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Through Capability (The Minimum Voltage Magnitude A Piece of Equipment Can Withstand or
Through Capability (The Minimum Voltage Magnitude A Piece of Equipment Can Withstand or
Through Capability (The Minimum Voltage Magnitude A Piece of Equipment Can Withstand or
Voltage sags and interruptions are generally caused by faults (short circuits) on the utility
system.
Fig.2.3: Utility short-circuit fault event with two fast trip operations of utility line recloser
Consider a customer that is supplied from the feeder supplied by circuit breaker 1 on the
diagram shown in Fig.2.1. If there is a fault on the same feeder, the customer will
experience a voltage-sag during the fault followed by an interruption when the breaker
opens to clear the fault. If the fault is temporary in nature, a reclosing operation on the
breaker should be successful and the interruption will only be temporary. It will usually
require about 5 or 6 cycles for the breaker to operate, during which time a voltage sag
occurs. The breaker will remain open for typically a minimum of 12 cycles up to 5 s
depending on utility reclosing practices. Sensitive equipment will almost surely trip
during this interruption.
A much more common event would be a fault on one of the other feeders from the
substation, i.e., a fault on a parallel feeder, or a fault somewhere on the transmission
system (see the fault locations shown in Fig.2.1). In either of these cases, the customer
will experience a voltage-sag during the period that the fault is actually on the system. As
soon as breakers open to clear the fault, normal voltage will be restored at the customer.
Note that to clear the fault shown on the transmission system, both breakers A and B must
operate. Transmission breakers will typically clear a fault in 5 or 6 cycles. In this case
there are two lines supplying the distribution substation and only one has a fault.
Therefore, customers supplied from the substation should expect to see only a sag and not
an interruption. The distribution fault on feeder 4 may be cleared either by the lateral fuse
or the breaker, depending on the utilitys fuse saving practice.
Any of these fault locations can cause equipment to misoperate in customer facilities. The
relative importance of faults on the transmission system and the distribution system will
depend on the specific characteristics of the systems (underground versus overhead
distribution, lightning flash densities, overhead exposure, etc.) and the sensitivity of the
equipment to voltage sags.
Figure 2.2 shows the characteristic measured at a customer location on an unfaulted part
of the feeder. Figure 2.3 shows the momentary interruption (actually two separate
interruptions) observed downline from the fault. The interrupting device in this case was a
line recloser that was able to interrupt the fault very quickly in about 2.5 cycles.
2. Explain how the voltage sag performance is estimated? (6)
It is important to understand the expected voltage sag performance of the supply system
so that facilities can be designed and equipment specifications developed to assure the
optimum operation of production facilities. The following is a general procedure for working
with industrial customers to assure compatibility between the supply system characteristics
and the facility operation:
i.
Determine the number and characteristics of voltage sags that result from
transmission system faults.
ii.
Determine the number and characteristics of voltage sags that result from distribution
system faults (for facilities that are supplied from distribution systems).
iii.
Determine the equipment sensitivity to voltage sags. This will determine the actual
performance of the production process based on voltage sag performance calculated
in steps 1 and 2.
iv. Evaluate the economics of different solutions that could improve the performance,
either on the supply system (fewer voltage sags) or within the customer facility (better
immunity).
3. Describe the mitigation of voltage sag. (16)
There are many solutions to prevent damage due to voltage dips.
Typically, these solutions can be categorized into three classes:
These operations allow for a reduction in the severity of the phenomenon, but at a high
cost, particularly in HV systems. The basic method of preventing voltage dips is to install
elements of redundancy, as follows:
Installing generators close to sensitive loads. They support the voltage
during distant dips. The voltage reduction equals the percentage share
of the generator current in the short-circuit current.
Increasing the number of substations and busbars in order to limit the
number of customers, who potentially may be affected by the
disturbance.
Installing current-limiting reactors at strategic points of the system in
order to increase electrical distance to the fault. It should, however, be
remembered that this action may make a voltage dip deeper for other
customers.
Supplying sensitive customers busbars from several substations. The
effects of a voltage dip on one substation will be reduced by the
influence of the others. The more independent these substations are,
the more effective the measure is. The best reduction effect can be
achieved by providing a power supply from two different supplying
systems. The second supply increases the number of dips but reduces
their duration and depth.
d. Voltage Stabilizers
A more sophisticated way to eliminate the negative effects of dips is called custom power
technology. This technology is mainly based on power electronics and also, on some
occasions, electrical energy storage.
The most common method for mitigating the effects of the considered disturbances is the
use of additional equipment, namely voltage stabilizers. They can be installed on both the
suppliers or the customers side but, as experience shows, the customer is the one who much
more frequently does it, since the improvement in supply conditions and increasing the
equipments immunity are beyond the customers control.
These systems can be generally termed as systems of improved power parameters.
Two kinds of technical solution can be distinguished:
i.
Energy storage systems. The stored energy is utilized to supply a critical load during
the disturbance. These systems can be used in the case of voltage dips with arbitrary
residual voltage, as well as during short supply interruptions. The immunity level of
equipment depends on the amount of energy stored and on the energy requirements of
the protected process. In many cases the reaction time of the compensation equipment
should be considered critical. Since the energy storage process is, as a rule, very
costly, it is applied only to particularly sensitive equipment. Examples of energy
storage systems are: uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs), superconducting
magnetic energy storage (SMES), rotating machines with flywheels, motorgenerator
systems, etc.
ii.
Systems having no energy-storing capability. These can only be used to reduce the
effects of voltage dips (typically up to a maximum of 50 %) but not of supply
interruptions. They differ in depth of the voltage dip, which they are able to
compensate. The duration of a dip is not a critical parameter in these systems. Their
cost, as a rule, is smaller than that of the energy-storing systems.
Example of such solutions are:
o Constant voltage transformer (CVT);
o Static fast transfer switching (SFTS);
disturbance seen by the load is less than a quarter cycle in duration. This is fast enough to
avoid problems with almost all sensitive loads. The circuit can provide voltage boosting of
about 50 percent, which is sufficient for almost all voltage sag conditions.
5. Write notes on Static transfer switches and Fast transfer switches.
There are a number of alternatives for protection of an entire facility that may be sensitive
to voltage sags. These include dynamic voltage restorers (DVRs) and UPS systems that use
technology similar to the systems described previously but applied at the medium-voltage
level.
Another alternative that can be applied at either the low-voltage level or the mediumvoltage level is the automatic transfer switch. Automatic transfer switches can be of various
technologies, ranging from conventional breakers to static switches. Conventional transfer
switches will switch from the primary supply to a backup supply in seconds. Fast transfer
switches that use vacuum breaker technology are available that can transfer in about 2
electrical cycles. This can be fast enough to protect many sensitive loads. Static switches use
power electronic switches to accomplish the transfer within about a quarter of an electrical
cycle. The transfer switch configuration is shown in Fig. 3.28. An example medium-voltage
installation is shown in Fig. 3.29. The most important consideration in the effectiveness of a
transfer switch for protection of sensitive loads is that it requires two independent supplies to
the facility. For instance, if both supplies come from the same substation bus, then they will
both be exposed to the same voltage sags when there is a fault condition somewhere in the
supply system. If a significant percentage of the events affecting the facility are caused by
faults on the transmission system, the fast transfer switch might have little benefit for
protection of the equipment in the facility.
Fig.2.5: Configuration of a static transfer switch used to switch between a primary supply and
a backup supply in the event of a disturbance. The controls would switch back to the primary
supply after normal power is restored.
6. Write notes on ferroresonant transformer. (8)
CVTs are especially attractive for constant, low-power loads. Variable loads, especially
with high inrush currents, present more of a problem for CVTs because of the tuned
circuit on the output.
Ferroresonant transformers are basically 1:1 transformers which are providing an output
voltage which is not significantly affected by input voltage variations
Figure 2.7 shows the voltage sag ride-through improvement of a process controller fed
from a 120-VA ferroresonant transformer. With the CVT, the process controller can ride
through a voltage sag down to 30 percent of nominal, as opposed to 82 percent without
one.
From the above figure, it is clear that the ride-through capability is held constant at a
certain level. The reason for this is the small power requirement of the process controller,
only 15 VA. Ferroresonant transformers should be sized significantly larger than the load.
Magnetic synthesizers can handle three phase and provide improved voltage sag support
and regulation for three-phase loads.
They use resonant circuits made of nonlinear inductors and capacitors to store energy,
pulsating saturation transformers to modify the voltage waveform, and filters to filter out
harmonic distortion.
They are applicable over a size range from about 15 to 200 kVA and are typically applied
for process loads.
They supply power through a zigzag transformer. The zigzag name comes from the way
the transformer changes the phase angle between voltage and current. The zigzag
transformer traps triplen harmonic currents and prevents them from reaching the power
source.
Applications of magnetic synthesizers include protection of large computer installations,
computerized medical imaging equipment, and industrial processes, like plastic extruders,
especially from voltage sags. They protect sensitive loads not only from voltage sags but
also from transients, overvoltage, undervoltage, and voltage surges. However, they can be
bulky and noisy. The block diagram in Figure 2.9 illustrates the main components of a
magnetic synthesizer.
Motor-Generator sets are available in various sizes and configurations. This is one of the
established technologies for preventing sensitive loads from sags and interruptions.
Written-pole synchronous machine are also used. In this machine, the number of poles
getting varied according the speed of the machine to maintain the frequency as well the
voltage constant.
Solid state inverters are also preferred for some cases. But the loss and cost associated
with this arrangement is high.
Part-winding starting
50%
Star-Delta starting
57%
33%
Autotransformer starting
Resistance and reactance starting
Computation for sag to 90 percent of nominal voltage, using typical system impedances
and motor characteristics.
If the sag is above the minimum allowable steady state value of the affected equipment,
then the full voltage starting is acceptable.
Otherwise, voltage sag duration characteristics to be compared with the voltage
tolerance envelope of the affected equipment.
Such complicated analysis may be left to computer analysis.
Fig.2.12. Typical motor versus transformer size for full-voltage starting sags of 90%.
Computer simulation requires the following data:
o Parameter values for the standard induction motor equivalent circuit: R1, X1, R2, X2
and XM.
o Number of motor poles and rated rpm (or slip).
o WK2 (inertia constant) values for the motor and the motor load.
o Torque versus speed characteristic for the motor load.
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