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GE Power Conversion Helps El Marakby Steel Plant Increase Production
08/28/2014 - GE’s Power Conversion business was chosen by El Marakby Steel in Egypt to supply a dynamic var compensator (DSVC) to reduce the frequency and intensity of power disturbances generated by the electrical arc furnace of El Marakby Steel’s new melting shop.
Egyptian steelmakers are facing tough requirements to comply with the Grid code parameters put in place by the Electrical authorities to ensure the power quality and the stability of the transmission grid. Addressing this issue, GE’s Power Conversion business was chosen by El Marakby Steel in Egypt to supply a dynamic var compensator (DSVC) to reduce the frequency and intensity of power disturbances generated by the electrical arc furnace of El Marakby Steel’s new melting shop.
GE’s DSVC was developed to secure grid technical performances and among them a flicker reduction. Indeed, flicker is generated when melting scrap metal with an EAF. These large-scale consumers with short time varying loads can cause transmission line voltages to sporadically drop, resulting in power disturbances. With GE’s DSVC based on voltage source converter technology, a flicker reduction factor of up to five can be achieved. To such a point, an electrical disturbance resulting from the EAF will not be noticed. This flicker reduction helps to create a cleaner, more reliable Egyptian power grid.
Lower disturbance on the power grid also ensures more power is transmitted to melt the steel. By consuming same amount of the electricity from the grid, GE’s solution can help the customer to melt more steel, therefore increases production of the steel plant and saves production cost. The clean grid does little harm to the equipment so it increases the life-span of the equipment and saves maintenance cost.
For the project, GE is supplying a DSVC including three MV7315 medium-voltage drives combined with fixed compensation, providing the required amount of reactive power for the plant (68 MVAR). The scalable drives enable GE to meet El Marakby Steel’s precise power requirements, eliminating waste energy and costs. In addition, El Marakby Steel can easily extend its power capabilities in the future by adding another drive to the project.
“GE’s DSVC provide us with cost-effective solutions capable of not only meeting our current power requirements, but also enabling us to easily increase our power infrastructure in the future,” said Hassan El Marakby, owner and chairman of El Marakby Steel. “With this technology, we can help mitigate potential strains put on the electrical grid while also increasing our production levels by providing more power to our manufacturing equipment and shortening the tap to tap melting time.”
“For this project, we were able to work closely with El Marakby Steel to define its specific power capabilities and to determine what GE solutions would best meet its needs,” Said Keiran Coulton, general manager of the Industry Vertical, GE’s Power Conversion business. “After consulting, we were able to determine that our flexible, scalable DSVC technology would not only meet El Marakby Steel’s current and future power needs, they also could help power its flicker reduction equipment, reducing the plant’s effect on Egypt’s electrical grid.”
In addition to providing the medium-voltage drives for the project, GE also is providing the secondary distribution, step-down transformer and fixed compensation.
GE’s Power Conversion business applies the science and systems of power conversion to help drive the electrification of the world’s energy infrastructure by designing and delivering advanced motor, drive and control technologies that evolve today’s industrial processes for a cleaner, more productive future. Serving specialized sectors such as energy, marine, oil and gas, renewables and industry, through customized solutions and advanced technologies, GE Power Conversion partners with customers to maximize efficiency.
GE’s DSVC was developed to secure grid technical performances and among them a flicker reduction. Indeed, flicker is generated when melting scrap metal with an EAF. These large-scale consumers with short time varying loads can cause transmission line voltages to sporadically drop, resulting in power disturbances. With GE’s DSVC based on voltage source converter technology, a flicker reduction factor of up to five can be achieved. To such a point, an electrical disturbance resulting from the EAF will not be noticed. This flicker reduction helps to create a cleaner, more reliable Egyptian power grid.
Lower disturbance on the power grid also ensures more power is transmitted to melt the steel. By consuming same amount of the electricity from the grid, GE’s solution can help the customer to melt more steel, therefore increases production of the steel plant and saves production cost. The clean grid does little harm to the equipment so it increases the life-span of the equipment and saves maintenance cost.
For the project, GE is supplying a DSVC including three MV7315 medium-voltage drives combined with fixed compensation, providing the required amount of reactive power for the plant (68 MVAR). The scalable drives enable GE to meet El Marakby Steel’s precise power requirements, eliminating waste energy and costs. In addition, El Marakby Steel can easily extend its power capabilities in the future by adding another drive to the project.
“GE’s DSVC provide us with cost-effective solutions capable of not only meeting our current power requirements, but also enabling us to easily increase our power infrastructure in the future,” said Hassan El Marakby, owner and chairman of El Marakby Steel. “With this technology, we can help mitigate potential strains put on the electrical grid while also increasing our production levels by providing more power to our manufacturing equipment and shortening the tap to tap melting time.”
“For this project, we were able to work closely with El Marakby Steel to define its specific power capabilities and to determine what GE solutions would best meet its needs,” Said Keiran Coulton, general manager of the Industry Vertical, GE’s Power Conversion business. “After consulting, we were able to determine that our flexible, scalable DSVC technology would not only meet El Marakby Steel’s current and future power needs, they also could help power its flicker reduction equipment, reducing the plant’s effect on Egypt’s electrical grid.”
In addition to providing the medium-voltage drives for the project, GE also is providing the secondary distribution, step-down transformer and fixed compensation.
GE’s Power Conversion business applies the science and systems of power conversion to help drive the electrification of the world’s energy infrastructure by designing and delivering advanced motor, drive and control technologies that evolve today’s industrial processes for a cleaner, more productive future. Serving specialized sectors such as energy, marine, oil and gas, renewables and industry, through customized solutions and advanced technologies, GE Power Conversion partners with customers to maximize efficiency.
