480V vs. 460V at source

[Voltrael]

I work in an industrial plant that was put online less than two years ago. The voltage is tapped what I believe would be considered low. For instance, 480V in the electrical rooms at the distribution breakers is more like 460V. Would there be benefit to raising the taps so that it is at 480V rather than 460V?

 

[infinity]

IMO for 480 volt equipment it won't matter much. For 480/208 transformers you might see a slightly more meaningful difference on the low voltage side.

 

[Voltrael]

I don't think I gave enough information on what I was looking for. I don't expect too much difference in the running of the motors themselves. We use about 20MW of power, I'm more interested if there would be any amount of power savings for an economic benefit.

 

[infinity]

I'm more interested if there would be any amount of power savings for an economic benefit.

What do you think about this higher voltage would yield a slightly lower voltage drop so for things like motors they would draw less current using slightly less power.

 

[SceneryDriver]

When we moved to our new shop location two years ago, we discovered that the building's service was tapped at 460V instead of 480V. We had quite a few problems with our CNC machines getting cranky when operated at 460V. They would throw seemingly random spindle voltage faults. We figured out that the building's voltage drop at 460V during large motors starting was pulling the service voltage down below low end of tolerance for the machines. It took way too much time with PSEG, but they were finally able to come out and re-tap the service transformer. Raising the service voltage to 480V solved all our faulting issues and as a bonus, brought up the 208/120V loads into spec as well.

Unless there's an articulate-able reason to keep the service at 460V, I'd raise it to 480V.


SceneryDriver