Reactive power compensation in a steel industrial plant with several operating electric arc furnaces utilizing open-loop controlled TCR/FC compensators

Abstract

Electric arc furnaces (EAFs) produce voltage fluctuations and flicker because of the reactive power severe variations. Furthermore, these loads absorb a large amount of reactive power. The static VAr compensators (SVCs) have been widely used by the industrial customers with arc furnaces to compensate the reactive power due to the quick response of the power electronic devices. In this paper, reactive power compensation in the steel industrial plant with several EAFs by utilizing open-loop controlled thyristor controlled reactor/fixed capacitor (TCR/FC) compensator is performed. The TCR/FC compensator is usually applied in conventional steel making plants; one is in Mobarakeh/ Isfahan, Iran which is considered as the case study in this paper. Simulation results show that, although open-loop controlled TCR/FC is effective for compensating reactive power, it cannot efficiently compensate the fluctuations of the reactive power and reduce the flicker intensity. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.