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Metro Grain Centre - Co-operative Bulk Handling

Schneider has supplied a range of standard products and Modicon PLCs for the motor control centres which control some 300 drives on the plant. Drives vary in size from 315kW down to 0.75kW and provide power for eight elevators (200kW), six dust collectors (132-315kW), 41 conveyors and hundreds of grain control valves.

Products include the Masterpact air circuit breakers, NS moulded case circuit breakers and C60 breakers.
Order: December 1996. Commissioned: Late 1997.

An ambitious project

The new Centre consists of 96 x 1000 tonne silos, 16 x 7000 tonne silos and 4 x 1000 tonne over-rail silos. Four road truck discharge grids and one
rail/road discharge grid – each with a rated capacity of 1000 tonnes per hour – are linked to the silos by elevators and conveyors.

The 1000 tonne silos will allow CBH to handle the increasing number of grain separation required by marketers. The Centre also offers value-added
processes including grading, cleaning, blending, bagging and containerisation.

Schneider advantages

Southern Cross Electrical Engineering, the main electrical contractor for the project, used Schneider equipment almost exclusively in the MCCs.

The breakers, available in a wide range of sizes, offered a fault level of up to 50kA. They can also be padlocked with rotary isolators.

As well as saving valuable floor space, the NS moulded case circuit breakers provided full discrimination down to the GV2-P motor starters.

The AK5 prefabricated busbar system allowed small components to be mounted easily and neatly in the chassis. This was a real benefit with so many small drive isolator units. It also meant that the motor and control circuits could be isolated from a single point.

The motor control centres were built by CPE Switchboards of Bibra Lake,
Perth.

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