EMA recently had an opportunity to startup eleven Altivar 6000 drives ranging from 450 to 4000HP on natural gas compressors in West Texas. The project was running behind due to mechanical delays and other unforeseen issues, so EMA was called in to methodically startup the drives and get the plant operational as fast as possible. Although this was our first hands-on experience with the Altivar 6000 Medium Voltage Drive, we felt extremely confident in our ability to perform startup due to our expertise and experience with similar drives.
The Altivar 6000 utilizes a cascaded H-Bridge topology, which is an extremely common topology in the Medium Voltage VFD world. The Altivar 6000 uses power cells with low voltage components, much like the Siemens Perfect Harmony series drives. These power cells are run via fiber optic cables that come from a hub board within the low voltage cabinet. The incoming transformer is a multi-pulse, step down transformer for harmonic mitigation as is common on most MV drives.
As with any large startup, there were several challenges that EMA’s service engineers were asked to overcome including improperly installed power cables, open holes in cabinets, and mislabeled and improperly landed control wiring. Undeterred, EMA worked for over a month straight to help resolve the problems and startup the drives per the customer’s request.
At EMA we’re extremely proud of our ability to adapt to challenging situations that aren’t always VFD related. Do you need help with a Medium Voltage Drive startup? EMA is extremely well versed in almost all models and manufacturers of Medium Voltage Drives, including the Altivar 6000. Call us, email us, or contact us via the chat to discuss your startup needs. Don’t wait around for weeks or months! Contact us and let us prove to you that No One, ANYWHERE, Is Better At Drives Than We Are!