Overcurrent Protection in Electric Arc Furnaces

This article proposes a new adaptive protection setting methodology for steel manufacturers, aiming to reduce miscoordination between main feeders and current consumptions due to fault clearance or high load disconnection. By detecting abrupt changes in current consumption, the computation of different protection settings may be achieved. The application of this methodology is performed through the assessment of a steel manufacturer who sustained an arc blast of one of their protection cells, and a description of the way in which the proposal permits avoidance of such catastrophic conditions.