Valquest Systems, Inc. in cooperation with HD Supply commissioned a coordinated Motor Start Assitance system today for Cimarron Electric Cooperative in Kingfisher Oklahoma. The system uses a fixed capacitor bank and two switched banks controlled by a Valquest Systems FastCap.
The large motor, part of a rock crushing plant, is at the end of a dedicated 11 mile 12.5 kV line. Because this line is very old and in need of costly repair the coop wanted to switch over to a parallel feeder. But voltage dips on the long line during motor start would be prohibitive because of the imact on coexisting customers.
Before the installation Valquest Systems performed the following pre construction tasks:
- Took cycle by cycle measurements during a motor start
- Analyzed the new feeder using SKM software
- Designed a multi-bank system to correct the voltages
- Re-ran the SKM analysis with the added banks
After commissioning the motor start measurements were run as before with the result showing that the voltage flucuations are well within the IEEE specification. Since the installation last March, no customer complaints have been received regarding voltage related issues.
A spokeperson at Cimarron Electric said that the system had paid for itself 10 times over when compared with the cost of repairing the old line.