Keeping the North Pole running

To illustrate the importance of a reliable power supply in Santa’s workshop, power quality specialist CP Automation has released an infographic:

Located in the depths of Lapland, Santa’s workshop is a hive of activity come December. However, it is likely that even a magical facility relies on a mains supply to power everything from conveyor belts to gift sorting machines.

Where there are electrical components, there’s the possibility of harmonic distortion causing trips and outages. If a power outage were to occur, this could leave millions of children without a present under their tree.

“I dabble in electrics now and then, but my elves are the real experts,” explained Santa Claus, CEO and Founder of Santa’s Workshop. “They were getting really worried because there is more demand for complex high-tech toys, which puts greater pressure on our equipment.  It only takes the slightest transient to bring everything to a grinding ho-ho-halt.”

In the North Pole, the cold weather could easily damage the power lines going into Santa’s workshop and cause problems with the elves’ equipment. Other challenges could be that increased demand for power near to Christmas might cause brownout, which could damage the motors running the conveyor belt.

One option would be to install active harmonic filters, so the elves could reduce process-related voltage fluctuations and improve the operating life and system capacity of the machines. If they were worried about any anomalies, they could use either a portable or fixed monitoring device to identify different disturbances as and when they occur.

“No facility is immune from power quality issues, not even a magical one,” said John Mitchell, Global Sales and Marketing Director at CP Automation. “Production facilities around the world are installing this technology and seeing higher efficiency and less downtime as a result.”

It's not just Santa’s workshop that needs sound power quality – your facility could also be at risk.