Qenos has announced the successful completion of an upgrade to one of its motor control centres (MCC), a critical piece of electrical infrastructure that powers part of the company’s production process at its Botany site.

Qenos appointed Eaton xEnergy partner Dynelec to deliver a turnkey solution for the project that included end-to-end design, manufacture and installation, all done within a short timeframe to ensure minimal impact to site operations.

Dynelec designed and built a customised seven-tier Eaton xEnergy board and a low voltage power distribution and motor control enclosure system. This system features a modular platform to allow the assembly of low voltage switchgear and control gear to Australian standards.

Other Eaton products incorporated into the upgrade include the IZMX40 circuit breaker equipped with Eaton’s Arcflash Reduction Maintenance System (ARMS), the company’s ‘Diagnose’ temperature monitoring system and the Power Xpert C445 intelligent electronic overload relay.

The MCC module control voltage was converted from 240V to 24V and a circuit breaker and isolator were combined.

Since upgrading the MCC, Qenos electrical and instrumentation engineer Keith Cottrell says the new equipment is working well, achieving the expected safety and operational benefits.

“In the event of a faulty part, we now have reduced downtime and better ergonomics for technicians as they can fully withdraw the affected module and conduct maintenance for extended periods on a workbench. The withdrawable modules have also increased the availability of the MCC bus bar for our cooling tower and plant chillers, which are critical common area equipment for our Alkathene facility.”

The modular design allows individual modules to be completely withdrawn from the MCC providing a guaranteed break or disconnection, while real-time temperature monitoring has reduced the need to manually monitor the temperature in the MCC.

“Technicians can now use the sensors to remotely monitor the development of hot joints on the bus bar and this assists scheduling outages to perform preventative maintenance on this common area MCC,” says Keith.

“We’ve been able to prolong machine lifespans and reduce downtime, allowing us to focus more time on the business and our next phase of upgrades to the site.”