Through unique financing of new power factor correction
equipment and tariff changeover, Brakpan Town Council have reduced their
monthly electricity revenue with no financial outlay or risk by the
Council.
Based on the
results of a system study conducted by Redwing Technologies (Pty) Ltd for
Brakpan Town Council, 9000 kVAr of power factor correction (PFC) has
recently been installed at Brakpan's main intake electrical substation,
with Redwing Technologies appointed as Project Consultants.
The interesting
features of this Project were:
- Due to an existing tariff
metering agreement between Brakpan, Eskom and a major mining operation
in the area, this project had to be carried out and completed in
parallel, although independently, with a similar PFC project for the
mining operation.
This PFC project for the mining operation was also
carried out by Redwing Technologies, involving eight new harmonic
filter/capacitor banks with a total output of 24 000 kVAr.
- After successful
commissioning of the 33 kV PFC in April 1999, Brakpan changed over to
the Nightsave kVA demand tariff in order to realise projected savings
of R500 000 in the present financial year, increasing to R2 300 000 in
the 2000/2001 financial year.
Note that these savings include all project costs
incurred by the Council.
- The order for the PFC
equipment was placed on Westingcorp Power Economy (WPE) based on their
Self Finance Project format, whereby all equipment was supplied,
installed and commissioned by the Contractor at no cost to the Council.
Costs incurred by the Contractor are recovered after tariff changeover
by the Council, through proven savings achieved on the monthly Eskom
account.
The major benefits of the finance scheme offered by WPE
were:
1.
there was no financial risk or capital outlay by the
Council;
2.
if actual savings are lower than predicted due to an
incorrect system analysis and/or equipment design by Redwing Technologies,
or due to faulty equipment installed by the Contractor, costs recovered by
the Contractor would also be reduced accordingly;
3.
the Contractor is responsible for all maintenance,
insurance and operation of the PFC equipment for the duration of the
payment period, with a 12-month guarantee period coming into effect after
this.
- A "fuseless"
capacitor bank design was used which eliminates the unreliability
problems associated with capacitor fusing, whether internal or
external, thereby increasing the bank reliability. A critical factor
on the kVA demand tariff, when unavailability of the capacitor bank
for only 30-minutes could either significantly reduce or totally
eliminate potential savings for that metering month.
- The PFC bank was installed
as a de-tuned capacitor bank (or harmonic filter), in order to
eliminate potential consumer disruptions and/or "nuisance" tripping
due to capacitor switching transients, and to avoid unacceptable
amplification of prevailing system harmonics.
The system study was submitted to the Council in August 1998,
with the project order placed on WPE in October 1998 and completed in April
1999.
Now that
Brakpan have optimised their electricity costs on the Eskom Standard tariff
structure, Redwing Technologies are presently investigating the feasibility
of further changing the Brakpan tariff to the time-of-use Megaflex tariff,
in order to further maximise savings in monthly electricity revenue
achieved by the Council.
This ongoing
tariff project is an example of how pro-active tariff management can
significantly reduce the monthly revenue of an electricity distributor,
without incurring any capital expenses or financial risk to the
distributor. The associated savings achieved can then be used to finance new
Council projects, realising increasing living standards and economic growth
in the area.
