A voltage flicker severity analysis module for multiple electric arc furnace operation

Abstract

Electric arc furnaces (EAF) are very large electrical loads and they cause voltage flicker problem in the power system due to their non-linear and random electrical characteristics. Voltage flicker (cyclic and stochastic) causes annoying sensation experienced by human eye and is a very important power quality parameter. In this paper, a Matlab-Simulink based flicker severity analysis module has been proposed to analyse voltage flicker in the network under multiple EAF operation fed from a substation. In this module a new system-modelling strategy is proposed. The power system is modelled and simulated in Simulink and instantaneous voltage data is analysed by a separate Matlab program. With this module, a power system containing two parallel EAFs is modelled and simulated and the short-term flicker severity index of voltage at point of common coupling is calculated. This new module can be used very effectively to estimate the flicker of any system having multiple arc furnaces that are fed from a substation.