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A TRiiiON 3 Phase Converter Installed

On April 6th 2016, the TRiiiON team had the honour to announce the successful installation of one of the first TRiiiON 60 units. Being part of the early adopter program, the client, a dairy farm in South-West Victoria, operated by the Australian Dairy Farms Group (ADFG), now enjoys a 70% increase in milk production, along with substantial savings in energy costs.

Prior to the TRiiiON upgrade, the two 20KVA transformers powering the farm were struggling to cope with growing operations and were overloaded frequently. Transforming workloads to 3-phase, the TRiiiON team, in conjunction with Gordyn & Palmer (www.gordynpalmer.com.au), completely modernised the farm operations by addressing inefficient workloads, enhancing automation and boosting resiliency with a 3-phase backup generator.

On-site measurement before and after the upgrade demonstrated dramatic energy savings of over 35%. A 3-phase refrigeration motor that once operated over a 480V single-phase connection, used to draw 14kw - now connected to our newly installed 3-phase converter is consuming only 8.9kw. These energy savings go along with production growth of over 70%, not possible with the old 1-phase infrastructure. For the first time in the farm's history, both milk chillers were able to operate concurrently and cool the milk to a lower temperature, increasing milk quality and longevity.

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 Image (TRiiiON electrical boards Setup - 1 cable in, 1 cable out)

 

Nathan Leman, a Director with ADFG oversaw the project, as well as the early assessment for alternative solutions including a single to 3-phase power-line upgrade, and an on-site generator. Option one was quickly dropped due to prohibitive cost (priced at over $300,000 for an 11km line). Option two proved to be cost-ineffective (kw/diesel is 3-4 times more expensive) as well as cumbersome to operate and environmentally unfriendly, generating significant noise and air pollution.

A business case developed in conjunction with ADFG, demonstrated a TRiiiON solution to break even in year 2, and continue to deliver tens of thousands of dollars in savings over the coming years.

* For Australian Dairy Farms Group information, please visit: www.adfl.com.au or the ASX - stock code “AHF”.