Powerside Custom-Designs Medium Voltage Filter After Power Quality Engineering Study
Eliminated harmonic resonance and stabilized power factor across both substations using a custom 34.5 kV C-Type High Pass Filter engineered for the mine’s unique operating environment
Reduced voltage distortion to utility-compliant levels while delivering a cleaner, more stable power profile tailored to the mine site’s operational and infrastructure constraints
Challenge
Low power factor, harmonic distortion in remote environment
Project Type
Power quality engineering services
Diagnostic Tools
Power factor analysis, harmonic simulations, power system modeling
Operating in an isolated environment with high electrical demands, a major mining organization’s site required rigorous power factor and harmonic compliance requirements for utility interconnection.
To address the issue, the mining company engaged Powerside to fully assess, model and simulate the site’s power quality conditions. Our Engineering Services study of the mine’s operational system uncovered a highly complex power profile shaped by both environmental and infrastructure constraints, including:
A 230 kV transmission line feeding two substations at 13.8 kV and 34.5 kV
Limited foundation space
Tight, vertical service shaft access
A requirement of rugged, outdoor-rated equipment for both substation and underground installation
The challenge demanded Powerside dig deeper, beyond identifying the issue, to take the site’s specific power quality data and build a precise correction solution.
The Solution
With the results of the engineering study in hand, Powerside designed a custom iteration of our line of PowerMVar Medium Voltage (MV) Filter Banks — metal-enclosed capacitor and harmonic filter banks built to increase system capacity and improve performance of essential equipment.
The solution was a Multi-Stage C-Type High Pass Filter, a passive filter designed to:
Target and mitigate high frequency (HF) harmonic distortion
Significantly reduce losses at the fundamental frequency
Further, the system was purpose-built to meet the site’s strict performance requirements:
Maintain a power factor of at least 0.92 under all operating scenarios
Reduce harmonic distortion to acceptable utility-defined limits
This level of specificity is where many capacitor- and filter-bank manufacturers fall short. While others would likely provide a prepackaged, boxed filter to attempt to solve the issue, Powerside offers the in-house expertise to engineer a precise solution. Through the comprehensive findings of our Power Quality Engineering Services study, we knew exactly what to compensate for and how to build the ideal fix.
The Results
The impact was immediate and measurable. The custom 34.5 kV C-Type High Pass Filter successfully dampened voltage distortion across the system (Figure 1), eliminating the risk of continued harmonic resonance and stabilizing power factor at both substations.
Figure 1: Harmonic distortion and voltage fluctuation levels before (left side) and after (right side) Powerside installed the custom C-Type High Pass Filter.
By combining power quality–focused engineering analysis with the ability to design and build a custom solution, Powerside helped the mine site gain a cleaner, more stable power profile aligned with operational, architectural and regulatory requirements.
Learn more about how Powerside can customize an MV filter bank for your precise power quality needs, from fixed to automatic configurations, single or multi-step stages and beyond.
