SiliconTech’s Power Electronics and Systems research group designed a simulation model to help NALCO assess transformer and transmission loss.
NALCO produces a huge amount of power in its own captive power plant. Present generation capacity of NALCO is 120x10MW i.e. 1200 MW. Most of the produced power is consumed by the industry itself in its own premises. The aluminum smelters used in the refinery consumes roughly around 35MW of power.
The industry has to pay taxes to the government as per the amount of energy consumed. But they needed some relaxation on the energy that was produced but not consumed by them but lost to different types of transmission losses. So, the client requested the research group to evaluate the average losses in the last 12 years.
The exact loss data were hard to find and estimate as the records for losses were not maintained. So, the client was asked to provide the network data of their system along with the type of conductors, tower information and energy production and consumption patterns of the last 12 years. Depending on the data provided by the client, the detail network was designed using a simulation model. The last 12-year energy data was then averaged to have an estimate of the losses in the system.
The detailed model along with the estimated percentage loss was provided to NALCO. The proposed model was accepted both by the client and the taxation agency as the required document for relaxation on tax.