2006 International Conference on Power System Technology

Voltage

Sag

Study for a Practical Industrial Distribution Network

nation of voltage sags and sensitive equipment may cause significant production outages. Since the utility faults cannot be eliminated completely, solutions to sag problems must always be tackled at the customer facility; accurate estimates of sag characteristics can help the facility personnel to take decisions on purchasing power quality mitigation equipment [2]-[4]. Previous papers have developed the predictive techniques for sags, two techniques among them are well known for the effectiveness. The first one is the method of critical distance [5]-[7], it can give results with acceptable accuracy using lower accurate data and less calculation. However, the method of critical distances remains a manual method, it was developed on the basis of the radial system, to apply it to a meshed system, it should be extended. The second method is named as fault position method; it is proposed for a new Chapter 9 in IEEE Std 493, the Gold Book [8]. The number of voltage sags caused by short circuit faults throughout the system can be automatically calculated out using this method. However, the result is very sensitive to the accuracy of the input data, such as fault frequencies and information about generator scheduling. Fault position method can provide more reliable prediction results of voltage sags if an accurate network impedance model and reliability data for all equipments in the power system can be acquired, voltage sag characteristics such as magnitude, duration and frequency can be determined based on this methodology [9, 10]. The fault position method is also applied in this paper to predict the important characteristics of the voltage sags. This paper utilizes the standard software packages (Power System Analysis Software Package) to calculate short circuit, Power System Analysis Software Package (PSASP) coupled with reliability data offers the ability to estimate characteristics of voltage sags, output data of the short circuit calculation initialize the voltage sag analysis software, the interface modules are developed specifically for sag analysis. based on this principle, the voltage sag analysis software has been developed, it is applied to a practical industry distribution network in the paper, the results of the sag analysis are presented and discussed.
II. THE DESIGN OF VOLTAGE SAG ANALYSIS SOFTWARE This paper concentrates on sags associated with short circuits (faults) on the electrical supply system. The voltage drop only occurs while short circuit current flows. The voltage

Yan Li, Chengxiong Mao, Senior Member, IEEE, Buhan Zhang, Jie Zeng

Abstract-Voltage sags have become one of the major power quality concerns in recent years. To decide the suitability of mitigation methods, knowledge is needed about the expected number of sags as a function of special characteristics; this knowledge can be obtained through voltage sag analysis software, which is developed in the paper based on the method of fault position. The software has many functions; a detailed voltage sag study for a practical industrial distribution network by using it has been done in this paper. In order to assess the degree of fault position influence on voltage sags of the power system, an index named fault position sag coefficient (FPSC) is defined in the paper. This coefficient can be calculated out based on the results of voltage sag analysis software, The dangerous fault positions which cause serious voltage sags can be determined. Index Terms-- voltage sag analysis software; fault position sag coefficient; voltage tolerance
I. INTRODUCTION

AS applications of power electronics in commercial and industry sectors grow rapidly, these sensitive loads can be easily interrupted by voltage sags and the resulting losses are significant[1]. The study of voltage sag for practical industry distribution networks is very important. Voltage sag is a sudden voltage drop while the load remains connected to the supply. Sags are usually caused by faults or sudden major loads increase. Magnitude and duration are two important sag characteristics. Sag magnitude is the net rms voltage in percent or per unit, this magnitude definition more closely matches the output of computer programs used to calculate sags. Sag duration is the time when the voltage is low, usually less than 1 s. severe sags can result in the misoperation of the sensitive loads like adjustable-speed drives (ASD) and modern process controllers, the combiThis work was supported in part by Wuhan Steel Corporation, P. R. China under Grant WG/OlTI/QR070303. Yan Li is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, P.R. China (e-mail:

Chengxiong Mao is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, P.R. China (e-mail:
Buhan Zhang is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, P.R. China (e-mail:

liyanO569gsina.com).

cxmao(g263.net).

zzbbzhgmall.hust.edu.cn).
Kjhust(!Xgmail .com).

Jie Zeng is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, P.R. China (e-mail:

1-4244-0111-9/06/$20.00c02006 IEEE.

applied fault can be calculated are saved to form a data base for analyzing in the software. The voltage sag duration times are estimated through the typical protection schemes used in the power system. The voltage sag frequency of occurrence is estimated from the statistical information on the faults annual occurrence rates, and the number of voltage sags with different characteristics can be predicted. Voltage sag analysis software is designed as the following
sag an

magnitude caused by

distribute the

power.

Considering the privacy, the detail

out and all the calculation results

As the technical innovation of the plant, more automatic control equipments are applied in the plants, the plants are becoming more and more sensitive to the interruption caused by voltage sags. A voltage sag analysis is becoming an urgent task for this distribution network.

system arrangement and system data cannot be provided here.

steps:

(1) Read network data. (2) Perform short circuit analysis using PSASP for three phase and single line to ground faults for different locations of faults simulated. (3) Sag magnitude can be obtained by the conventional short circuit calculation; all of the results are saved to form a voltage sag database. (4) The interface modules are developed specifically to realize functions such as search, statistics, analysis and prediction. By means of the software, customer can acquire useful message about sags. Functions of the voltage sag analysis software will be demonstrated in the following case study. General diagram of the proposed methodology is shown in Fig. 1.
Read System Data
Short Circuit Calculation

Local Generator

Voltage Sag Database

Initialization of the software

Search

Statistics
Results

Analysis

IPrediction

Fig. 1 Voltage sag analysis software design

III. CASE STUDY

The distribution network belongs to a large steel industrial