International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 4 Issue 04, April-2015

Power Quality Improvement in Electric Arc

Furnace
Veeresh A G1 Bhakti Nitve3 Prof. C. M. Chelli2
1, 3 2,
,P.G Scholars, Professor,
Department of Electrical Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering,
S.D.M.C.E.T, Dharwad S.D.M.C.E.T, Dharwad.

Abstract— Electric arc furnaces (EAFs) are the worst offending 2. STUDIED NETWORK
loads which pollutes the power quality. But AC arc furnace is a
industrial load having variation with respect to time and is
nonlinear which can cause many problems to the power system
quality, including voltage dips, harmonic distortion, unbalance
loads and flicker. Electric Arc Furnaces are used in steel plants
for producing high quality steel. Modelling of the electric arc
furnace with all its features is accomplished using a technique
developed based on CAVIAR Software. It is demonstrated in this
paper that SVC gives the best performance of all possible
solutions. The design aspects of SVC and Filters for the EAF to
improve the voltage profile of the system at the point of common
coupling are discussed in this paper.

Keywords— EAF, TCR, Passive Filters, CAVIAR software.

1. INTRODUCTION
The use of EAF for making steel has grown rapidly over the
two decades. Presently EAF accounts for 50% of steel
produced. The cycle starts with the charging of the furnace
with the scrap. After the furnace is charged and the roof is in
place, the operator lowers the electrode. Current is initiated
and the electrodes bore into through the scrap to form a pool
of liquid metal. The largest industrial loads of present days are Fig.no.1 Single line diagram of studied network
the EAFs which causes fast and major disturbances at the bus
voltage. Morever, the EAFs cause deteriorating of power Loads at the 33 kV bus
quality, causing voltage flicker, unbalance in voltages and
currents, and occurring of odd and even harmonics in power Electric Arc Furnace (EAF):
systems. In order to improve the above mentioned factors a
SVC is designed which reduces the voltage flickering,
Rated capacity 137MVA
improves power factor of the Furnace and also provides
compensation of Q. The SVC is combination of TCR which Power factor 0.65
is connected in delta and Fixed capacitors connected in star Number of furnaces 1
.The TCR is called the heart of the SVC as its function is to
reduce the voltage flicker of the system. As SVC is a shunt Ladle Furnace (LF):
compensation so, it is always connected in parallel to the
system. The Harmonic generated by the system is eliminated
Rated capacity per furnace 28MVA
by the use of passive filters. From the analysis the 2,3,4,5
order harmonics are predominant in the system.Different types Power factor 0.78
of filters are designed to eliminate these predominant
harmonics. Number of furnaces 1
SVC equipment:

TCR rating 180MVAr

Filter overall rating 180MVAr

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 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 4 Issue 04, April-2015

3.REACTIVE POWER BALANCE 4.2 Harmonic generation from TCR

Depending on the fluctuation in the furnace power In addition to the harmonics generated by the furnaces the
consumption the reactive power consumption will be higher harmonics from the SVC thyristor valve have to be
than the mean value such as: considered. The technique of controlling the conduction
intervals of the reactors generates harmonic currents which are
Qmax=Qmean+Qdyn a function of the control angle. Table below shows the
maximum percent harmonic generation of the fundamental
The dynamic fluctuation can be described as a fraction of current.
the mean value.
HARMONIC ORDER TCR HARMONIC
Qdyn= k x Qmean CURRENT(%)
3 7.5
5 5.0
The “k” factor will vary depending number of different 7 2.6
circumstances, e.g. type of furnace, mode of operation 9 1.2
(melting/refining), furnace power factor etc. Very extreme 11 1.0
conditions,such as the first minutes in a charge will have 13 0.7
15 0.5
higher reactive power fluctuations from the furnace.
See figure below for clarification of the reactive power
swing. 4.3 Filter design
The harmonic filters are chosen in order to meet the harmonic
distortion requirements, generate reactive power and minimize
any risk of dangerous parallel resonance. With the total
harmonic generation in mind, it is important to tune and rate
the needed filters, ensuring, that for no situations, a resonance
mode will be hit. Final filter ratings are selected from
extensive computer simulations. The number of different filter
configurations is checked to identify the best possible
configuration in respect to THD, individual harmonics, system
resonances, degraded operation modes, etc. See selected
harmonic filter data from computer simulations in Table listed
below. In order to reach the SVC operation range a total filter
power of 180 Mvar is installed. The best use of the total
reactive power for filtering purpose is to divide the total
reactive power into four different filters tuned to 2nd, 3rd, 4th
Fig.no.2 Typical EAF reactive power swing
and 5th harmonics. By introducing damping in the 2nd
harmonic filter the problems with the inter harmonics and
In order to compensate the reactive power demand the SVC
resonances will be mastered.
is rated with a continuous control range between 0 to + 180
Mvar, which will stabilize the voltage, reduce the flicker at TUNING NOMINAL RATING QUALITY
PCC and secure that the FACTOR MVAr FACTOR
Power factor cosfi>0.99 @ 33kv-side can be obtained. 1.95 50 15
2.95 60 -
4.HARMONIC GENERATION AND FILTERING 3.90 40 -
4.90 30 -
4.1 Furnace harmonic generation
5.MAIN COMPONENT RATING
The harmonic generation at PCC from the EAF and LF used
in the design are according to Table given below This part of the report establishes the design parameters for
HARMONIC EAF HARMONIC LF the main components for the SVC
ORDER CURRENT (%) HARMONIC
CURRENT (%)
2 7.4 3.5
5.1 TCR
3 17.6 7.0 The TCR is connected to the 33 kV bus. The TCR reactors are
4 4.5 2.0 connected in a delta configuration. Nominal rating of the TCR
5 10.7 5.0 is 180 Mvar at 1.0 p.u. voltage.
6 5.1 - That gives:
7 2.0 1.0
8 1.2 -
9 1.3 - Xind= 33^2/180 =6.05 Ω
10 0.6 -
11 0.8 0.5 The TCR is chosen be controlled to maximum alpha = 99 at
12 0.4 - nominal power.
13 0.5 0.3
At alpha = 99 the Irms = 0.8 p.u.:

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 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 4 Issue 04, April-2015

Xindy = 0.8 * 6.05 Ω = 4.84 Ω Careful choice of the tuning frequencies of the filter circuits
with respect to the generated harmonic frequencies and
Lindy1=Xindy1/ =4.84/(2*π*50) = 0.0154Mh amplitudes will reduce the harmonic levels.
The reactors are delta connected. The values obtained below in table from the simulation using
CAVIAR (Matlab tool ) are all per phase quantity values.
Lindd = 3*Lindy1 = 3*15.4 mH = 46.2 mH
parameter n TUNING CAPACITOR
Rated TCR reactor inductance : 46.2 mH/phase REACTOR BANK
Rated reactor tolerance: -2 to 0 % 2ND 1.95 24.74mH 409.6microF
3rd 2.95 7.50mH 155.2microF
5.1.1 The current rating 4th 3.90 6.009mH 109.2microF
5th 4.90 5.022mH 81microF
At 180 Mvar reactive power consumption, the current in the
TCR reactors will be 6.SIMULATION RESULTS

In = 180/(3*33) = 1818 A 6.1 Net bus voltage without SVC

The reactors must be able to consume the reactive power

generated by the harmonic filters at 1.1 p.u. The filters can
generate 1.03 p.u. higher current due to tolerances
.
Imax continous = 1.1*1.03*1818 = 2060 A

Maximum reactor fundamental current is limited by a current

limit setting at 2060 A. However the short time overload
corresponds to 2273 A or 225 Mvar. This is a current limit
which will follow the time-constant of the TCR coils. The
current will ramp down to maximum allowed 2060 A.

5.2 Harmonic study

CAVIAR developed by power conversion is used for filter
design. It calculates harmonic voltages and currents,
impedances and amplification on the different voltage busbars
of the network.

6.2 Net bus voltage with SVC

5.3 Filter design

A Filter Circuit is a tuned circuit, which consists of
capacitor banks (capacitance) and tuned reactor coils
(inductance) connected in series. Filter circuits will reduce the
negative influence of the loads like
• harmonic distortion and
• poor power factor.

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 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 4 Issue 04, April-2015

6.3 Results for given melt profile The installation of compensator is for the reduction of network
disturbances and power factor correction . The SVC is
Stage Start Melt Refine dynamically controllable from 0 -180MVAr reactive power .
MV system(Ω) 1.07 1.07 1.07 As we can see from the results obtained with SVC ,the THD
Furnace 1.6 1.6 1.6 of the system is reduced to nearly half of the value obtained
reactor(Ω) when the system is operated without SVC.Hence the design
Furnace 1.15 0.77 1.07 obtained from the simulation are best suitated for improving
transformer(Ω) the power quality of the electric arc furnace .
Total impedance 9.03 6.29 8.21
(Ω) 8.REFERENCES
Sccf(MVA) 132 189 145
(1) 1.Understanding Electric Arc Furnace Operations, published by
THD(%) 0.8 0.9 0.9 the EPRI centre formaterials production.
(2) 2.IEEE Standard 519-1992: Recommended Practices and
6.4 Results for operation including SVC Requirements for Harmonic Control in electrical power systems.
(3) 3.Introduction to Electric Arc Furnace Steelmaking, published by
EPRI centre for materials production.
Stage Start Melt Refine
(4) 4.technical specification for SVC and 34.5 Kv switch station.
Total impedence (Ω) 7.96 5.22 7.14 (5) 5.Harmonic Aggregation Techniques for Power Quality Assesment
A review of different methods by
Sccf with SVC 150 228 167
(6) M.M.Share Pasand Vol. 6 No.7 Jul 2014 International Journal of
Uncompensated pst 4.86 7.41 5.42 Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)
(7) 6.Simulation of Electric Arc Furnace Characteristics for Voltage
Compensated pst 3.0 4.6 3.4
Flicker study using MATLAB by D. C. Bhonsle , R. B. Kelkar
THD (%) 0.4 0.45 0.45 2011 International Conference on Recent Advancements in
Electrical, Electronics and Control Engineering.
Furnace transformer (Ω) 1.10 0.75 1.05

7.CONCLUSION

1.With a SVC of 180MVAr (HFPFC =180MVAr and TCR =

180MVAr),we can reach the following performances on the
33 kV TCR Switching Station bus bar (PCC) :
1. Pst ≤ 6
2.PF ≥ 0.99
3.THDu ≤ 5% individual harmonic voltage ≤ 3% (conform to
norm IEEE519)
4.THDi = 8% (not conform to norm IEEE519 : 5%)
5. individual harmonic current 95% :
1. Ih2= 6% (not conform to norm IEEE519 : 1%)
2.Ih3= 5% (not conform to norm IEEE519 : 4%)
3.Ih4= 2% (not conform to norm IEEE519 : 1%)
4. For h>4, Ih (conform to norm IEEE519)

2.With a SVC of 180MVAr(HFPFC =180MVAr and TCR =

180MVAR), without pre-existing
harmonics we can reach the following performances on the
400kV MSDS Main Substation bus bar :
1.Pst ≤ 0.84
2. individual harmonic voltage ≤1% (conform to norm
IEEE519)
3.THDi = 8% (not conform to norm IEEE519 : 3.75%)
4.individual harmonic current 95% :
1.Ih2= 6% (not conform to norm IEEE519 : 0.75%)
2.Ih3= 5% (not conform to norm IEEE519 : 3%)
3. Ih4= 2% (not conform to norm IEEE519 : 0.75%)
4.For h>4, Ih (conform to norm IEEE519)

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