Reduce your electricity costs

Many businesses, especially in the wine and packing industries, are paying for far more power than they are actually using, solely because they do not have acces to the information about what is happening on their power network. BAR Valley Electrical Analysts (BARPA) use cutting edge technology to test and monitor your actual power usage.

Electrical bills have reached the stage where power analysis is essential for any industry using electrically driven machinery. The electricity supplied by your local municipality or Eskom differs in quality, condition of supply and accuracy of measurement, as well as the conditions of usage by the client.

Our Power Logger measures, monitors and verifies this usage. We then analyze the data to determine if the power is being used effectively and efficiently, and if you are being charged the correct amounts for usage.

We then prepare an illustrated report detailing Kva, KVAr, KWH, power factor, maximum power consumed, maximum power used, maximum and minimum Kva, KW, PF and harmonics for easy, clear and concise reading. We give full explanations of the readings and recommendations on how to rectify any problems.

This information you would give to your local electrical contractor to do the required work to enable your system to work at optimal efficiency. We will gladly provide your contractor with full assistance in this. If you do not have an electrical contractor, we will quote on fixing the problem for you.

For best results, it is advisable to do the tests while the plant is using its maximum power usage as, inadequate/faulty power factors only show up when the required correction for the connected load exceeds the available KVAr correction of the active power factor correction system. For wine cellars and seasonal packsheds this is during the peak period in the harvest season.

Most local supply authorities charge for the apparent power being drawn from the network supply grid which includes penalties for the incorrect power factor.

Eskom penalizes users for inefficient power factor or insufficient power-factor correction during peak-usage months - June, July and August as measured by them. They will probably start to penalize clients throughout the year for these discrepancies in the near future at a rate that will be determined by the current costs in effect at that time.

Small motors (0.5 KW - 15 kW) are far less power efficient than larger ones.

Motors that run at maximum power output are more efficient than motors that run at lower than their rated power output. Motors other than water pumps are notoriously over-designed for the work that they need to do and mostly operate at between 50% and 80% of ther rated power.

This has serious implications for the consumer if the power factor in not functioning correctly.

Disadvantages of a lower Power Factor (less than 0.95):

• unnecessary power consumption
• higher monthly base costs
• excess heating of control gear, cables and conductors
• higher electrical bill from the supply authority
• cost penalties for low power factors

Advantages of a high Power Factor (higher han 0.96)

• lower electrical bills from the supply authority
• less heat generated in panels and motors
• smaller transformers can be used for more motors making power upgrades unnecessary in many cases
• No supply authority penalties

Direct Savings:

There are several costs that can be cut by installing power factor correction panels.

• smaller transformers (less kVA needed)
• smaller copper conductors (fewer amps need to be transferred)
• smaller switchgear (fewer amps)
• there will be less heat generated in switchgear and conductors (fewer amps)
• big savings on Maximum Demand or Reactive Power accounts (lower kVA and kVAr)
• no low power factor penalties.

See examples of the data we measure, and the current charges for our analysis.