Voith Successfully Commissions The First Two VECO-Drives

• The two VECO-Drives have been running successfully for more than 6,000 operating hours, after being installed in February.
• The customer, Guangzhou China Resources Thermal Power Co., Ltd. is particularly impressed by the increased efficiency.
• Efficiency can be improved significantly compared to the replaced variable speed solution and reaches approx. 97 percent.

Voith has successfully commissioned the first two VECO-Drives at a coal-fired power station in China. Since February, the two systems have already been running reliably for over 6,000 hours, improving not only the overall efficiency of the drive train but also significantly decreasing noise emissions and vibrations. This is another milestone for Voith in pushing ahead with the continuous electrification of its proven drive technologies, thus meeting the growing demand for energy-efficient variable speed drives in the power and oil & gas markets.

The two VECO-Drives have passed all necessary tests of Guangzhou China Resources Thermal Power Co., Ltd. and were put into operation in February 2020. The units are part of the customer’s energy-saving transformation project of the electric feed water pump unit to replace the original speed control device.

As of today, the two VECO-Drives have provided a safe operation for more than 6,000 operating hours. Various monitoring indicators such as temperature, vibration and pressure were measured and confirmed to be within a safe range. Additionally, the team measured a power transmission efficiency of the complete speed regulation system of approx. 97 percent. Furthermore, lower than specified noise emissions were attained.

Through the entire project implementation, the Voith service team has followed up on the overall process and provided timely and professional technical support.

After passing the relevant safety commissioning certifications of the customer and third-party organizations, the VECO-Drive proved its reliability, already reaching the highest efficiency grades in early 2019. The system performed accordingly during a comprehensive test run in Crailsheim, Germany, and met all customer requirements early on.

Most efficient variable speed drive
The VECO-Drive is an electric superimposing gear, combining a mechanical planetary gear with frequency-controlled servo motors. Since only a small part of the rated power is needed as superimposing power, an overall component efficiency of more than 97 percent at peak is reached and installation space is minimized. This saves valuable energy and reduces daily operating expenses. Further, the service life of the main body of the equipment can extend up to 30 years.