Location: Guayaquil, Ecuador
Industry: Bakery Manufacturing Plant
Timeline: 2025
Background
Corporación El Rosado S.A., a leading bakery manufacturing plant in Guayaquil, Ecuador, faced critical energy challenges when prolonged droughts reduced hydroelectric generation, causing blackouts of up to 14 hours daily. To maintain production, the facility operated backup generators, which exposed significant electrical instability during the startup of refrigeration and ventilation systems -processes relying on variable speed drives and soft starters.
TORCAL POWER S.A. was contacted to assess and address the issue.
Challenge
The plant relied on backup generators during frequent grid outages, but sudden voltage regulator disturbances were causing generator trips at critical moments. A detailed analysis revealed three key issues:
- Harmonic Distortion: The fifth harmonic in the generator bus was regularly peaking above 14 %, far exceeding acceptable limits.
- Operational Interruptions: Those harmonics triggered the generator’s voltage regulator to over-excite the alternator, activating over-voltage protection and causing unexpected shutdowns -especially during the start-up and shutdown ramps of the refrigeration and ventilation systems.
- Non-Linear Loads: Roughly 90 % of the plant’s electrical load comes from non-linear equipment (variable-frequency drives and soft starters). In particular, about 30 VFD-driven AC and fan units switching on or off together generated the bulk of the disruptive harmonics.
The core challenge was to neutralize those harmonics so the generator’s voltage regulator could operate normally and deliver uninterrupted power throughout each outage.
Solution
After a detailed analysis, TORCAL POWER recommended the installation of a Comsys ADF P25 Active Harmonic Filter. The ADF P25 was installed for an evaluation period, with support from Comsys’ technical team in product selection and commissioning. Key factors in selecting the ADF P25 included its modular design, compact size, and proven ability to reduce harmonic distortion in generator-based systems significantly.
Results
Following installation, the ADF P25 immediately stabilized the power system:
- Total harmonic distortion (THDi) dropped from over 14% to 4–5%.
- Voltage stability was restored, and generator shutdowns ceased.
- Production processes continued without further electrical disruptions.
The maintenance team at Corporación El Rosado provided positive feedback, noting that the ADF P25 effectively solved a critical operational problem with a compact and efficient solution. Maintaining stable operation helped the plant avoid significant production losses and additional costs associated with restarts and raw material waste.
"The Comsys product has proven cost-effective. Without it, the plant would lose large amounts of raw materials and finished goods. Production would halt completely, and getting back up and running would cost more time and money than simply re-sanitizing the line".
ADF P25
The ADF P25 active filter gives you everything in a compact format. Although compact and cost-effective, the ADF P25 features the same excellent cutting-edge performance as its bigger ADF P300 or ADF P100 family members.
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Ultra-efficient and easy to use.
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Dynamic VAR compensation
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Harmonic elimination
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Load balancing
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Simple installation
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Modular and scalable design