Power Quality for Ports & Shipping
The cranes, refrigerated containers and drives that keep a terminal moving waste electricity before it does any work, and HarmoniQ stops that waste at its source without closing a berth.
Ports Are Electrically Demanding Places
A terminal runs cranes that start and stop under load, refrigerated containers that stay plugged in around the clock, and the pumps, lighting and workshops that keep the quay working. Together they distort the current flowing through your network 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 terminal's low-voltage loads, by preventing the losses before they occur
Where the Waste Starts on a Terminal
Three problems account for most of it, and each has a unit that sits where the problem starts.
Harmonic distortion
Crane and pump drives
Low-voltage drives on yard cranes, pumps and fans draw current in sharp pulses. The 5th and 7th harmonics ripple through the terminal, heating cables and transformers and upsetting PLCs and control systems.
FittedHarmoniQ Delta, at the drives
Reactive power
Reefer compressors and motors
Reefer compressors, crane motors and pumps 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. Banks of reefers cycle on and off across shared circuits, so that demand keeps shifting.
FittedHarmoniQ Alpha at the load, HarmoniQ Sigma at the incomer
Phase imbalance
Lighting and workshops
Lighting masts, workshops, offices and other single-phase services load the three phases unevenly, and the balance shifts as they switch on and off. 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 terminal handles the same cargo 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
“Crane work is too volatile. You can't smooth that out.”
The reality
You can't change what a crane cycle asks of the supply, and HarmoniQ doesn't try to. It cuts the reactive and distorted current that cycle creates, so less of what you draw ends up as heat in your cables and transformers. It does not slow a crane down.
We hear
“Shore power is the real power-quality concern, and that is a problem for later.”
The reality
Shore-power connections for large vessels are medium voltage, which is outside what HarmoniQ addresses, so we make no claim there. Behind the transformers, the low-voltage network feeds your reefer banks, crane drives, pumps and lighting, and it wastes energy today. That is where we work.
We hear
“We can't take a berth or a crane out of service 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 terminal runs through it. It goes in with berths and cranes working, and the on/off test proves the saving at your own meter. The units are indoor equipment and go in your electrical rooms.
Three Steps. Zero Disruption.
01 · Assess
Measure the network
Our engineers measure your network, from the yard cranes to the reefer banks, 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 terminal 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 Terminal
Our engineers will measure your site and show you exactly where energy is being wasted, and how much of it HarmoniQ can prevent.