Case Study | Microgrid

DORSSERS INC.

Helping a heavy manufacturing facility with critical power quality problems by developing one of Canada's first industrial microgrids.

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BACKGROUND

Dorssers Inc. is a Canadian manufacturer of pellet mill dies, rolls and roll parts. They needed to improve their power quality and reliability while still generating on-site power at an economically sensible price.

 



THE PROBLEM

The client’s primary problem was their dependence on an expensive and unreliable grid. In fact, when Dorssers began manufacturing pellet mill dies in 1980, that’s when their power requirements started to become a larger issue.

Fast forward to today, the client would regularly experience drill bit and tooling damage as well as machining accuracy malfunctions whenever power quality would deviate. Not only were these issues troubling and inconvenient, but they were costing our client valuable capital. 




OUR SOLUTION

For this particular project, we were given an empty shell in the form of an existing building on-site, from which we were able to provide a turn-key solution. We decided on the highly efficient and low-emission Siemens SGE-36SL gen-sets; building the switchgear and control systems for these units. 

The facility would no longer be connected to the provincial power grid, so it was important that our solution be able to meet the requirements of a highly variable load while maintaining power quality. To improve the load-following capabilities of the power plant, our engineering team integrated a bank of ultracapacitors into the system that could supply the power needed for spikes in demand whenever specific manufacturing equipment was activated in the facility, and recharge quickly in between. Both the power and control systems were integrated into a single cell with two main output breakers.

With our solution, we were able to provide the client with resilient and reliable power plus cost savings through complete turn-key commissioning and a commitment to long-term maintenance.

We look forward to a lifetime partnership with Dorssers.