TPK Koja, Indonesia

The Koja container terminal in Jakarta is owned by TPK Koja. The port hosts 450 ships annually and has a capacity to take 600,000 twenty-foot equivalent units of containers each year. The terminal has seven quay cranes that operate simultaneously and move each container in less than two minutes.

The cranes at the port use DC drives to enhance the efficiency of their motors but these DC drives are drawing high reactive power from the source and, so, operate at low power factor. The port was then facing poor power quality due to fluctuations in voltage, also leading to poor performance of other electrical equipment connected to the same network. Finally Koja container was being penalized up to $50,000 per month from the utility.

After a detailed study of the electrical parameters, Hitachi Energy supplied a thyristor-switched compensation system called Dynacomp. Thanks to this solution the power factor has reached 0,97 well above the specified limits of the utility.  So Koja container has not only saved on penalties but the improved power quality also led to significant energy savings and the operations are more efficient.