Power Quality for Logistics & Warehousing
The conveyors, sortation drives, dock equipment and refrigeration that keep stock moving waste electricity before it does any work, and HarmoniQ stops that waste at its source without stopping the line.
The Hidden Cost of Warehouse Electrification
A modern distribution centre runs conveyors, sortation lines, dock equipment, refrigeration and high-bay lighting through every shift. Together they distort the current flowing through your building and draw current that does no work, so part of every kilowatt-hour you pay for never does useful work. It becomes heat, in your cables, your transformers and your motor windings.
It doesn't appear on your bill as a line of its own. It shows up as higher consumption, power-factor penalties, capacity charges, and drives, motors and transformers that age before they should.
10–20%
Typical saving in kilowatt-hours on a distribution centre's low-voltage AC loads, by preventing the losses before they occur
Where the Waste Starts in a Warehouse
Three problems account for most of it, and each has a unit that sits where the problem starts.
Harmonic distortion
Conveyor and sortation drives
Variable-speed drives on conveyors and sortation lines draw current in sharp pulses. The 5th and 7th harmonics ripple through the building, heating cables and transformers and upsetting the PLCs that run the line.
FittedHarmoniQ Delta, at the drives
Reactive power
Refrigeration and dock motors
Refrigeration compressors, dock equipment and ventilation motors draw current that does no work but still has to be supplied, inflating the apparent power you are billed for and the capacity you have to reserve.
FittedHarmoniQ Alpha at each machine, HarmoniQ Sigma at the incomer
Phase imbalance
Lighting and offices
High-bay lighting, offices, canteens and other single-phase services rarely spread evenly across the three phases. The difference flows down the neutral and sets up counter-rotating fields in your motors: heat without torque.
FittedHarmoniQ Alpha, at the load
Same Machines. Less Power.
With the waste prevented, the same distribution centre moves the same stock on fewer kilowatt-hours. With power-factor penalties gone and capacity charges lower too, that can take up to 25% off your total electricity bill where all three apply.
- Energy savings · kWh
- 10–20%
- Power factor
- 0.98+
- Equipment life · Arrhenius
- 2–4×
- Operational disruption
- 0
What We Hear, and the Reality
We hear
“Our sortation faults are a software or mechanical problem.”
The reality
Sometimes they are. But a distorted supply can also upset PLCs and network communications. If faults rise and fall with the time of day or with which machines are running, measure the power before you change more software. Our engineers do that first and show you what they find.
We hear
“Forklift charging is our biggest load, so this isn't for us.”
The reality
HarmoniQ works on AC loads, and a battery charger delivers DC, so we make no claim on the chargers. The rest of a distribution centre is AC: conveyors, sortation drives, dock equipment, refrigeration and ventilation. Before any figure is quoted, we measure how much of your load that is.
We hear
“We can't stop the line to fit equipment.”
The reality
You don't have to. HarmoniQ connects in parallel, alongside your circuits rather than in series with them, so nothing on the line runs through it. It goes in with the operation running: no conveyor shutdowns, no picking stoppages.
Three Steps. Zero Disruption.
01 · Assess
Measure the network
Our engineers measure your network, from the incomer to the conveyors, and show you where energy is being wasted, before anything is fitted.
02 · Install
Fit alongside your circuits
Each unit goes in where its problem starts, connected in parallel, with the operation running.
03 · Prove
Test it on and off
The on/off test proves the saving at your own meter, before any annual figure is quoted.
See What HarmoniQ Can Do for Your Warehouse
Our engineers will measure your site and show you exactly where energy is being wasted, and how much of it HarmoniQ can prevent.