Site load reduced

The company was looking for further ways to reduce its energy consumption and wanted to replace its refrigeration facility with modern equipment. The on-site cold store accounted for 60% of the site electrical loading. The company also wanted to get better control of the refrigeration plant and reduce the potential impact of harmonics.

Paul Derbyshire, electrical, control and automation engineer for McCain Central Engineering GB, investigated solutions from a number of manufacturers before opting for the ABB active front-end variable-speed drives. He said that with ABB drives there is no interference on the line and they do not need filters to cut harmonics.

The new refrigeration plant cut the number of compressors from 20 to seven and, to run the compressors, ABB installed seven VSDs with ratings from 350 to 650 kW.

Overall, the new refrigeration plant using ABB drives cut the site loading by around 1 MW. "They also give us the ability to over speed the motor to get more refrigeration capacity, which we cannot do with traditionally controlled refrigeration plant,” says Derbyshire. "ABB drives are also very reliable – they are good workhorses. We considered them the best large drives on the market at the time,” he adds.