Load Bank Capacitors

[Drake5265]

Hi all,
I am preparing to go into unfamiliar territory and was looking for input.
The company that I work for would like to save electricity in any which way they can. I was wondering about installing some Load Bank Capacitors. Do these save energy? Are they worth putting in? We have 4 2000 Amp Substations, Do they make Capacitor Banks for those? If somebody could point me in the right direction of researching this that would be great Thanks.

 

[sameguy]

They adjust the power factor.
Save in billing on demand, so you need to know what your power factor is first.

 

[charlie b]

Does your company's electric bill include a penalty or other fee that is related to power factor, or to KVA loading? If not, then there is no money to be saved by correcting the power factor. So I would start by glancing at the electric bill.

 

[Drake5265]

Thye company does get charged a penalty for power factor and KVA the Electric Bill is about $300K a month.

 

[Drake5265]

We are averaging around 90,000 KWH a day

 

[Drake5265]

Power Factor last month was 95.7%

 

[eric9822]

Good input so far. You need to determine how much money the penalty is and whether or not the the installed capital cost, depreciation, property taxes, maintenance cost, etc make the project justifiable. Of the $300K monthly power bill how much was the power factor penalty? Most companies have a set rate of return that needs to be achieved in order to justify a savings project. The power factor you saw last month seems really good to me.

 

[Drake5265]

The Company want to see pay back within two years right now I'm trying to figure out the penalty the company pays for the power factor.

 

[bob]

Power Factor last month was 95.7%

A PF of 95.7 is great. You may want to verify that again. Ask the utility if that is the billing PF. If so You won't get much improvement by adding capacit