Correlation between multiple electric arc furnace operations and unscheduled power flows in the interconnection lines at the eastern cross border of ENTSO-E

In this paper, the correlation between unscheduled power flows in the interconnection lines at the eastern cross border of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) and multiple electric arc furnace (EAF) operations in Turkey, has been assessed. Turkey is interconnected to ENTSO-E at the eastern cross border via Greece and Bulgaria, with a 400 MW export and a 550 MW import agreement. In order to determine the degree of the relationship between the unscheduled power exchange between Turkey and Europe, and the multiple high power EAF operations, Pearson correlation method has been employed. For this purpose, time-synchronized data of active power consumption have been collected from 17 major EAF plants during one week with a time resolution of three seconds, by using custom-design, synchronized power quality analyzers. A total peak power consumption of nearly 1.5 GW of multiple EAF loads has been recorded. The results obtained have been evaluated by the use of the National Power Quality Monitoring System of Turkey, which continuously monitors the power flows in the interconnection lines of the ENTSO-E by power quality analyzers. The rate of change of total EAF power consumptions higher than 200 MW for less than 15-s duration against the rate of change of area control error (ACE) index are found to be closely correlated to each other, with a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.8. Since the response of the frequency restoration reserve of power plants is much slower, such rapid fluctuations in the power consumption of multiple EAFs collectively result in uncontrollable power flows in the interconnections lines at the eastern cross border of ENTSO-E.