Practical approach to enhance energy resilience in manufacturing facilities

Abstract

Both developed and developing countries are affected by the global energy problem. Over the last few decades, the industrial sector's electrical energy demand has grown exponentially, altering the supply-and-demand balance. The trend toward Industry 4.0 compliant production facilities necessitates a greater demand for high-reliability power. Because severe production losses caused by power outages cannot be tolerated, an increasing number of large vital industrial processes integrate centralized high-quality, online UPS technology onto their network to establish a grid-to-load link and continuously condition dirty electricity from the national grid. These facilities distribute electrical power using either an MV or LV system. Based on the integration design, investigating ways to quantify energy efficiency savings of MV versus LV UPS system is required. This paper proposes strategic and technical interventions for these systems and assesses their electrical losses and budgetary ramifications. The paper also aims to contribute to the implementation of an energy efficiency plan and help facilities close power efficiency gaps. From the results obtained, the MV UPS system offers a significant reduction in energy consumption. Compared to the LV UPS system, annual energy losses are reduced by 46% at a load factor of 65%. A significant energy improvement is expected at higher load factors and in larger facilities where longer distribution cables are used. Compared to the LV UPS system, MV UPS saves R221 509 per meter of cable length increase and R31 457 per percentage increase in load factor.