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Active Harmonic Filter- Mitigation Of Harmonics in a Poor Power Quality Environment-Case Study

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  • Active Harmonic Filter- Mitigation Of Harmonics in a Poor Power Quality Environment-Case Study
  • March 29, 2022
Hello Everybody today’s article is a case study from our beloved Advanced Power Quality Solutions team. They have very neatly narrated how they helped a Steel Rolling mill with a unique power quality problem to extract more business benefit by cutting down their power quality problems. Interesting read don’t miss it.
InPhase has come across many customers dealing with various Power Quality problems. Our strength lies in providing customized and unique solutions, keeping in mind the problems that the customer confronts. In this article we share our experience with one of our customer, their problems, losses, and solutions. This customer is one of the largest steel manufacturers in India. Their annual production is in Billions of Rupees, but their production began to fall and penalties from Electricity Board increased because of presence of harmonics in their plant. So they decided to install Active Harmonic Filter to mitigate harmonics in their plant. Initially the company had gone with a well known brand of Active Harmonic Filter but the filters had miserably failed owing to the unique situation of the customer. Luckily the customer came to know about InPhase and Our Active Filter through a channel partner, and approached us. InPhase conducted a Power Quality Analysis and suggested a cost effective solution accordingly (which cost lesser than the initial solution that failed) despite the challenging problem. The problem faced by the customer is outlined here,
  • Harmonic currents were high, the THDi was between 17-20% which is higher than the IEEE 519-2014 norms.
  • High Voltage Notches were also present in the plant.
  • Presence of even order harmonics which is normally zero in other plants.
  • Hot rolling mill loads were highly fluctuating and load patterns were abnormal.
  • The voltage varied up to 470V which is an abnormal behaviour.

Here, the main challenge faced while giving solution was to suppress current harmonics or THDi to less than 8% in an environment with high voltage spikes and indefinitely fluctuating plant load condition.

SOLUTION PROVIDED BY INPHASE : InPhase proposed 2 x 450 Amps, 415V Active Harmonic Filter (Model:IPC150-AHF-450-V415) with CAN-bus communication that acts as a single 900A system. Specially designed RC tank circuits were incorporated to handle notches and rigorous algorithm for high fluctuating loads. This was the most cost effective, as well as the technically correct method to handle the situation. The 2 number of AHFs were connected in BUS A & BUS B, as the load distributes in those buses. The whole system has been pictorially described in the diagram below.

The major loads used by the customer are electric pre-heating furnace and rolling mill that generates the maximum harmonic current leading to increased losses in transformer, overheating of cables and thus polluting the electric network. The LT loads distributed among the Bus A & B are connected by an ACB Bus Coupler (Normally Closed). AHF calculates harmonic current, reactive current and unbalance current present in the entire plant from the current signal received from the CTs of respective transformers through the summation CT. Based on the on the dominance of power quality issue (harmonic, power factor or unbalance current) at any instant the AHF system injects the respective compensation current. InPhase AHF can achieve high level of modularity of up to 32 Equipments in parallel. CAN bus communication is used to communicate between two Active Harmonic Filters and operate in parallel to inject up 900A of compensation current.

The graph indicates the harmonic currents of various orders (3rd to 13th) before and after installation of Active Harmonic Filter. The successful installation of 2 x 450A Active Harmonic Filter has reduced the THDi from 17% to 4-5%, well below than the limits mentioned in IEEE 514-2014. This solution has helped the customer not only to cut down penalties but also to reduce failure of sensitive equipments which are vulnerable to harmonics. Also, various production losses were averted. Overall, InPhase was able to solve a problem of harmonics in very poor power quality environment. This was another feather in InPhase‘s cap. We would be extremely happy to help customers who face such outrageous Power Quality problems because at InPhase we are happy to tackle power quality challenges for our customers.

Get in touch today.
Meet you again with a interesting article, until then bye from Dr.InPhase
Thank you! 

Thanks for reading…if you have questions don’t forget to ask me. You could write to me to info@inphase.in or call +91 9632421402

InPhase Power is a Power Electronic Product company manufacturing products for Power Quality and Power Conversion. InPhase is manufacturer of Active Filter, Active Harmonic Filter, Solar Inverter. InPhase majors in power system design for power quality and conversion. Driven by a management that has a combined experience of over 60 years in power system and power electronics InPhase nurtures innovation and passion in this field. 

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