Since 2010, HyTEPS has been working closely with Nyrstar, a leading international producer of minerals and metals, founded in 2007.
The company employs some 4,000 people, working in mining, smelting and other operations in Europe, the United States and Australia. A solar park on the Nyrstar site that provides a total capacity of around 58 MW: that’s sufficient sustainable electricity for more than 12000 households in the region.
The company was initially looking for a partner that could map the status of their installation and Power Quality, provide replacement parts for their capacitor bank, and demonstrate that the installation would work optimally, according to predetermined requirements, after replacement of the capacitors. To achieve this, HyTEPS developed a simulation model, which could demonstrate that the proposed solution would indeed meet all requirements. “In November 2010, we carried out Power Quality and energy measurements on the low and medium voltage installations, together with HyTEPS,” says Nico Hendrix, Senior Project Engineer E&I at Nyrstar B.V. “In their report, HyTEPS recommended compensation of harmonic currents by means of Active Harmonic Filters owing to the varying load. By connecting this to medium voltage, pollution is tackled at the source.”
Insight into longer-term trends
HyTEPS has supplied four SATEC EM720T meters, one for each of Nyrstar’s 10 KV power lines. “Together with HyTEPS, we configured the meters and associated software,” says Patrick Emmers, Reliability Engineer E&I at Nyrstar. “Now, we have real-time insights into the quality of our electricity at any time, as well as past overviews. In addition, we also have insights into longer term-trends.” HyTEPS has also carried out extensive simulations for the solar park.
“Nyrstar fully understands how important it is to make calculations in advance,” says Seymour Pijpers, Lead Engineer, HyTEPS. “We are currently supporting the company in the implementation of a battery storage system – through analyses we have been able to determine that this system would not cause problems in terms of Power Quality. The entire Nyrstar plant is now in a simulation model. Based on simulations and calculations, we advised Nyrstar to replace capacitors and coils in the medium voltage area and adjust tuning frequencies where necessary to make them suitable for the current situation. Equans is installing capacitors and coils under our supervision, and we are now commissioning the whole installation.”
Main Power Quality supplier
“We are delighted to have become Nyrstar’s ‘in-house supplier’ when it comes to PQ products and services,” says Christan van Dorst, Manager Technical Engineering, HyTEPS. “There are not many parties that take care of this kind of specialist work at medium voltage levels, such as Power Quality measurements at 15 kV. All activities HyTEPS offers are utilized in these projects: measuring, simulating, services, solutions, commissioning, maintenance… We’ve learned a great deal during the process: not only when it comes to working with high voltages, but also the associated ways of thinking and processes. Everything is slightly different than in the world of low voltage: from safety plans to delivery times, which can take up to a year!”
