I've got a plastics manufacturer with Consumers Energy who's getting absolutely hammered on power factor penalties. Their PF has dropped to 0.72 over the past six months and they're paying an extra $3,200/month in penalties. Plant manager says they installed some new injection molding equipment but swears it has PF correction built in. Any ideas what might be going wrong?
Power Factor Penalties - Getting Out of Hand
Victor - could be a few things. First, make sure the PF correction on the new equipment is actually working. I've seen cases where the capacitor switching controls fail or get disabled. Also check if they changed their production schedule - PF correction systems are usually sized for full load operation. If they're running lighter loads, the correction might be over-compensating.
Pete's on the right track. Also worth checking if any of their existing PF correction equipment failed around the same time they installed the new machines. Could be a coincidence that's making the new equipment look like the culprit. I'd suggest having an electrical contractor do a full power quality survey.
Good points both. Turns out it was exactly what Dean suggested - two of their existing capacitor banks failed and nobody noticed because the new equipment masked some of the immediate effects. Getting those repaired should get them back to around 0.95. Thanks for the help!