The project I am currently working on has been relocated to a new site, and the process blower has been upgraded in size. It was originally driven by a 110kW VSD with input line reactor. The design of the control system was unfortunately before my time with the company, calculations are non-existent and this is not my area of specialisation.

The new blower is 132kW and the new location has a 2MVA LV (11kV/400V) transformer about 50m from the distribution panel. The cable length to the motor is about 15m, so a load reactor is not likely to be necessary. The site is a generating station and the generators feed in at 11kV. The grid connection is the other side of an on-site 33kV/11kV 12MVA transformer, and the nearest point of common coupling to other consumers is at 33kV approximately 1.5 miles away.

In upgrading the drive, the supplier is asking whether the line reactor is necessary. Given the distance from the PCC, I can see an argument for not including it, not least the additional cost of the hardware, but with this being the only large-ish VSD (the other six all being less than 5kW), would it be feasible to not install one?

I appreciate any advice.

Thanks very much.

Pete