Arab Shipbuilding and Repair Yard (ASRY), Bahrain

Established in 1977 in Al Hidd, Bahrain, Arab Shipbuilding and Repair Yard (ASRY) is a leading maritime repair and fabrication facility operating in the Arabian Gulf. The yard has facilities including a fabrication area of more than 250,000 square meters (m2), a dry dock of 500,000 deadweight tonnage (dwt) capacity, 15 repair berths, two floating docks and a full range of workshops and service centers to cater servicing and repair needs for any type of vessel.

Electrical loads at such a shipyard, mainly motors, variable frequency drives (VFDs) and the welding equipment at fabrication area, can disrupt the quality of electric power. These loads are a major cause of high reactive power demand and harmonic pollution in the power network. Such disruptions in power quality have the potential to affect other equipment at the facility, as well as the supply network of the utility. In addition, they can lead to increased energy losses in equipment like feeding transformers and cables, potentially resulting in a higher CO2 footprint of the facility and its operations. Therefore, utilities impose penalties on customers having poor power quality. ASRY was also facing similar penalties, mainly due to poor power factor.

Hitachi Energy has partnered with Al Bait, a leading Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) company in Bahrain, to supply its ABBACUS metal-enclosed capacitor banks for the ASRY shipyard. The compact, ‘plug-and-play’ power quality solution is ideal for installation in any industrial facility in small spaces and offers fixed or switched power factor compensation.

Using ABBACUS metal-enclosed capacitor banks, ASRY is able to improve its power factor, thereby avoiding penalties, improving efficiency of operations and reducing CO2 emissions.