Power package helps commission UK waste plant

A global water and natural resources company wanted to get their new waste plant commissioned and accredited as soon as possible. The problem was, they were having trouble connecting to the main grid because of a faulty connector.

They couldn’t wait for the connector to be fixed. They had to meet tight accreditation deadlines set by the Renewables Obligations scheme and they needed to move fast to obtain their Renewable Obligations Certificates (ROC) before the government scheme closed. So what do you when you don’t have a real connection supply to test your system? You ask us to build you a replica. 

We got our specialist high-voltage team on site as quickly as possible. They only had one week to design and install a package that would result in the customer’s plant being commissioned.

We used a high-voltage power and loadbank package to simulate a connection supply. This enabled the plant’s 10 MW steam turbine to be tested and commissioned. The turbine did not have a star point earthing system so, for safety’s sake, we installed a separate earthing system as a temporary package. Double-stacked transformers and loadbanks were used to save space in the small area and to allow access.

We delivered the specially designed package within the tight timeframe of one week. By using a temporary high-voltage power solution to simulate a grid connection the customer was able to overcome commissioning delays.

It proved that the waste plant would be able to plug into the grid once the connector was fixed, meeting the valuable ROC deadline. This, in turn, enabled the plant to accelerate export of power to the main grid and begin contributing.