Voltage sags:

effects, mitigation
and prediction
Customers all over the world experience problems due to voltage sags.
Computers, industrial control systems, and adjustable-speed drives are
especially notorious for their sensitivity. Tripping of high-power adjustable-
speed drives is probably the main voltage sag problem, The number of trips
depends strongly on the equipment sensitivity. Prediction methods are needed
to quantify this aspect of the quality of the supply. From utility and
manufacturer's data, a customer can assess the compatibility between a piece
of equipment and the electricity supply.

by Math H.J. Bollen

Introduction distance between the fault and the customer.

A voltage sag, or voltage dip, is a reduction
of the voltage at a customer position with a
duration of between one cycle and a few
seconds. Voltage sags are caused by motor
starting, short circuits and fast reclosing of
circuit breakers.
Voltage sags occur in power systems all
over the world. They are a nuisance for many
industrial and commercial customers; they
are impossible t o prevent; but it is often
possible t o mitigate the impact on
equipment. Like other power quality
problems, this one needs co-operation
between the utility, the customer and the
manufacturer of the equipment. Before a
decision about mitigation can be made, an
assessment of the expected number of sags is
needed. Such an assessment can be made
through measurements or by using
stochastic prediction methods.
This article discusses some results of
voltage sag surveys. Surveys are one way t o
get an impression of the expected number of
voltage sags as a function of magnitude and
duration. The alternative is t o use stochastic
prediction methods. These lead t o results
much faster and are potentially more
powerful. Afast estimation method is
presented; and some alternative methods are
mentioned. The effects of voltage sags on
various types of equipment are discussed and
some mitigation methods are also
mentioned. Finally, voltage sags are treated
as an aspect of the compatibility aspect
between the supply and the equipment.
The duration of the voltage sag is determined
by the fault-clearing time of the protection.
There is unfortunately some confusion about
how t o characterise the voltage sag. Some
characterise it by the deviation from the
normal or pre-sag voltage. Others use the
voltage during the sag. Following the North-
American practice, I will use the terrri 'sag
magnitude' for the voltage during the fault.
This convention will make it easier t o
compare sag magnitudes with equipment
sensitivity.
Its magnitude and duration describe the
voltage sag in sufficient detail for most
applications. Based on these t w o parameters,
a scatter plot can be obtained from
monitoring the supply for a certain period.
Fig. 2 shows the results of a North American
power quality monitoring project. Shown are
phase-to-neutral voltages at low-voltage
customers. (The clustering around durations 1 Voltage sag d u e t o a
of one and four cycles is due t o the short circuit

0bservat io ns
A typical shape of a sag due t o a short
circuit is shown in Fig. 1 . The voltage during
the sag is determined by the electrical
POWE'R ENGINEERING JOURNAL JUNE 1996 129
2 Scatter plot processing of the measurements.) The
resulting from voltage
monitoring took place at a large number of
sag monitoring at a
number of sites in the sites. Sags are most common in the parts of
USA the graph where the dots have coloured it
black. We can distinguish between sags due
t o short-circuit faults (durations up to about
one second), due t o motor starting (longer
durations and magnitudes above 80°/0),and
due t o fast reclosure (longer durations,
magnitudes close t o zero).
Alternative methods of presenting the
results of a voltaqe saq survey are:
I I
distribution or density function of the sag
magnitude or duration
a two-dimensional histogram of number
of sags versus duration and magnitude
a table with each entry showing the
number of sags of a given duration and
magnitude range
a curriulative table with each entry
showing the number of sags exceeding a
certain duration and magnitude
a chart of magnitude versus duration with
lines connecting points with the same
expected number of sags exceeding that
magnitude and duration.
Table 1 shows some results of t w o years of
voltage sag monitoring in the United
Kingdom. Each entry in the Table gives the
number of sags exceeding the given duration
and magnitude. There are thus on average
Table 1 Monitoring results for t h e UK: number of voltage sags exceeding given magnitude
and duration
130
10.5 sags per year of duration longer than
100 ms and magnitude less than 70% etc.
From such a cumulative table, one can
immediately estimate the expected number
of trips for given equipment sensitivity. It is
thus easy t o realise that all equipment more
sensitive than 70%, 1 OOms is actually not
suitable for connecting t o this system. In
other words: there is a compatibility problem
between this equipment and the supply.
Effects and mitigation
The main reason for the increased interest
in voltage sags is that modern equipment is
often not able t o withstand such sags.
Computers, process control equipment and
power electronics equipment are notorious
for their sensitivity. Trip frequencies of once a
week and more have been reported. Also
some more classical pieces of equipment still
cause problems due t o voltage sags:
Consumer electronics equipment like
personal computers, compact disc
players, electronic alarms, video recorders
and microwave ovens can reset due t o a
short reduction in voltage. The sensitivity
(maximum permissable saq) varies from
85% during half a cycle u p t o 50% during
1 s. (A sensitivity of 50%, 1 Oms, means
that the equipment will trip if the voltage
is below 50% of its nominal value for 10
ms.) From Table 1 it is easy t o conclude
POWER ENGINEERING JOURNAL JUNE 1996
~
that the number of trips will vary from
two per year up to almost 50 per year. For
household equipment tripping is a
nuisance but seldom a very serious
problem. The problems are more serious
for office equipment.
0 Control systems for industrial processes
are equally sensitive. Spurious tripping of
continuous processes can cause serious
loss of revenue and it can even lead to
dangerous situations. In most industrial
processes therefore the control system is
protected against sags as much as
possible.
0 Both types of equipment are fed from an
internal DC bus through a single-phase
rectifier (e.g. a simple diode bridge). The
rectifier operates as a DC voltage source
through a capacitor connected t o the DC
bus. If the voltage a t the DC bus gets too
low the equipment (often some kind of
digital electronics or microprocessor) will
malfunction. The capacitor will keep the
voltage up for some time but often not
longer than a few cycles. The acceptable
sag duration depends, among other
things, on the capacitor size in relation to
the DC load.
0 Another thing that both types of
equipment have in common is that they
are basically low power (the main power
is often taken by less-sensitive loads like
fans and monitors). It is therefore not too
difficult to feed them from an
uninterruptable power supply (UPS). A
UPS consists of a rectifier, a DC bus with a
battery block connected to it, and an
invertor (see Fig. 3). If the AC input
voltage drops, the DC voltage is kept up
with power from the battery and the AC
output is not affected. A UPS can ride
through sags and even interruptions up
to several minutes in duration. The cost of
a UPS is low enough to justify its use for
industrial control systems, and for
important office equipment. They are,
however, seldom justifiable for home use.
0 Looking a t the way a computer is fed
through a UPS (AC to DC and DC t o AC in
the UPS and again AC to DC in the
computer), one easily concludes that
there are too many conversions. It should
not be too difficult to manufacture a
computer in which a battery block can be
inserted. Every laptop computer has this
provision already. A next step would be t o
think about the feasibility of a DC
distribution system for offices and
eventually even a t home.
0 Many adjustable-speed drives are too
large to be fed from a UPS, and they are
often essential for the production
process. Their sensitivity varies from 85%,
10 ms, up to 50%, 500 ms. If this
equipment needs to ride through a sag,
some large energy storage is required, like
the recently proposed superconducting
magnetic energy storage (SMES) devices.
However, there has not been much
evidence as to their feasibility.
POWER ENGINEERING JOURNAL JUNE 1996
Some manufacturers offer drives with
improved 'ride-through'. One o f t h e
problems is that many customers are not
aware of voltage sag problems vvhen they
buy a drive and go for the (seemingly)
cheaper option. When the drive is
installed and thevoltage sag induced trips
become apparent, it's often too late for a
simple solution. As long as there is not
sufficient customer demand, nor any
standardisation, most manufacturers will
not equip their standard drives with
improved 'ride-through'.
0 AC adjustable-speed drives are often fed
from a three-phase non-controlkd
rectifier (six or twelve-pulse diode bridge).
The voltage a t the DC bus is more or less
constant. To protect the diodes against
large inrush currents, the DC bus is
equipped with under-voltage and over-
voltage protection. If the DC voltage
drops for example below 85% of its
nominal value, a trip signal will be
generated immediately. As the bus
capacitor will not keep up the voltage for
much more than a few cycles, it IS clear
that these drives are very sensitive to
voltage sags. Possible solutions are
installing larger capacitors, and/or using
part of the rotational energy in the motor
inertia to keep up the bus voltage.
0 DC adjustable-speed drives and large AC 3 Simplified structure
drives are fed from a three-phase of an uninterruptable
controlled rectifier (either three cliodes power supp'y(ups)
and three thyristors, or six thyristors). The
problems become a bit more cornplicated
here. As most faults are single-phase or
phase-to-phase faults (especially on
overhead lines), the voltages in the three
phases are seldom of the same
magnitude. For a non-controlled rectifier,
some kind of average of the threlz-phase
voltages will determine the resulting DC
bus voltage, and thus whether the drive
will trip or not. For a controlled rectifier,
additional problems can occur with the
firing of the thyristors. This can be
aggravated as sags are associated with a
jump in the phase angle of the voltage.
The firing-angle control will have
difficulties following this jump. The
control system can get disturbed which
can lead to damage to the thyristors. To
prevent damage, most drives are
131

4 Variation of equipped with protection that trips the
frequency of voltage drive if anything suspicious occurs, like
sags through the year;
results from a large unbalance or under-voltage. This
North American survey protection determines the sensitivity of
the drive t o voltage sags.
5 Radial distribution The electricallyheld contactor drops out
network with fault
position (F), position of
when the voltage magnitude gets below
sensitive load (L), and about 60% for more than a few cycles.
point-of-common- This problem can be mitigated by using a
coupling (PCC) battery source for the contactor, by
supplying essential motors through circuit
breakers, or by using a contactor with
automatic reclosure,
Synchronous motors and induction
motors stall when the voltage gets too
low for too long. Especially for induction
motors the strength of the supply has a
considerable influence on what is
acceptable. Even without stalling the
motor, a voltage sag can cause problems
when the speed or torque requirements
of the process are no longer met. In
practice it is not so much the actual
stalling of he motors that causes the
problems, but their tripping by under-
voltage relays. Loss of the production
process can be avoided by tripping
132
nonessential motors faster than essential
motors. This will make more of the supply
available t o re-accelerate the essential
motors.
Some types of discharge lighting take
minutes t o restrike after a severe voltage
sag. The obvious answer here is t o feed
the essential parts of the lighting via a
battery backup.
In a large production process there are many
pieces of equipment that are sensitive t o
voltage sags. It is not always easy t o find the
piece of equipment that actually causes the
production process t o stop.
Prediction methods
The results of monitoring the supply for a
certain period can be used t o estimate the
expected number of sags of various duration
and magnitude. Such information can be
used t o assess how often a certain piece of
equipment will trip due t o voltage sags. This
will help in deciding about the purchase of
equipment, Voltage sag monitoring is a very
useful tool. It is especially suitable t o obtain
an 'average quality of supply' for a certain
country or area.
Its use for a single site has some
limitations, however. Voltage sag monitoring
for one site can take a long time, especially if
one is interested in less-frequent sags. As
shown in Fig. 4, the number of voltage sags
differs considerably through the year. This
implies that a monitoring period of a t least
one year is required, even for very frequent
sags. There are ways t o correct for seasonal
and other variations: they require additional
information and some assumptions. From a
monitoring study, it is also difficult t o obtain
information on the effect of system changes.
Stochastic prediction methods do not have
these limitations. They form an important
addition t o voltage sag monitoring. These
prediction methods are based on techniques
also used for power system reliability analysis.
A very simple prediction method is based
on the voltage divider equivalent circuit. The
basics of the method are best explained for
three-phase faults. Single-phase and phase-
to-phase faults can be treated similarly,
although some complications can occur.
To calculate the sag magnitude for a fault
somewhere within a radial distribution
system, one must find the point of common
coupling (PCC) between the fault and the
load, as shown in Fig. 5. Fig. 6 shows the
voltage divider model, whereZ, is the source
impedance a t the PCC; Z,is the impedance
between the PCC and the fault (including any
fault impedance). For three-phase faults only
positive sequence impedances are needed.
For single-phase faults one needs t o use the
sum of positive, negative and zero-sqeuence
impedances. The sag magnitude (Yo)a t the
load position equals the voltage (%) a t the
PCC if we neglect all load currents:
Vsag =
L2
z, + z2
~
(1)
POWER ENGINEERING JOURNAL JUNE 1996
We see that the sag becomes deeper for
faults closer t o the PCC (smallerz,) and for a
weaker supply (IargerZ,) Fig. 7 shows the
influence of the distance t o the fault and the
source strength on the sag magnitude for a
PCC at 1 1 kV.
Assume that there is a 'critical voltage'
below which the equipment will trip, and
above which it will not trip. Eqn. 1 can now
be used t o estimate the expected number of
equipment trips. For a given sag we have t o
consider all fault positions for which

Let Z,= Yxz, with zthe feeder impedance

per kilometre, and 'LJ!the distance between
the fault and the PCC. Assume further that
theXIR ratios of Z, and Z,are equal. We
can then calculate the 'critical distance' Zcnl
as:

Any short circuit at a distance less than the

critical distance from the PCC leads t o
tripping of the equipment. Fig. 8 shows the
critical distance for a PCC at 1 1 kV, with
short-circuit powers of IO,30 and 100 MVA.
We see that the critical distance, and thus the
expected number of sags, increases very
quickly for increasing critical voltage. The
critical distance also increases for decreasing
short-circuit power of the source.
Table 2 gives critical distance for various
voltage levels and short-circuit powers. The
critical distance increases considerably for
higher voltage levels: from less than 1 km for
400 V, up t o hundreds of kilometres for 400
kV. As the short-circuit current is of the same
order of magnitude for all voltage levels, the
critical distance will be roughly proportional
t o the voltage. This increase in critical
distance between fault and PCC
distance is t o some degree compensated for, 6 Voltage divider
as lower voltage lines attribute more faults model Of a sag
and longer fault-clearing times. 7 Sag magnitude as a
TO estimate the expected number of sags function ofthedistance
at a certain load position, the critical distance between the fault and
has t o be calculated for every possible PCC. the PCC. for threevalues
of the short-circuit
What results from this exercise is the so-
power at the PCC
called exposed area. Every fault within this
exposed area will lead t o tripping of

8 Critical distance
against critical voltage
at 11 kV

POWER ENGINEERING JOURNAL JUNE 1996 133

Table 2 Critical distance for various voltage levels and short-circuit powers
equipment. The expected number of sags
can simply be obtained by adding the
expected number of faults within the
exposed area, The latter can be obtained
from failure statistics.
For three-phase faults the above method
can be used easily. For single-phase and
p hase-to- p hase fau Its some com pl icat ions
occur:
The critical voltage used is the voltage in
the faulted phase a t the PCC. Due t o the
transformer connections, this is not the
voltage a t the load terminals.
0 Single-phase and phase-to-phase faults
cause different voltage magnitude in
different phases. The behaviour of three
phase equipment due t o these is often
hard t o assess.
For each voltage level one needs t o
determine which voltage a t the PCC will
cause the sensitive equipment (at a lower
9 Number of voltage voltage level) to trip.
sags below a certain The method is presented here for radial
voltage, as a function of svstems. It has been applied successfullv t o
that voltage: some non-radial systems too. For meshed
comparison between
monitoring results and
systems like the 400 kV grid it certainly has its
theoretical limitations.
approximation From eqn. 3 we can conclude that the
134
contribution of a feeder t o the number of
sags with a voltage magnitude less than V , is
proportional t o W(1 - U). As this holds for all
feeders, the total number of sags will also
show this relation. Fig. 9 compares this
theoretical relation with the results of voltage
sag monitoring. The monitoring results
clearly confirm the simple approximation.
More accurate prediction methods
In some cases the above method is not
suitable. This happens, for example, when
the system is strongly meshed or when the
expected number of sags of various durations
and magnitudes is sought. Other methods
have t o be used then:
A straightforward method is t o calculate
magnitude and duration of the voltage
sag for many possible faults. After taking
the failure rate for each fault into
account, the expected number of sags as
a function of magnitude and duration can
be calculated. The method from the
previous section can then be used t o
estimate the area within which faults have
t o be studied.
To take second-order events (like failure of
the protection) into account, detailed
stochastic models are needed.
In systems with large motor
concentrations it is necessary t o take the
shape of the voltage sag into account. It is
then no longer enough t o characterise
the sag through magnitude and duration
only.
Equipment compatibility
Voltage sags have t o be treated in the light
of the compatibility between equipment and
supply. Before connecting a piece of
equipment t o the electricity supply, the
equipment’s compatibility t o that supply
should be checked. To do this it is required t o
know the performance of the supply, and the
sensitivity of the equipment. The (voltage sag
aspect of the) performance of the supply can
be quantified, as shown in Table 1 . If the
equipment sensitivity is known, the customer
can estimate the expected number of
equipment trips. He can then decide t o install
a UPS, t o ask the equipment manufacturer
for improved ride-through, t o ask the utility
for improved power quality, or simply t o
accept the situation.
POWER ENGINEERING JOURNAL JUNE 1996
 It is often hard for a customer t o obtain the
required information from the equipment
manufacturer or from the utility. Often
neither the manufacturer nor the utility has
the information available. There are,
however, tools available and under
development t o assess the performance of
the supply and the sensitivity of equipment.
Apart from the lack of knowledge there is a
certain amount of fear that somebody will be
blamed for the problems. Poor power quality
is, however, nobody's fault. It is simply a
consequence of various technical and
economic develop ment s . Power q uaIity
problems like voltage sags call for close co-
operation between utility, manufacturer and
customer.
Further reading
1 KEY, T.S.: 'Diagnosing power-quality related
computer problems', I€€€ Transactions on
Industry Applications, 1979, 15, pp.381-393
2 WAGNER, V.E. eta/.:'Powerqualityand
factory automation', I€€€ Transactionson
Industry Applications, 1990, 26, pp.620-626
3 McGRANAGHAN, M.F., MUELLER, D.R., and
SAMOTYJ, M.J.: 'Voltage sags in industrial
power systems', IEEE Transactionson lndustry
Ferroresonance -
mystery, mythology
and magic!
The subject of ferroresonance in electric
power systems was addressed at a discussion
meeting enticingly titled: 'Warning!
ferroresonance can damage your plant!' at
Savoy Place recently. The level of interest in
the subject was demonstrated by the large
audience (93 compressed into the Faraday
Room) who had turned out despite bitterly
cold weather and several centimetres of
snow in the home counties.
Ferroresonance is the name given t o
resonance in which the resonant circuit
consists of a capacitance and a nonlinear
i ron-cored inductance driven into satu ration.
It is usually a series resonant circuit. The
subject had gained some mystique from tales
of strange noises emanating from power
transformers accompanied by excessive
voltages and currents. All these phenomena
are true, and five expert speakers
de-mystified the subject.
Eurlng John Rye (Consultant) opened the
discussion with the very apt title 'Tales of the
unexpected'. This featured a number of
practical instances where ferroresonance has
occurred in his 40 years' experience in the
ESI. His concluding example showed that it is
quite possible to have ferroresonant
conditions in urban networks which have
POWER ENGINEERING JOURNAL JUNE 1996
Applications, 1993, 29, pp.397-40.3
4 CONRAD, L.E. (Chair):'Proposed Chapter 9 for
predicting voltage sags (dips) in revision to
IEEE Std 493, the Gold Book', /€E€
Transactionson lndustry Applications, 1 994,
30,pp.805-821
5 IEEE PI346 Working Group (Chair: \/.
Wagner): 'Electrical power system
compatibility with industrial process
equipment - Part 1 : Voltage sags', IEEE
Industrialand Commercial Power Systems
Technical Conference, May 1994, Irvine, CA,
USA, pp.261-266
6 DORR, D.S.: 'Point of utilization of power
quality study results', lfff Transactionson
Industry Applications, 1995,31, pp.658-666
7 BOLLEN, M.H.J.:'Method for reliability
analysis of industrial distribution systems', /€E
Proceedings C, 1993, 140, pp.497-502
8 BOLLEN, M.H.J.:'Fast assessment m'ethodsfor
voltage sags in distribution systems', IEEE
Industry Applications Society Annu&
Meeting, October 1995, Orlando, FL, USA.
0 IEE: 1996
~~
The author is with Manchester Centre for Electrical
Energy, UMIST, PO Box 88, Manchester IM60 1QD,
UK. He is an IEE Member.
small business units with power factor
correcting capacitors. The unfortunate
circumstances could be triggered by the
combination of light loading and network
conditions (fault location with unusual
si ng Ie- p hase con d it io ns).
Doug Ellis (Eastern Electricity) showed that
it was possible t o have ferroresonant circuits
containing a wide range of capacitance due
t o lengths of underground cable- from
40 m t o over 1000 m . When considering a
simple pole-mounted transformer in series
with a length of underground cable,
ferroresonance was demonstrated t o be one
of t w o stable states where the overvoltage is
at the same frequency as the energising
voltage. Other stable states could, however,
exist with ferroresonance at subharnionic
ferroresonant frequencies. In his
presentation entitled 'Living with
ferroresonance on 1 1 kV rural distribution
systems', Doug considered the effect of load
resistance, the calculation of ferroresonant
voltage and critical damping resistance, the
role of surge arresters, limits for cable lengths
and transformer design. On this last point,
material and assembly costs have t o be
balanced against capitalised losses and rate
of return on investment t o determine the
135