Tata Steel VSDs save £500,000 on fume extraction 17 January 2014

Tata Steel's Aldwarke melting shop, in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, is saving £570,000 a year on energy costs, thanks to variable speed drives and high efficiency motors installed on a fume extraction system.

Andy Burgar, department engineer for Tata Steel, explains that the machine shop main extraction system – which comprises five fans and a system of dampers and vanes – had been identified as an area where significant savings could be made.

The common duct pressure was originally controlled to 21mBar, using input vanes to the extraction fans driven by direct-on-line, fixed speed, 3.3kV, 1.2MW, 740 rpm, water-cooled motors.

"The size of these fans meant they were significant energy users, costing us around £1.5 million a year in running costs," states Burgar.

"Our internal calculation showed we could conceivably save hundreds of thousands of pounds a year on energy for the application, cutting CO2 production by 6,000 tonnes."

And he adds that, although the motors had suffered few failures, maintenance was also a challenge, because of the certification needed for servicing 3.3 kV equipment.

Tata Steel chose ABB to supply a complete solution, involving five 690V regenerative drives with active front-end supply units, as well as five 1,200kW, six-pole, air-cooled motors and two pressure transmitters with remote diaphragms.

According to Burgar, using VSDs has allowed the steelmaker to gain far better control of the fan system, with ABB adjusting the control loop to allow the VSDs to match changing demand, for example, when furnaces are tapped.

Brian Tinham

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