, 2022 5:30 pm IST

It is a matter of time before using Power Quality products will become mandatory in India.

OEM Update spoke to Ganesh Munirathinam, Product Manager for Power Quality products at Delta Electronics India, to understand how Delta is solving local Power Quality issues. 

What are the challenges faced in the Indian market in terms of Power Quality? 

Power Quality is a big issue for Indian industry and frequent power cuts, inadequate transmission and distribution of the system, regular breakdowns and load shedding are major issues that are faced on a regular basis. This is exacerbated with a lack of service culture in this sector. Another major challenge is that there are no common set of standards for transmission with every state in the country having its own guidelines. This leads to high distortions in voltage at higher frequencies resulting in high losses at the transmission level and damage to the equipment. 

How has the Indian industry responded to this challenge? Most of the Indian industry uses some sort of Power Quality products but not all of them are proper solutions that deal with this issue effectively. The majority of the industry still relies on Contactor or Thyristor switching with its limited range of operation which does not really solve the problem. It is only about 25%-30% of the industry which has adopted proper Power Quality solutions and this includes a few big companies who have goals directed towards efficient energy consumption and transmission, which leads to a greener tomorrow. 

The government is also encouraging its use now and a few state governments have formed regulations penalising higher order harmonics. Power Quality solutions are essential for businesses operating in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. It is a matter of time before using Power Quality products will become mandatory in India. 

How does avoiding the use of proper Power Quality solutions affect a company? 

Addressing the issues of poor power quality and distortions is imperative for the stable growth of a company. With growing urbanisation, the requirement for electricity is increasing everywhere so minimising losses due to harmonics and distortion is of the essence. The constant interruptions in transmission create malfunction and breakdown of machines, reducing their life by at least two years with additional requirement of maintenance and component replacement. Power Quality solutions are key to a seamless process, higher productivity and creating products of a higher quality. The impact of Power Quality solutions is reflected in an increase of OPEX and CAPEX. 

Using proper solutions can reduce losses in electricity and heat. Power Quality solutions can reduce electricity bills, enhance performance levels and increase the life of the equipment. 

What kind of Power Quality solutions does Delta provide to counter these challenges? 

Delta provides an Energy Management System, a software which is connected to our Power Metres to monitor power quality. This helps to collect the data to analyse in the grid / transmission and prepare reports on the same. 

Individual parameters like these reports along with the requirement of the customer can be used to analyse and suggest the right solution. Delta has two types of Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBT) based systems which can also be connected to non-linear power supplies and provide corrective action as per required solution. They can correct load imbalance and improve poor power factor by generating inductive or capacitive power required by the load at that time. The Static Var Generator (SVG) offers variations of 5th harmonic generation, 7th harmonic generation, 11th harmonic generation and 13th harmonic generation to cater the non-linear currents. The Active Power Filter offers compensation up to 50th harmonic generation. 

Does adopting these solutions entail changes in the rest of the process line? 

No, they don’t. These solutions work parallel and are connected in shunt with an already existing system. Even if there is a failure in your system or likewise in the solution panel, they will not affect each other. Power Quality solutions work for every industry that requires power. 

What new innovation is Delta working on in this sector? 

We are currently focusing on medium voltage IGBT solutions which will be available in the near future.