In a first for South Africa, medium voltage softstarters are now being manufactured locally by WEG Africa thereby reducing lead times and presenting a more cost-effective option for customers. Director of Digital & Systems Pervin Gurie says the company has already supplied 11 locally-made units to a mining customer in Angola.
From 24 to 10 weeks
The SSW7000 units are produced at WEG Africa’s Robertsham facility, south of Johannesburg, to the high quality standards for which the company is well known. According to Pervin, this range is extensively used in pump and fan applications in Africa’s mining sector.
“As the demand for our MV softstarters has grown in recent years, we recognised that customers could benefit considerably from having these products manufactured locally. The immediate plus is that we can almost halve the lead time from 20 to 24 weeks to 10 weeks, by doing away with long distance shipping from WEG’s Brazil facilities.”
Savings
The strategic value of softstarters has come to the fore as users look to address the rising cost of electricity, as well as protect their electric motors. Softstarters allow a gentle ramp up of power reducing the peak energy demand during startup. A motor starting with a conventional direct-on-line (DOL) will draw up to 700% more than its rated current, while a softstarter can reduce this to just 300%.
The local manufacturing capability will include the continued customisation of MV softstarters, where units are designed to meet specific requirements in customers’ applications. Pervin highlights that solutions can also be packaged in a containerised substation, as was the case with the recent order for the mining customer in Angola.
Containerised
“The order of 11 units that we built last year was delivered in three containerised substations, and could be easily transported and installed on site for quick commissioning,” he advises. “We have also found that customers in Africa have particular needs, such as extra space in their panels to accommodate thicker cables with less flexibility.”
He sees ongoing potential for the WEG SSW7000 range, which includes a monitoring feature that tracks whether the electric motor is overheating or drawing excessive current enabling the shutdown of the motor before damage is caused.
