NEPSI Tech Talk Session 45: Thinking Inside the Box, Open-Air Vs. Metal-Enclosed Harmonic Filters

For over 25 years, NEPSI has been promoting their medium-voltage metal-enclosed harmonic filter systems and all their advantages. (If you do not know them - read this article and this article or come to this presentation). But how can you put this good knowledge to good use? Do not forget the role of the procurement process. Once you have established the technical feasibility and reliability of the metal-enclosed solution you need to make sure that your procurement process is structured in such a way as to allow proper evaluation of the complete package. That is, the total project costs, including not only the equipment itself, but also the site prep, installation, plant switchgear and cabling requirements, and associated start-up and commissioning costs. Often the technical review of a harmonic filter system is siloed from the commercial end, and once all vendors have been technically qualified, those qualified vendors advance to the commercial review, where price, delivery time, and terms & conditions are the prioritization factors, with price being the key driver. The metal-enclosed solution, because of the nature of the product, significantly reduces site costs, but front-loads the project cost, since the product is shipped fully assembled from the plant. On the face, the open-air solution appears to cost less. However, in more cases than not, those additional costs – carving out the side of a mountain or putting up a building, for example, and testing and assembling the equipment on-site such as is required with the open-air solution, are forgotten, only to be tagged on at the end stage by yet another siloed group or company when all the pieces are being put in place. These major cost factors, especially with large complex filter systems, or remote mine sites, where qualified individuals are difficult to find, where housing may be an issue, or where time may be of the essence, should all be front and center in the commercial review stage, and those responsible for the evaluation of bids need to be aware of, and account for these costs when recommending a vendor and before a letter of award goes out. This presentation provides key decision-making information and illustrates why the metal-enclosed configuration offers significant value over the open-air configuration. If you cannot make this tech talk, it is recorded like all of NEPSI Tech Talks. You can view it any time after the tech here. If you want future invites to NEPSI tech talks, click here: www.nepsi.com/techtalks. NEPSI believes a well-informed customer is our best customer.