Wisconsin manufacturing facility to expand

S&C Electric Co. plans to expand facilities in Franklin, Wis. to meet smart grid growth needs.

By Source: S&C Electric Co. March 6, 2012

S+C Electric Co. has announced the expansion of its engineering and production facilities in Franklin, Wis. These facilities support S+C’s power quality products, which include energy storage integration solutions, reactive compensation systems applied at renewable energy plants, and extremely fast uninterruptible power supplies for mission critical power users.

The expansion will double S+C’s manufacturing capacity for these products, allowing S+C to better support global demand for solutions to a wide range of challenges facing today’s power grids. The facility is expected to open on August 1, 2012.

"S+C’s power quality products are used to implement the latest smart grid technology which improves the reliability, capacity, and efficiency of electric power grids. This is of heightened importance as communities worldwide work to integrate disruptive new technologies like renewable energy sources and electric vehicles to the grid," said Jim Sember, S+C vice president—Power Quality Products. "This expansion positions S+C to meet growing demand for products that help our customers manage these varied challenges."

In the rapidly evolving field of renewable energy generation, power quality solutions are needed to help integrate these sources and are often required to meet grid interconnection requirements. By ensuring these requirements are met, S+C’s reactive compensation solutions help renewable energy plant owners and operators optimize renewable energy production, avoid penalties and maximize return on investment. In addition, stored-energy systems protect customers against power outages and enables renewable energy to be optimized on the grid.

"As the grid becomes increasingly complex, S+C’s power quality solutions are vital to allow renewable energy plants to comply with interconnection requirements as well as to enable utilities to manage intermittency issues associated with renewables," said Sember. "S+C’s solutions help keep the grid stable and reliable for the consumers and businesses that depend on it, and better positions utilities to meet energy demands of the future."