A Method of Evaluating FACTS Device Impact on
Voltage Flicker in the EAF Supply System
Yuriy Varetsky Volodymyr Konoval
Dept. of Power Engineering & Control Dept. of Power Engineering & Control
Systems
Lviv Polytechnic National University Lviv Polytechnic National University
Lviv, Ukraine
j.varetsky@gmail.com Volodymyr.Konoval@eleks.com
Abstract — FACTS devices are widely used in world practice
to compensate for voltage fluctuations caused by the operation of
an electric arc furnace (EAF) in a power system. The spectrum of
voltage fluctuations depends on the design and operating
conditions of the EAF, as well as the characteristics of the power
supply system. At the design stage, of considerable interest are
methods for assessing the predicted decrease in voltage
fluctuations when using the selected compensator for the
particular EAF. This article presents the principles of modeling
the impact of a FACTS device with a known compensation delay
on the level of voltage fluctuations in the EAF power supply
system. The index ΔU10 is used as the equivalent level of voltage
fluctuations in the compared applications. This method made it
possible to use relatively simple models of EAF, FACTS and
power supply system to the adequate comparative evaluating the
effect of compensation devices on voltage fluctuations in the EAF
power system.
Keywords — arc furnace, supply system, FACTS device, flicker
severity, modeling.
I. INTRODUCTION
Random or repeated changes in the load on the power grid
cause voltage fluctuations at the adjacent buses. The frequency
of voltage changes, their magnitudes and duration are the main
characteristics of the voltage fluctuations, which are used for
evaluating the voltage fluctuations in the consumer grids. The
most sensitive to voltage fluctuations are lamps where the
voltage fluctuations cause flickering the luminous flux.
Different people perceive the flicker of the light flux
differently. However, empirical analysis showed that the
human eye is most sensitive to voltage fluctuations in the
frequency range of 6-10 Hz.
During the operation of the EAF, three main successive
stages are distinguished: bore down, melt down and refining.
The most severe EAF current fluctuations are observed within
bore down stage, when the arc burns between the electrodes
and the unmelted scrap. Due to the unstable nature of the arc
behavior, current and reactive power fluctuations of the EAF
are stochastic and are characterized by a certain frequency
spectrum. Fluctuations in the reactive power of an EAF cause
a voltage flicker, the magnitude of which depends on the
power supply system capacity. For voltage flicker monitoring
several methodologies are used and described in current
standards [1-3].
The flicker tolerance depends on the amplitude and
frequency of the RMS voltage changes, as well as on the shape
of their envelope. The dependencies of permissible rectangular
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Zbigniew Hanzelka
Dept. of Power Electronics & Energy Control
Systems Systems
AGH University of Science and Technology
Lviv, Ukraine Krakow, Poland
hanzel @agh.edu.pl
RMS voltage changes for a 60 W incandescent lamp as a
function of the frequency of their occurrence are shown in
Fig.1. The above dependences make it possible to determine
the irritability border for the average person under regular
rectangular voltage changes, but periodic changes are rarely
observed in the practice of operating industrial consumers.
Fig.1. Limits of the maximum amplitudes of rectangular changes of the
voltage RMS values vs the their frequency of occurrence [2]
To evaluate susceptibility of irregular voltage fluctuations
in European and American countries, the Pst index is used.
This index characterizes voltage flicker over a 10-minute time
interval. The value of the Pst index equal to 1.0 represents the
level of flicker perception when 50% of people feel flickering a
60-watt incandescent lamp. The flicker sensitivity curve in
Fig.1 displays regular rectangular voltage changes, which can
be normalized to an Pst index value of 1.0.
To calculate the index Pst , a special device called a
flickermeter is used. The IEC standard [1] defines the basic
requirements for the functional and design characteristics of a
flicker measuring device.
In order to evaluate the severity of a voltage flicker
caused by random fluctuating loads, in Japan and some Asian
countries an index ΔU10 is generally used. A flicker severity
index ΔU10 is the equivalent RMS value of the voltage
changes weighted by the frequency characteristics of the
human eye visual sensitivity which gives a measurement in
every minute. Frequency components of the original voltage
fluctuations are obtained by Fourier transformation within
0.05 to 30 Hz. The following equation is used for the index
ΔU10 calculating:
∞
ΔU10 =  (a
n =1
n ⋅ ΔU n ) 2 , (1)
where n - frequency component number; ΔU n - RMS voltage
change component at the frequency f n ; an - weighting
coefficient for the frequency f n .
The visual sensitivity curve, as illustrated in Fig. 2, based
on empirical experiments and used for determining the
weighting coefficients.
reducing fluctuations in this frequency range compared to
SVC [5].
As an integral response characteristic of a FACTS device
the transfer function G( s) = e − sτ is commonly used. Suppose,
the load reactive power contains a regular harmonic
fluctuation ΔQω with an angular frequency of ω :

ΔQω
QL (t ) = Q0 + sin(ωt ) (2)
2
and compensation device reactive power has a delay τ :
ΔQω
QC (t ) = Q0 + sin(ωt − ωτ) (3)
2
Then the residual uncompensated system reactive power
fluctuations are as follows:
Fig. 2. Frequency response of the human eye visual sensitivity [1]
ωτ ωτ
QS (t ) = QL (t ) − QC (t ) = ΔQω sin( ) ⋅ cos(ωt − ) (4)
To compare above PQ indices for AC EAF power supply 2 2
systems the CIGRE C4.07/CIRED joint working group The fluctuation reduction factor for the frequency of ω can be
recommended a value of 3.69 for conversion Pst to ΔU10 [4]. obtained as the following ratio:
II. FACTS PERFORMANCES mod(QS (t )) ωτ
Rω = = 2 sin( ) = 2 ⋅ 1 − cos ωτ (5)
In the past decade, flexible AC transmission systems ΔQω / 2 2
(FACTS) have been widely used in power systems. They are
designed using capacitors, reactors and power electronic The factor Rω increases with increasing ω and τ , and
devices. In power systems, they implement the functions of becomes equal to one at a specific critical frequency. For
serial or shunt compensation, as well as voltage phase shift instance, with τ = 0 .02 s, the critical compensation frequency
control. Most often, industrial networks use FACTS devices is 8.3 Hz. In this case, the compensator will cause the voltage
such as SVC or STATCOM [5-7]. flicker to grow for fluctuation frequencies higher than the
critical one. It is obvious, the critical frequency is inversely
The SVC for industrial applications is a parallel
proportional to the compensation delay time.
connected thyristor controlled reactor (TCR) and passive filter
group (FC). Changing the SCV reactive power is provided III. EAF SUPPLY SYSTEM UNDER STUDY
through control of the TCR current [5].
The EAF power supply system outline under study is
The STATCOM consists of an controllable rectifier, presented in Fig. 3. The power system step-down transformer
connected to the AC power system bus through a matching T1 is connected to a 400 kV bus. Short-circuit capacity on the
transformer, and a capacitor bank in the DC circuit. Using full bus reaches 9,200 MVA in conditions of the system maximum
controlled semiconductor devices in the rectifier circuit power flow.
provides a high dynamics of the reactive power control. The
reactive power flow of a STATCOM is controlled by adequate
changing the voltage at the rectifier AC terminals. In the case
when this voltage is higher than the voltage on the system bus,
the reactive power is supplied to the AC grid. When it
becomes less than the bus voltage, the reactive power is
consumed from the AC grid. There are several control
strategies of STATCOM to keep its required reactive power
input [6,7].
The Control of SVC is carried out to reduce the
fluctuations in the total reactive power consumed by the unit
SVC+EAF. Therefore, the smaller the delay of SVC response
to the measured value of the EAF reactive power or current,
the higher its efficiency for reducing flicker. It is well known
from practice that SVC, due to its physical nature, practically
completely compensates for voltage fluctuations at
frequencies up to about 4...6 Hz, but at higher frequencies its Fig.3. Outline of the EAF power supply system
efficiency decreases. A lot of studies have shown that
STATCOM is a more effective compensation device of

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 The EAF unit consisting of a reactor R, furnace
transformer FT of 115 MVA and an arc furnace, is connected
to the 30 kV bus. Two transformers (T2) of 75 MVA are
connected to the 110 kV bus and supply the EAF unit.
The one-line diagram of the tested system is illustrated in
Fig. 4. Let xS , xТ1 , rТ1 , xR , xТ 2 , rТ 2 , xFT , rFT and xSC , rSC
represent the reactances and resistances of the supply system,
transformer T1, reactor, transformers T2, furnace transformer
FT and furnace secondary circuit SC, respectively. The
variable resistance rL presents an arc and reactance xk is an
equivalent of the compensation device.
Fig.4. One-line diagram of the supply system
IV. SUPPLY SYSTEM MODELLING
A. Modeling arc resistance fluctuations
Many factors affect the value of the equivalent arc
resistance during the furnace operation, resulting in the EAF
active and reactive power stochastic behavior. In the presented
arc resistance model, an approach was adopted, using the
stochastic characteristic of the reactive power changes.
The behavior of the EAF reactive power Q(t ) over a one
second time interval can be approximated as follows:
25
Q(t ) = Qav + 0,5  ΔQ
n =1
n sin( 2 πf n t − ϕn ) ,
where Qav - mean value of reactive power for a time interval;
ΔQn - reactive power change for a frequency f n .
The mean value of the reactive power Qav and the change
in reactive power ΔQn vary stochastically in successive time
intervals. These values are generated for each time interval
using the normal probability distribution function, similar
to [8]. The mean values of the reactive power changes ΔQn ,
depending on the frequency of their occurrence ν on the
selected interval of one second, are characterized by the Fig. 5
and were calculated based on the results of measurements in a
tested supply system (Fig. 3). The rating of the EAF
transformer FT is a base value.
Fig. 5. Frequency distribution of reactive power fluctuation amplitudes
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Neglecting the system resistances the model arc resistance
as a function of time can be expressed as:
U S2 ⋅ xL
rL (t ) = − ( x + xL ) 2 , (7)
Q (t )
where x = xS + xT1 + xT 2 , xL = xR + xFT + xSC - the equivalent
reactances relative to the bus 2 in Fig. 4.
Having the arc resistance time function, we can calculate
the corresponding time function of the EAF current I (t ) .
Changes in the voltage module on the power system bus
m ∈1, 2 can be calculated using the following formula:
U m (t ) = mod(U S − Z m I (t )) (8)
where - Z m = rm + jxm - total system impedance at the bus
m ∈1, 2 in the Fig. 4, and the complex values are indicated as
underlined.
Modeling the time-varying operating conditions has been
carried out by the DAKAR software [9, 10].
B. Evaluating voltage flicker
Since electric furnaces of various designs and capacities
have different patterns of power consumption changes, they
cause different levels of voltage flicker in the same supply
system. To determine the effect of the compensating device on
reducing the flicker severity we used the method of evaluating
the voltage flicker based on the index ΔU10 for an interval of
one second. According to the assumptions made for the model,
(6) voltage fluctuations in the supply system are caused only by
changes in the arc resistance in the equivalent circuit in Fig. 4.
It is well known that any FACTS device with correctly selected
power almost completely compensates for voltage fluctuations
at frequencies below 1 Hz. Therefore, to compare the effect of
various FACTS devices on the flicker severity in the power
supply system, it is reasonable to use only the components of
voltage fluctuations within 1...25 Hz.
C. Modeling SVC
Changing the reactive power of the SVC is carried out by
controlling the TCR current to provide the required total
reactive power of its components TCR+FC. Physically, the
TCR phase current can be controlled from zero to the rated
value in each half-cycle according to the firing angle of the
thyristor valve. As seen in Fig. 6.a, SVC is modelled by a
capacitive reactance xk whose value changes in each half
cycle in accordance with compensation requirements. The
minimum compensation delay in a single-phase circuit is
τ = 5 ms. This is the time from the moment the load reactive
current iLb is measured until the moment the TCR can be
switched, as illustrated in Fig. 6.b. Referring to Fig. 6.a, the
SVC reactance under complete compensation with a time
delay τ may be expressed:
 ( rL (t − τ)) 2
xk (t ) = + xL
xL
If an equivalent time delay τ is defined for STATCOM,
the compensating reactance can be calculated using a similar
algorithm.
a b
Fig. 6. SVC and EAF equivalent circuit (a) and circuit voltage and currents (b)
V. SIMULATING THE EAF VOLTAGE FLICKER
The developed algorithm was implemented in DAKAR
software [9]. Using the software, various operating conditions
of the EAF were simulated. Figure 7 shows the simulated
fluctuations in the arc resistance, current, active and reactive
power ( rL , I FT , P, Q ) in the tested power system when the
EAF transformer provides the highest secondary voltage on the
arc.
a
b [3] “PW3198 Power Quality Analyzer Instruction Manual,” Hioki E. E.
c
d In Proc. IEEE 6th Int. Conf. on Energy Smart Systems, 2019, pp. 239–
Fig. 7. Simulated EAF operation parameters
The simulated voltage fluctuations on the 110 kV bus are
given in Fig. 8.a for two comparative cases: without SVC and
with SVC. In the case of using the SVC, the compensation
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delay τ was taken to be 0.01 s. Flicker severity indices for the
(9) comparative operating conditions are presented in Fig. 8.b.
When using the SVC, one can see about twice reducing voltage
flicker severity.
b
Fig. 8. Voltage at the bus 110 kV (a) and the flicker severity index ΔU10 (b)
without SVC and with SVC.
CONCLUSIONS
A simple computer model of the EAF supply system which
includes the FACTS device has been developed. It provides
computationally efficient and flexible method that can be used
to comparatively analyze the FACTS impact on voltage flicker
based on statistical characteristics of the EAF reactive power
fluctuations and the equivalent parameters of the FACTS
device. The presented modeling approach may be used to
evaluate the impact of alternative devices on voltage flicker
alleviation in industrial grids.
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