Softstart UK has won its largest ever single order for six of its new MV DS medium voltage soft starters. The £1m order was placed by the Egyptian government and involves the supply of 11kV 2.1MW units to the waste treatment booster pumps at the El Amiriiah pumping station. IP54 enclosures are specified owing to the presence of hydrogen sulphide gas which attacks copper, necessitating that all bus-bars are tin plated and all circuit boards lacquered.
The contract includes automatic power-factor correction equipment to ensure near unity power-factor while the motors are running on the 11kV mains supply. Softstart UK will commission the units on site, simplified by the touch screen digital control and monitoring, door mounted PC and the units will be connected via Ethernet to the pumping station supervisory SCADA system.