Summary
Hitachi Energy’s capacitor banks ensure efficient and sustainable operations at one of the largest fully integrated dairy farms in the world.
Challenge
Through the years, the agriculture industry has been adopting advanced machinery which has resulted in increased efficiency and productivity. Such electrical farm equipment proves effective in increasing yields, but it also poses a significant dependency to a stable and reliable power network. While the demand for food continues to grow worldwide, it becomes evident that the agriculture industry needs to manage their network’s power quality in order to keep up the pace and bring a sustainable supply.
Improving power quality is a challenge that is quite familiar to leading dairy producer Al Safi Danone. The company owns one of the world’s largest1 integrated dairy farms located in Al Kharj, Saudi Arabia which houses the entire milk production activities from raw milk management and processing to delivery.
This farm uses many electrical equipment such as motors and drives that often introduce power quality disruptions in the network like low power factor and harmonics. These disruptions can add stress onto other equipment, causing malfunctions, overheats and even, failures. Moreover, these power quality issues can result int a larger carbon footprint due to the inefficient use of power and can lead to penalties from the utility.
Solution
In order to manage the farm’s power quality and mitigate the risks, Al Safi Danone installed Hitachi Energy’s low-voltage automatic capacitor banks. With a reliable and flexible design, these capacitor banks offer optimal compensation to the power quality issues based on real-time requirements.
With the help of this solution, Al Safi Danone can make the most of the installed equipment and network while lowering its carbon footprint and eliminating non-compliance penalties in utility bills.
The capacitor banks have been designed, assembled and tested at Hitachi Energy’s Power Quality Center at Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Through this key facility and its highly skilled local resources, Hitachi Energy also offers supervision for installation and testing & commissioning, after sales service and training support for its customers in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East region.
“At Hitachi Energy, we understand that building good power quality is a top priority across utilities and industries. Our Power Quality Center in Dammam, Saudi Arabia along with our leading power quality solutions allow us to support our customers in the region in a faster and agile manner,” said Helena Garriga, Head of Global Product Group Power & Industry Components of the High Voltage Products business at Hitachi Energy.
Impact
“At this farm, like almost all other food and beverage facilities, we handle delicate goods and livestock every day,” said Abubakr Ibrahim, Electrical supervisor at Al Safi Danone. “Disruptions in power supply not only cause significant losses in our production and revenue, but also impact our carbon footprint. With Hitachi Energy’s power quality solution tailored to meet our demands, our farm can now operate on a more reliable and resilient power network while reducing emissions.”
Hitachi Energy’s low-voltage capacitor banks are designed for a wide range of enclosures and accessories options. This feature makes it suitable for installation in any type of geography and climate condition: from extreme desert heat to frigid arctic cold. With its modular design, it can be customized to the customer’s need.
As a pioneering technology leader, Hitachi Energy offers power quality products and solutions in low, medium and high-voltage applications for utility, industrial, infrastructure and transportation sectors.
