Thomas J. Dionise

One of the activities by volunteer members of various technical committees across the 39 individual Societies of the IEEE is developing new IEEE Standards. The paper focuses on the efforts of the IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS) Metal Industry Committee (MetIC), and their member’s efforts to develop a new IEEE Standard focused on Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) Transformers applied in the steel making industry. This specific industry application was selected as a good candidate for the new Standard by the MetIC due to the unique and demanding transformer design requirements that are specific to supply of safe and reliable power to an electric arc furnace. This paper will explain the application, discuss best practices in formation of a standards development working group, engagement and supporting standards development tools from the IEEE Standards Association and lessons learned in working through the standards development process. An open invitation of any new members to join the working group can be found in the section titled Conclusion.

Liquefied Natural Gas peak shaving facilities utilize large horsepower motors to drive refrigeration compressors needed for the liquefaction process. Utilities impose strict voltage flicker requirements making evaluation of various motor starting methods imperative. The large motor starting studies must be evaluated while also factoring in equipment and controls complexity and overall project capital costs. This case study will evaluate several motor starting methods, comparing technical performance and cost considerations, identifying the best method for the project requirements and reviewing the field measurements during operation confirming acceptable performance of the installed method.

While preparing a modern data center for startup, the commissioning process involved primary circuit switching that resulted in two voltage transformer (VT) failures. As a result, we conducted a comprehensive investigation of the VT failures. As the investigation proceeded, VT ferroresonance on circuit opening and high-frequency switching transients on closing emerged as possible root causes of the failures. After incorporating extensive transient simulations and three rounds of field transient measurements, we designed and implemented a complete solution that included the sizing of snubbers to overcome excessive switching transients and the development of a saturable reactor to protect VTs against the effects of ferroresonance. This article describes the root causes, simulations, field measurements, recommended solutions, and solution implementation for this event. The correlation between field measurements and simulation results shows the effectiveness of modeling the implemented solutions.

This steel maker upgraded the electric arc furnace (EAF) melt shop to increase production and improve the metallurgical quality of their product. The increased electrical load and harmonic generation for the new 50 MVA furnace operation necessitated the installation of an 80 MVAR static VAR compensator (SVC) to meet utility interconnect requirements. This paper is a follow-up and companion to the author's previous paper that documented comprehensive analysis to specify the SVC. This paper describes the sequence of events during the installation, commissioning, and operation of the SVC. It will assess the performance of the SVC compared with the electrical requirements of the utility for voltage regulation, flicker, harmonics, and power factor. Power quality measurements during EAF operation without the SVC established a baseline to compare improvements provided by the SVC as well as compliance with the utility limits. Additionally, events encountered during the commissioning are shared as lessons learned.