Comprehensive Analysis to Specify a Static Var Compensator for an Electric Arc Furnace Upgrade

This steel maker is upgrading the electric arc furnace (EAF) melt shop to increase production and improve metallurgical quality of their product. The increased electrical load and harmonic generation for the new furnace operation necessitated the installation of a static var compensator (SVC) to meet utility interconnect requirements. This paper describes a sequence of comprehensive analysis performed to specify the SVC including load flow analysis, flicker analysis, and harmonic analysis studies. The analysis presented in this paper sized and evaluated the proposed SVC reactive compensation to mitigate flicker, harmonics, and power factor for the new EAF and ladle melt furnace installations to comply with the utility interconnect requirements.