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As I work at a Class I wastewater facility, we have a medium voltage coming into our plant. It is used at 4160V for our blower systems, dropped to 460/480V for most other large motors and systems, and finally dropped to lower voltages such as 240/120V for outlets and smaller systems. This puts me in contact with large breakers, contacts, relays, and transformers. I also encounter smaller systems that have disconnects, motors, outlets, UPS’s, and more.
For those that do not work with anything above 220V, it is important to understand first why you would want something that requires a higher voltage. The main reason you will see is the need for output. The blowers, for example, are 900hp blowers. They are putting out thousands of SCFM of air at a time, and this can draw a lot of current. If you are familiar with P=IV and Ohms law, then you may already see where I am going. By increasing the voltage, you will lower the amount of current required to produce the same amount of power. This translates all the way down to the smaller pumps that might just need to be plugged in, or only require 220/240V power. If they do not have the need to produce as much power, then you would build and provide a lower voltage source.
Since there is only one power source coming in at a higher voltage level then needed, this is where transformers come in. Transformers can step power down or up in voltage. This is useful around the plant to provide the necessary voltage levels for the different processes. This is accomplished by creating a magnetic flux between a primary and secondary wire and current. See the picture and quote bellow for a better understanding.
“To make a coil of wire, we simply curl the wire round into loops or (“turns” as physicists like to call them). If the second coil has the same number of turns as the first coil, the electric current in the second coil will be virtually the same size as the one in the first coil. But (and here’s the clever part) if we have more or fewer turns in the second coil, we can make the secondary current and voltage bigger or smaller than the primary current and voltage (Woodford, 2019).”
Reference
Woodford, C. (2019, March 02). How do electricity transformers work? Retrieved March 11, 2019, from https://www.explainthatstuff.com/transformers.html
