Reactive power and harmonic compensation: A case study for the coal-mining industry

This study reports on a case study in Grootegeluk Mine: Exxaro Coal, Lephalale, South Africa, in terms of power factor correction (PFC), load flow, harmonic frequency scans and harmonic voltage distortion analyses. The DIgSilent PowerFactory software was used for network simulations. Harmonic and reactive power compensation techniques were compared in terms of filter type evolution and technology advancement, with the use of simple trade-off criteria such as cost-effectiveness versus performance. It was found that both passive and hybrid filters were more favourable and could effectively compensate all voltage and current harmonics and reactive power for large nonlinear loads. The installation of switched PFC filter banks tuned at the fifth harmonic order accommodates future network growth and this solution can be rolled out to any mining industry as a benchmark to lower energy cost and maximise savings achievable on the electricity bill.