Structural & Electrical
A 168-Metre Wash Line on Layered HT Power
Engineering continuous power redundancy across a single-bay process run that cannot tolerate a mid-cycle trip
The problem
The wash line is a single continuous bay 168.5m long and 32.6m wide — effectively one uninterrupted process run from bale-breaking through washing to drying. A power trip partway along that line doesn't just stop one machine; it stalls material mid-wash across the whole bay, with wet PET flake sitting in line until power is restored. The plant needed HT supply capacity sized for this continuous load, split so that a fault on one transformer never takes down the whole line.
The solution
Three 2.5 MVA transformers (TR-1, TR-2, TR-3) were positioned together at a dedicated transformer yard, feeding separate LT panel groups rather than one shared bus — so the wash line's load is distributed across independent supply paths. A DG yard sits adjacent for backup, with UPS provision at the panel room for control systems that cannot tolerate even a changeover gap. Multiple forklift charging bays were positioned directly along the raw material and finished goods storage runs, keeping material handling power local to where it's used rather than routed across the site.
The outcome
7.5 MVA of HT capacity split across three independent transformer paths, so a single transformer fault reduces line capacity rather than halting the wash line entirely — keeping a 168-metre continuous process run protected from single points of electrical failure.