Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
1077-2618/05/$20.00©2005 IEEE
also a problem with the voltage regulator on the distribu- capacitors also must be modeled since they affect the
tion line, and phase imbalance was noted as well. Harmonic impedance versus frequency characteristics of the system.
measurements were taken at the pump station to quantify In addition, any significant loads on the system need to
the voltage distortion on the power system. A computer- be taken into account. Where possible, it is helpful to
based harmonic model of the power system was created to obtain an impedance versus plot (60 Hz to, e.g., 3 kHz)
diagnose the problems and to act as a design tool in evalua- for the utility system. Unfortunately, the utility was
tion of alternative means to mitigate the problems. unable to provide such impedance information in this
case. Table 2 shows the harmonic voltage distortion pre-
Notes on the Power System dicted by the model at the 4,160 -V bus.
The pipeline booster station is fed from the utility at 12.47 There is a good correlation between the predicted and
kV. The 12.4-kV feed to the station is implemented with 6 actual voltage harmonics from the fifth harmonic up to
mi of 336-kcmil aluminum conductor steel-reinforced the 31st harmonic. Above the 31st harmonic, the predict-
(ACSR) cable from the secondary of an 18-MVA, 161/12.47 - ed harmonics are significantly lower than the harmonics
kV transformer. A 7.5 -MVA transformer steps the voltage
down from 12.47 to 4.16 kV. A 2.5 -MVA, four-winding
isolation transformer with three 1,400 -V secondary windings 161 kV, Z1 = 1.6 + j3.9 p.u.
feeds power to the rectifier of the AFD. Figure 1 provides a on a 100-MVA base
one-line diagram of the overall power system.
Harmonic Measurements
Made at Problem Onset
Voltage total harmonic distortion (THD) at the 4,160 -V
bus was measured without the AFD operating. It was
18 MVA
found to be less than 2%, which indicates that some 161/12.47 kV
background harmonics were present but were not the Z = 8.8%
source of the problems. The harmonic voltage distortion
was measured at the 12.47-kV feed to the pipeline boost-
er station as well as at the 4,160 -V bus. Table 1 gives the
magnitude of the individual voltage harmonics, which 6 mi of 336 kcmil ACSR 300-kVAR
were gauged up to the 55th harmonic, as measured at Z1 = 0.306 + j0.64 Utility Capacitor
the 4,160 -V bus with the AFD operating. Ω/mi
TABLE 1. VOLTAGE DISTORTION AT 4,160 -V BUS TABLE 2. VOLTAGE DISTORTION AT 4,160 -V BUS
BEFORE MITIGATION. BEFORE MITIGATION AS PREDICTED BY MODELING.
Harmonic Number % of Fundamental Voltage Harmonic Number % of Fundamental Voltage
5 1.37 5 1.03
7 0.88 7 0.72
11 0.59 11 0.72
13 0.54 13 0.61
17 5.58 17 6.33
19 3.37 19 5.30
23 0.55 23 0.43
25 0.59 25 0.37
29 0.76 29 0.38
31 0.53 31 0.35
35 5.19 35 2.93
37 4.98 37 2.06
41 0.83 41 0.76
43 1.06 43 0.80
47 0.65 47 0.44
49 0.63 49 0.46
53 7.21 53 1.48
55 5.01 55 1.02
22 THD 13.70 THD 9.61
with the capacitor being energized on a short-term or even a monic distortion (3.85 versus 13.7% measured original-
permanent basis. The capacitor did, in fact, significantly ly). This voltage distortion level is now well within the
reduce the voltage distortion on the power system, as illus- 5% maximum recommended by IEEE 519-1992 [3].
trated in Table 4. Total harmonic distortion was reduced to The capacitor also had a dramatic effect in reducing the
half the level observed without the capacitor. Significant magnitude of the higher-frequency harmonics. This
reductions were achieved in the levels of the 35th, 37th, effect can be seen by comparing the value of the 35th,
53rd, and 55th harmonics. While the symptoms were some- 37th, 53rd, and 55th harmonic voltages in Table 5 to
what improved, the capacitor did not eliminate the ill effects those listed in Table 1. The addition of this capacitor filter
experienced by other customers fed from the utility system. completely eliminated the undesirable effects that had
been noted by the utility’s customers.
Evaluation of the Effects of a 4,160 -V Capacitor
Consideration was then given to the addition of a 355 Contributing Factors to the Power Quality Issues
effective kilovolt-amperes reactive untuned capacitor The power system was relatively weak, meaning that it
bank on the 4,160 -V primary of the AFD isolation had a high impedance. This is primarily due to the 6-mi
transformer rather than the addition of a multiple leg length of 336-kcmil ACSR cable feeding the booster sta-
tuned filter. This approach is similar to the addition of tion. The result of a high-impedance power system is that
the utility capacitor, except that the harmonic currents even the small amount of current harmonics being gener-
would be addressed closer to their origin. A potential ated by the 18-pulse AFD resulted in a large amount of
pitfall of using an untuned capacitor is that a parallel res- voltage distortion on the utility system. Voltage distor-
onance will occur at a frequency determined by the tion is caused by a distorted current passing through the
amount of capacitance and the inductance of the power impedance of the power system.
system. Care must be taken to ensure that this parallel As is typical for a pipeline pumping application, the
resonance is placed far enough away from the characteris- AFD represents the vast majority of the plant load. Har-
tic harmonics of the AFD that amplification of harmonic monic modeling at the design stage is often warranted in
voltages or currents does not occur. In this case, the par- such applications to help identify potential power quality
allel resonant frequency fell at approximately harmonic issues early on.
number 8.5, and modeling showed that no significant Another contributing factor was the presence of stray
amplification should occur. The harmonic voltages capacitances in the system, which caused natural frequen-
observed at the 4,160 -V bus are shown in Table 5. It can cies and unexpected amplification of higher-frequency
be seen that this has considerably reduced the total har- harmonics. One would normally expect that voltage