Alma Products Ltd

Alma Products offer formable plastic packaging, serving the food production industry, from their facility in Widnes, Cheshire.

They contacted Power Efficient Solutions to assess the condition of their two Power Factor Correction units on site, as both seemed to be offering very little correction.

After assessing the client’s data, we identified a relatively poor power factor of 0.87 (lag) or 87% efficient and followed up with a site survey.

During our site survey we identified a number of issues with both units.  The issues included a faulty controller, failed capacitors, contactors, fuses, and very poor ventilation.  And we made recommendations to return the units to their fully rated output and recommission.

The client sought advice from elsewhere and both units were recommended for replacement at substantial cost.

After further discussions and assurances from us, that both units were serviceable, the client went ahead with all our recommendations.

This work was carried out during normal working hours, with no disruption to the clients’ normal operations, and led directly to a power factor improvement from 0.87 (lag) to 1.00 (unity), at around 30% of the cost to replace both units and offered a return on investment of 11-months, as detailed below.