Power Quality Challenges at the Colombian Coffee Factory
The Colombian coffee factory faced significant production inefficiencies and rising operational costs due to poor power quality. Weak grid infrastructure led to frequent voltage fluctuations, harmonic pollution, and related issues, causing unexpected shutdowns of precision equipment and motor overheating. These problems resulted in persistently high monthly power penalties, an annual loss of 15% in productive hours, and maintenance costs 40% above industry standards.
A 72-hour power quality analysis revealed severe harmonic distortion, with 5th and 7th harmonic levels reaching THD-V = 8.3% and THD-I = 25.7%, far exceeding IEEE 519-2014 limits. Additionally, the power factor fluctuated between 0.72–0.82, contributing to transformer overheating and punitive electricity rates.
Comprehensive Mitigation Strategy
To address these issues, Strong Power’s technical team implemented a multi-level power conditioning system:
A 300 kVAr modular SVG (dynamic response <10 ms) for real-time reactive power compensation, stabilizing the power factor above 0.95. A 200A active harmonic filter (IGBT multi-level topology) achieving >92% filtering efficiency for 2nd–50th harmonics, specifically targeting inverter-induced harmonics from coffee roasters.
- An integrated cloud-based power quality monitoring platform (via 4G) tracking 17 parameters, including voltage sags and phase imbalance.
- Tangible Operational Improvements
- Post-implementation results included:
- Elimination of power penalties, reducing monthly electricity costs by 18.7%.
- A 76% drop in equipment failures, saving $42,000 annually in maintenance.
- Enhanced roasting consistency, increasing product quality by 3%.
This project demonstrates how precision power quality management can drive cost savings and efficiency in manufacturing, particularly in power-sensitive industries like food processing. The ROI for dynamic compensation systems was achieved in 9–14 months through energy savings. The factory now plans to expand the solution to its packaging facility and deploy a plant-wide intelligent power management system.
