Electric Power Systems Research 66 (2003) 49
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Review

Ride-through of adjustable speed drives during voltage dips

Kurt Stockman a,*, Frederik D’hulster a, Kevin Verhaege a, Marcel Didden b,
Ronnie Belmans b
a
Hogeschool West-Vlaanderen Dept. PIH, Graaf Karel de Goedelaan 5, B-8500 Kortrijk, Belgium
b
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Dept. ESAT, Div. ELECTA Kasteelpark Arenberg 10, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium

Abstract

Adjustable speed drives are reported to be very susceptible to voltage dips. This paper investigates the behaviour of standard
induction motor drives in the power range from 2.2 up to 7.5 kW for different types of voltage dips. Voltage tolerance curves are
presented and an optimal selection of the under-voltage protection is proposed in order to maintain operation without loss of
performance. The opportunities, provided by an active front end and a boost converter, to improve the ride-through of standard
drives are investigated and their effect on the voltage tolerance curves is considered.
# 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Ride-through; Voltage dips; Adjustable speed drives (ASD)

1. Introduction An optimisation of the under-voltage protection level

Adjustable speed drives (ASD) are widely used in
modern processes. The high dynamic performance,
increased flexibility and possible energy savings are
among the most important features driving the ASD-
market. On the other hand, reliable operation of these
ASD’s has to be guaranteed in order to avoid mal-
functioning or interruption of the process. ASD’s have
shown to be very vulnerable towards voltage dips having
a considerable economic impact especially in continuous
processes [1
/5].
As reported in literature, most voltage dips have a
remaining voltage higher than 70% and do not last more
than 300 ms [6,7]. Ride-through of the ASD for all dips
with remaining voltages higher than 70% without loss of
torque and speed control therefore would drastically
reduce the number of process outages.
Starting from the topology of an ASD with voltage
source inverter, the sensitivity of standard ASD’s is
investigated by means of a dedicated test set-up. ASD’s
from different manufacturers in the power range from
2.2 up to 7.5 kW are evaluated. In a second section, the
torque behaviour of a field oriented ASD is analysed.
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: kurt.stockman@howest.be (K. Stockman).
0378-7796/03/$ - see front matter # 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0378-7796(03)00071-3
towards the load torque is presented, resulting in some
interesting conclusions concerning ride-through. In the
third section, ride-through methods suited for ASD’s
under high load conditions, such as active front ends
and boost converters, are discussed. In addition, mea-
surements are compared to theoretical results. Finally,
some considerations about the supply voltage distortion
concerning the ride-through of ASD’s are given.
2. Sensitivity of ASD towards voltage dips
Fig. 1 shows the topology of an ASD with diode
rectifier and voltage source inverter. The supply voltage
is rectified and flattened by the dc bus capacitance C .
The values of the capacitance for the tested ASD’s
ranged between 59 and 180 mF/kW. Due to the relative
small sizes of the dc bus capacitance, the energy stored
in the dc bus is small. Therefore, under normal opera-
tion, the dc bus shows a large 300 Hz ripple due to the
discontinuous charging from the rectifier. The energy
balance in the ASD system over a period of time can be
represented by Eq. (1).
Esupply EC Ekin  EL ; (1)
where, Esupply, energy taken from the supply; EC, energy
50 K. Stockman et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 66 (2003) 49
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Fig. 1. ASD with voltage source inverter.
stored in the dc bus capacitance; Ekin, energy stored in
the rotating parts; EL, load energy demand.
Under voltage dip conditions, the supply voltage
amplitude drops below the dc bus voltage Udc. Due to
the inverse polarisation of the diode rectifier, no energy
from the supply is fed to the dc bus capacitance C . The
dc bus voltage Udc at the beginning of voltage recovery
t2, can be calculated by Eq. (2).
C 2 2 JL
[Udc (t2 )Udc (t1 )] [v2r (t2 )v2r (t1 )]
2 2
t2

g t1
TL vr dt
with, JL, inertia of the rotating parts; t1, beginning of the
sag; TL, load torque; vr, rotor speed.
If the speed is considered to be constant, the rate of
the decaying voltage Udc only depends on the dc bus
capacitor size and the loading conditions of the inverter.
If the dc bus voltage drops below the amplitude of the
perturbed supply voltage, energy is transferred from the
supply to the dc bus and Udc is levelled to a new value
Udc dip. When the dc bus voltage drops below the under-
voltage protection level Udc min, the ASD trips. In most
commercial ASD’s, this under-voltage protection level is
user-defined. Typical factory-set values range between
85 and 70% of Udc rated. In some commercial drives, the
under-voltage protection level can be lowered down to
Fig. 2. Test set-up for ASD (1 kW up to 11 kW 3000 rpm).
50% of Udc rated. Under this situation, extra line
commutating reactors are required to guarantee correct
operation under voltage dip conditions.
If the supply voltage recovers before the dc bus
voltage reaches the under-voltage protection level, a
high charging current is drawn from the supply, stres-
sing the fuses, the rectifier diodes and the dc bus
capacitors. If the charging current cannot be tolerated,
extra reactance must be connected in series with the
rectifier to reduce the stress on the components [5].
2.1. Test set-up
(2)
In order to determine the behaviour of ASD’s under
voltage dip conditions, an experimental test-bench was
built (11 kW, 3000 rpm) [2]. Fig. 2 shows the experi-
mental test set-up. It consists of four major parts: a
programmable power source with voltage dip generator,
the adjustable speed drive (device under test), the load
machine and the load controller. The load controller
enables the generation of different load profiles.
Several induction motor drives from different manu-
facturers, ranging from 2.2 up to 7.5 kW, have been
subjected to balanced dips (Type A in the Bollen-
classification [9]), unbalanced voltage dips (Type C
and D) and interruptions.
Fig. 3 shows the transient behaviour of a 4 kW ASD
under full load conditions during a supply outage. The