Voltage flicker prediction for two simultaneously operated AC arc furnaces

An EMTP-based arc furnace model was developed for evaluation of flicker concerns associated with supplying a large integrated steel mill as they go from one to two furnace operation and as system changes are implemented that will affect the short circuit capacity at the 230 kV power supply substation. The model includes a dynamic arc representation which is designed to be characteristic of the initial portions of the melt cycle when the arc characteristics are the most variable (worst flicker conditions). The flicker calculations are verified using previous measurements with one furnace operation. Flicker simulations were then performed to evaluate a variety of different possible system strengths with both one and two furnaces in operation. The primary flicker measure used for this study is the unweighted RMS value of the fluctuation envelope, expressed as a percentage of the RMS line-to-ground voltage magnitude.