How a Food Plant Cut Outage Losses by 68% with the SINGI SWQ1-63N ATS

A mid-sized dairy processing plant in the Midwest was losing an average of $42,000 per power outage. With 14 outages a year, the cost was unsustainable. Installing the SINGI SWQ1-63N automatic transfer switch cut outage-related losses by 68% in the first year.

Customer Background

This dairy processing facility employs 180 people and produces 250,000 gallons of milk and cream products per week. The plant operates three production lines the clock, each dependent on a continuous power supply for pasteurization, homogenization, and cold storage.

The facility is located in a rural area served by an aging distribution grid. It has a 500 kVA diesel generator as backup, but the generator was never fully reliable because the switchover from grid to generator required a staff member to manually throw a transfer switch in the electrical room. In a facility running three shifts, that response time varied from 3 to 11 minutes.

The Power Problem: Frequent Outages and Costly Downtime

The main challenge was not the outages themselves, but the transition Every time the power flickered or dropped, the plant lost production time. One line could be left with partially processed milk in pipes, which had to be discarded due to temperature and contamination risks. The average loss per event was $42,000, including wasted product, restart labor, and equipment wear.

Before the SWQ1-63N, the plant had tried a simple relay-based transfer scheme. It was inexpensive but created a new problem: the relay would sometimes close the generator feed before the generator had reached stable volt-level and frequency, causing a phase mismatch that tripped motor protection relays. That led to an additional fault that required an electrician to reset multiple breakers. In one storm-related outage, the plant was down for 26 hours due to a failed transfer sequence.

The maintenance manager later noted that they had considered two other ATS brands. One was cheaper but failed to meet the plant’s requirement for a short transfer time. The other offered better performance but came with a proprietary controller that made changes difficult for in-house staff.

Why the SWQ1-63N Automatic Transfer Switch?

The plant chosen the SINGI SWQ1-63N after comparing three options. The decision came down to three factors:

• IEC 60947-6-1 compliance. The SWQ1-63N is designed and tested to the international standard for low-volt-level transfer switching equipment, which meant the plant could verify its operation performance and transfer time without relying on the manufacturer’s claims alone.
• , reliable transfer. The switch is rated for a transfer time of under 2 seconds, which was critical for keeping the pasteurizer running and avoiding product loss.
• Simple maintenance. The SWQ1-63N uses a motor-driven mechanism with a clear mechanical indicator. The plant’s own electricians could inspect and service it without calling in a specialist.

Another factor was the switch’s ability to handle the plant’s inrush currents. Each production line has multiple motors starting simultaneously, and the SWQ1-63N’s rated making and breaking capacity matched that demand without derating.

Implementation: Retrofitting the Existing Electrical System

The project took three days from start to finish. The plant had a dedicated electrical room with space for a new enclosure, so the installation did not require a building extension.

The key steps were:

• Isolating the grid feed and generator feed to safely wire the new ATS into the existing distribution board.
• Mounting the SWQ1-63N on a wall rack next to the generator breaker.
• Running control wiring from the generator start-signal terminals to the ATS controller.
• Programming the volt-level and frequency thresholds for both sources.
• Performing a full-load transfer test under simulated outage conditions.

The main difficulty was coordinating the test with the utility. The plant needed a real loss-of-grid event to verify the transfer behavior, but the utility could not schedule a controlled outage on short notice. The maintenance team solved this by using a portable generator set as a temporary source and simulating a grid failure by opening the main breaker during a scheduled line changeover. That test confirmed a transfer time of 1.7 seconds, well within the required window.

Quantified Results: Uptime, Cost Savings, and Payback

In the 12 months after the SWQ1-63N was installed, the plant experienced 16 grid disturbances. All 16 automatic transfers succeeded, and the generator started and accepted load every time. The average transfer time was 1.8 seconds, and no production line was stopped due to the switchover itself.

Comparing the same 12-month period to the prior year:

• Outage-related losses dropped from $42,000 per event to $13,400 per event — a 68% reduction.
• Total annual downtime caused by power events fell from 5.2 hours to 1.1 hours.
• Wasted product due to power interruptions fell by 74%. The plant saved $312,000 in avoided product loss and labor in the first year.

The SWQ1-63N unit and installation cost $9,800. The payback period was under two months.

Beyond the direct savings, the plant’s delivery reliability to its retail customers improved. On-time shipment performance went from 96.2% to 99.1%, because the plant no longer missed order cutoffs after grid events.

Customer Feedback

Don, the plant’s maintenance manager, put it plainly: “We used to hold our breath every time clouds rolled in. Now the switch does its job. I’ve reviewed the event logs after each outage, and the SWQ1-63N has never once failed to transfer. It’s the most reliable piece of equipment in our electrical room.”

The plant’s operations director added: “The switch paid for itself in the first storm season. If we had installed this years ago, we would have saved well over a million dollars.”

Lessons for Other Facilities

Three lessons from this project apply to any manufacturing plant that relies on an automatic transfer switch:

• Test the actual transfer time under load, not in no-load conditions. The only meaningful test is a full-load transfer with motors running, because volt-level dips during motor inrush affect generator response.
• Choose a switch that your own maintenance team can service. Proprietary controllers may offer extra features, but they require factory support. The SWQ1-63N’s open design kept troubleshooting simple.
• Plan for a controlled simulation if the utility cannot provide a scheduled outage. A temporary generator set and opening the main breaker provides a realistic test without waiting for a real grid event.

If the project were repeated, the plant would install a second SWQ1-63N on the separate cold-storage feed, because that area runs on a manual transfer switch and is still exposed to 20 minutes of downtime during a prolonged outage. That is the next improvement on the list.

References

[1] IEC 60947-6-1:2021, Low-volt-level switchgear and controlgear – Part 6-1: Transfer switching equipment. https://webstore.iec.ch/publication/60947-6-1

[2] Reliability analysis of automatic transfer switches in power supply systems, Energies, 2022. https://doi.org/10.3390/en15031024

[3] Robust automatic transfer switch system for grid/solar PV/genset sources, AIJASET, 2024. https://doi.org/10.25077/aijaset.v5i02.219