ANALYSIS OF CAUSE OF ROLLING MILL

VFD TRIPPING ISSUE AND POTENTIAL

SOLUTIONS
Md. Mosiur Rahman.
AGM,Electrical-HT.
Root Causes of Voltage Dips

 Main Cause:
- Voltage Sag at a voltage level of 230kV in the national grid.
 Other Contributing Factors:
- Insulation failure at GPH Plant-1.
- Bird Strike at the 33kV Overhead Line of the Shear Machine Feeder.
- Symmetrical three-phase fault at the Generation Unit of Plant-1 during grid
synchronization.
Detailed incident reports
Fault Lowest RMS
Affected Effect of fault on GPH
Date Time Cause persisted Voltage/ph of
Phase production
for effected phase

20-Apr-22 6:49:32 Voltage Sag at 230kV R-ph 160ms 61.53 KV RM tripped.

20-Apr-22 10:44:26 Voltage Sag at 230kV B-ph 80ms 84.017 KV RM tripped.

20-Apr-22 11:53:23 Voltage Sag at 230kV B-ph 80ms 84.043 KV RM tripped.

20-Apr-22 15:30:11 Voltage Sag at 230kV Y & B-ph 60ms 97.968 KV RM tripped.

24-Apr-22 9:33:08 Voltage Sag at 230kV All Ph 80ms 48.856 KV RM tripped

3-Jun-22 11:06:21 Voltage Sag at 230kV All ph 730ms 77.839 RM tripped

4-Jun-22 22:48:41 Voltage Sag at 230kV Y & B Ph 60ms 34.49KV RM Tripped

27-Jun-22 18:05:04 Voltage Sag at 230kV R, Y & B- ph 680ms 99.5 KV RM tripped

Detailed incident reports

Affected Fault persisted Lowest RMS Voltage/ph of Effect of fault on

Date Time Cause
Phase for effected phase GPH production

2-Oct-22 14:40:14 Voltage Sag at 230kV R-ph 60ms 72.877 kV RM tripped.

Internal insulation failure of R,Y-ph

7-Oct-22 16:17:41 60ms 1.7kV(on 33kV bus-2) ASU & RM trips.
33/11kV transformer of Plant-1. (33kV)

4-Dec-22 11:36:00 Voltage Sag at 230kV R-ph 80ms 82.39kV RM tripped

4-Jan-23 12:45:00 Voltage Sag at 230kV Y-ph 80ms 68.298kV RM tripped

22-Mar-23 15:31:00 Voltage Sag at 230kV B-ph 100ms 87.711kV RM tripped

29-Mar-23 13:10:00 Voltage Sag at 230kV B-ph 60ms 41.332kV RM tripped

3phase fault during grid
All Ph
11-Apr-23 16:11:00 synchronization at generation unit 40ms 14.931kV RM tripped.
(33kV)
of Plant-1
Detailed incident reports

Affected Fault persisted Lowest RMS Voltage/ph of Effect of fault on GPH

Date Time Cause
Phase for effected phase production

14-Apr-23 14:21:00 Voltage Sag at 230kV Y & B-ph 80ms 74.408kV RM tripped

11-May-23 13:06:00 Voltage Sag at 230kV R-ph 60ms (twice) 11.146kV RM tripped

18-May-23 8:42:00 Voltage Sag at 230kV B-ph 80ms 102.85kV RM tripped

22-May-23 8:16:00 Voltage Sag at 230kV B-ph 160ms 85.004kV RM tripped

28-May-23 12:08:00 Voltage Sag at 230kV Y-ph 80ms 75.879kV RM tripped

28-May-23 13:48:00 Voltage Sag at 230kV Y-ph 80ms 75.285kV RM tripped

Bird strike at 33kV OH line Y & B-ph

12-Jun-23 6:39:00 90ms 4.451kV RM tripped.
of shear machine (33kV)
Impact of voltage fluctuations

%Cause of VFD Trips(Time Range:Apr-22 to Jun-23)

4%
4%4% Voltage Sag at 230kV
Bird Strike at 33kV OH line
Insulation failures at Plant-1
Symmetrical faults at Generation
unit of Plant-1

88%
Production loss analysis
Outage Time
Date Duration
From To
7-Nov-22 11/8/2022 5:57 11/8/2022 6:59 1:02:34
4-Dec-22 12/4/2022 11:36 12/4/2022 14:05 2:29:43
4-Jan-22 1/4/2023 12:45 1/4/2023 13:27 0:41:53
11-Feb-23 2/11/2023 13:59 2/11/2023 15:05 1:05:37
21-Feb-23 2/22/2023 2:48 2/22/2023 4:00 1:12:03
15-Mar-23 3/16/2023 5:18 3/16/2023 7:00 1:41:54
16-Mar-23 3/16/2023 7:00 3/16/2023 16:29 9:29:09
22-Mar-23 3/22/2023 15:31 3/22/2023 17:04 1:33:19
29-Mar-23 3/29/2023 13:10 3/29/2023 13:59 0:49:56
11-Apr-23 4/11/2023 16:11 4/11/2023 17:25 1:13:38
14-Apr-23 4/14/2023 14:21 4/14/2023 15:32 1:10:44
11-May-23 5/11/2023 13:06 5/11/2023 13:59 0:53:27
18-May-23 5/18/2023 8:42 5/18/2023 9:23 0:40:33
22-May-23 5/22/2023 8:16 5/22/2023 9:28 1:11:35
28-May-23 5/28/2023 12:08 5/28/2023 13:09 1:00:40
28-May-23 5/28/2023 13:48 5/28/2023 14:53 1:05:19
Production loss analysis

Total Outage Time Since NOV,22 27.37 hour

Production losses/hour in MT 110.00 MT

Associated loss/MT 100,000.00 BDT

Total Losses 301,045,555.56 BDT

History of vfd tripping incidents

No of Key Incidents from April-2022 till June-2023

5 5

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1 1 1 1

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2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3
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Impact of Voltage Dips on Rolling Mill and
Resultant Consequences
 Sensitivity to Voltage Dips:
- Voltage dips at the 230kV and 33kV sides cause the VFDs located at 6.6kV feeders (Feeder
Name: UHF001-UHF004) of the Rolling Mill at GPH Plant-2 to issue trip commands.
- The VFDs' high sensitivity to voltage sags results in extremely low time delays before these trip
commands are issued.
 Consequences of Tripping:
- Each tripping event of the Rolling Mill halts production at GPH Plant-2 for several hours.
- These production stoppages result in significant financial losses.
 Addressing the Problem:
- To prevent these unwanted tripping issues and avoid production and financial losses, it's crucial
to investigate and implement strategies to reduce the VFDs' sensitivity to voltage sags, or to
better manage voltage dips at the 230kV, 33kV or 6.6KV sides.
Detailed Analysis of Rolling Mill Supply
and VFD Parameters
 Rolling Mill Supply Voltage:
- Primary Supply: The primary supply for the Rolling Mill is at 6600 Volts.
- Secondary Supply: The secondary supply to feed the VFD starts at 720 Vac and under load conditions, it reduces to 690 Vac.
 DC Bus of VFD Rectifier:
- The voltage of the DC bus of the Rectifier of VFD fluctuates between 890-930 Vdc.
 Under Voltage Setpoint:
- For the Rectifier, the under voltage setpoint is at 567 Vdc.
- For the Inverter, the under voltage setpoint is at 649 Vdc.
 Voltage Dip Tolerance:
- The VFD can tolerate a minimum voltage dip of 20% of the nominal, beyond which tripping of the Rolling Mill occurs. This has been
observed from records since April 2022.
- On load conditions, the VFD can only sustain a voltage dip for 20 milliseconds or less up to the less than 20% dip of the nominal
voltage.
 Challenges:
- The narrow window of voltage dip tolerance poses significant challenges in protecting the VFD from tripping in case of internal (inside
the plant) or external faults (Grid side).
 33KV MRSS SLD and Voltage Dip due to
internal fault due to Bird Issue
Affected Feeder of 33KV
Feeder which feeds power
to Rolling Mill through LBSS Short circuit current flow
Transformer 10 KA which causes
Voltage drop from 19 KV
to 5 KV within 15ms.
Graph Analysis of an internal fault and
Solution
Graph Analysis of an internal fault and
Solution
 Voltage Dip Scenario:
- The phase voltage drops dramatically from 19 KV to 5 KV in just 15 ms and remains at this level for 90 ms.
 VFD Tolerance:
- The Rolling Mill's Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) can endure voltage dips below 20% of nominal voltage
for up to 20 ms.
 Fault Isolation Timing:
- Identifying a fault takes 15 ms for the relay.
- The circuit breaker requires 30-50 ms to trip.
- Hence, total time to isolate a faulty feeder is 60-90 ms.
 The Challenge:
- A system with a response time less than 20 ms is required to compensate for the voltage dip within this short
time.
 The Solution:
- Dynamic Voltage Restorer (DVR), Super Capacitor, and Flywheel are potential solutions for this
challenge.
Key Challenge: Fast Response to Prevent
Substantial Voltage Dips
Major Challenge:
 The primary challenge is to find out a solution our system must respond in less than 20
milliseconds (equivalent to 1 cycle) to compensate for voltage dips at the Rolling Mill.
 Importantly, the system has to respond swiftly enough to prevent the voltage from
dipping more than 20% of the nominal voltage.
 This extremely rapid response time is necessary due to the high sensitivity of the
Rolling Mill's VFDs to voltage sags.
 Without such fast compensation, voltage dips exceeding 20% can lead to the tripping of
VFDs, causing significant production stoppages and financial losses.
 Finding a solution that can reliably and consistently meet these demanding
requirements is a critical task.
Potential solution

1. DVR- Dynamic Voltage Restorer

2. Super Capacitor

3. Flywheel UPS