Enhancement of Power Quality in an Actual Hot Rolling Mill Plant Through a STATCOM

A strategic use of a static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) for providing dynamic reactive power management of a hot rolling mill plant along with active mitigation of harmonics is considered in this article. More specifically, the behavior of a cascaded H-bridge (CHB) converter-based STATCOM is assessed. The impact of the steel to be milled and the specific features of the plant on the design of the STATCOM is discussed. The proposed strategy is analyzed from the point of view of reactive power flow management, active power loss reduction, and voltage control at the coupling point, as well as harmonics reduction and decrease of unscheduled shutdowns in the event of a trip in the passive filtering system. The article is based on real plant measurements, simulation tests, and results from an experimental platform built at scale, and represents the first stage of an ambitious plan to renew this type of plants aimed at transforming them into active elements for electrical energy management.