A major paper mill in Old Town, Maine, U.S., selected S&C Electric Co.'s (Chicago, Illinois, U.S.) PureWave AVC Adaptive VAR Compensator to improve the power factor at its expanded facilities. The increased load demand of the new capital equipment resulted in low power factor, which could not be remedied through an increase in substation capacity.

S&C's Power Quality Products Division supplied a 1000-kVAR, 600-V PureWave AVC to manage reactive power flow, increasing system capacity and improving upon the power factor of 0.62. The increased power factor and reduced kVA demand allows the existing substation transformer to carry the additional load. The PureWave AVC also has decreased the total harmonic distortion of the mill's voltage from 4% to 2%. The device was installed in August 2002.

The PureWave AVC Adaptive VAR Compensator addresses the reactive power management requirements of a variety of dynamic loads. This microprocessor-controlled device uses power-electronic switches to instantaneously insert the appropriate number of multistage power capacitors, providing reactive compensation on a cycle-by-cycle basis.
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