One of the largest tomato growers in the southern hemisphere - D’Vine Ripe, comissioned Power and Drive Solutions to design, supply and install a power control system that provided failsafe management for five onsite generators used to supplement mains power and provide back-up in the event of grid failure.

The facility located near Adelaide in Australia grows in excess of 10 million kilos of vine-ripened tomatoes each year in a huge 17 hectare area under glass. It is estimated that power failure to the pad and fan climate control technology and irrigation pumps, even on a moderately hot day (32ºC), would result in significant loss of produce.

The project features a full range of ComAp dedicated hardware and pre-configured software and represents the largest application to date for ComAp’s MainsPro, the new mains protection relays. The generators operate in parallel and in harmony to the mains utility supply of 400Kw delivering additional power through a combination of three diesel generators comprising two 1020KW CAT 3512 and one 400KW Cummins QSQ15 package. These are complemented by two CAT 3508 gas power generating providing 480KW – all of which were managed via a central control room.

The onsite generators help deliver the necessary power required to operate climate control systems that includes fans, shutters and evaporative coolers as well as irrigation pumps, hydroponic articulation systems, robotic picking machines and power generally across the plant.

The power configuration is designed so the two CAT 3508 gas generators run in permanent parallel with the mains supply, as the site load increases through the day the three diesel generators start and run in parallel with the mains and gas generators in a form of peak lop operation.

The diesel generators also provide the additional benefit of site stability when the site load is higher as they are more responsive to load fluctuations. There are four stages of load shedding which are employed if the load increases dramatically before the diesel generator is on line.

The control package features 5 x 
InteliSys NT units, 1x InteliMains NT, 6x InteliVision 8 colour displays in main control panels, with 5x IS-Displays located on each engine for local control. The system also features MainsPro, the new mains decoupling relay that provides statutory protection when working in parallel to the mains. The new model incorporates true RMS measurement for increased accuracy, combines vector shift and rate of change of frequency (ROCOF) protections in one unit and records last trip information about failure events.

Hayden Smart from Power and Drive said: “It is one of 5 MainsPro units we have purchased since there recent release date. We are very impressed with the unit and can see ourselves using many more in both the near and distant future, especially on major projects that require a stable, reliable and safe protection systems like D’Vine Ripe.”

The whole power application is monitored continuously to ensure no interruption to the combined supply using 3G modem linked to InteliMonitor and WebSupervisor software, which provides online monitoring of the controller and direct access to all measured values and history records. The fully integrated software is designed to monitor multiple power applications, automatically generate reports and provide immediate access on any web enabled device such as a PC/netbook or smartphone with both email and sms notification of alarms.

WATCH THE INTERESTING VIDEO FROM D’VINE RIPE PROJECT.

Power and Drive Solutions provided a turnkey solution building the entire power house which included the supply of the five generators, main switchboard, ComAp control software and hardware all the necessary electrical installation, comissioning, testing and supporting the power operation onsite.