Plastics
Industries
Injection, extrusion and blow molding. High, continuous and electrically dirty consumption: the combination that pays back a power quality study fastest.
This sector's problem
Drives are good engineering: they reduce consumption and extend motor life. But they draw current in pulses, and a plant with dozens of them —plus the heater band elements and the controller power supplies— ends up with a harmonic spectrum that no conventional capacitor bank can fix.
The classic symptom is a capacitor that swells or burns out shortly after installation. It is not a poor-quality capacitor: it is resonance. The bank's capacitance and your system's inductance matched at a harmonic frequency and amplified the current instead of correcting it.
That is why in this sector no bank should be quoted without measuring the spectrum. Correcting power factor without having looked at the harmonics is the most common way to spend money making the problem worse.
Capacitors that degrade quickly, hot transformers, protective devices that trip without a fault.
Resonance between the correction bank and the harmonic spectrum of your drives.
Spectrum measurement by harmonic order and a resonance study before sizing anything.
Signs it applies
It is the clearest sign of resonance. If you have already replaced a bank, measure before replacing the next one.
Each one adds to the spectrum. The count matters more than the individual rating.
Flat, high profile: a good candidate for solar generation and for power factor correction with a short payback.
If an interruption ruins the material in the machine, backup has a number attached to it.
In an initial review, with your bill on screen, we tell you what is worth measuring and what we would expect to find.
What to do first
The power quality study with harmonic spectrum. It is inexpensive relative to the rest of the catalog, has the shortest payback and keeps you from spending badly on what comes next.
Then the correction, sized on the measured spectrum: an automatic or dynamic bank, with filters where the harmonic order requires them, and a resonance study that backs the selection.
Solar fits this sector well because of the flat, continuous profile, but after correcting. And storage if demand charges exceed 25 %.
A well-sized capacitor bank in a plant with a power factor surcharge is usually the project with the shortest payback in the whole catalog. We say so without giving a number because it depends on your surcharge, and your surcharge is on your bill.
When it is not for you
If your bill shows no power factor surcharge and you have had no capacitor failures or unexplained trips, the full study can wait. We read your twelve bills and confirm it for you.
If you were quoted a capacitor bank without a harmonics measurement, ask that supplier for the resonance study before signing. If they do not have it, do not sign.
How we work
Seven-day campaign with a Class A analyzer.
Engineering based on your real load curve.
Supply and installation inside your fence line.
GTO Vigía sustains the result after construction.
Energy solutions
In a short meeting we review your bill with you, on screen, and tell you what is worth measuring.
We work with plants on medium and high voltage. By sending you accept our privacy notice.
Strengths
GTO Energy offers electrical engineering tailored to your plant. Request your diagnostic and start by knowing where the opportunity is.
Seven days with a Class A analyzer at your facility, before quoting.
Engineering, supply and installation inside your fence line.
Fully creditable if you implement. No finding, no charge.
Compliance reports based on RES/550/2021, filed with the CNE and CENACE.
GTO Vigía: monitoring, monthly reporting and priority service.
We service plants installed by others, starting with a condition survey.
