Power Quality Improvement in Underground Mining

Abstract

The application of electricity to the mining industry is a distinctive area of both mining and electrical enginee ring. Power Quality is defined as “any occurrence manifested in current, voltage, or frequency deviations that results in damage, upset or failure of end - use equipment‟s. It is common experience that electric power of poor quality has detrimental effects o n health of different equipment and systems. The focus on Power Quality problems has recently become one of the important issues in power systems due to fast industrialization and extensive use of nonlinear loads. The Power Quality management is the key is sue in electrical power system and industries are facing these issues around the world. As the mining complexes are often remotely located, power is weak and unpredictable. Loads such as continuous miners mine hoists, mining shovels, crushers, etc. are in demand and also sensitive to voltage dips and fluctuations. Voltage dips or sags often causes equipment to trip, which in turn results in lengthy delays with resultant production and revenue losses. In this paper Proportional Controller (PI) controller is implemented using MATLAB / SIMULINK