Cost-benefit analysis of voltage sag mitigation methods in fiber extrusion plants

The fiber extrusion process is very vulnerable to voltage sags. Being the biggest exporter of carpets in the world, Belgium has many textile fiber extrusion plants. This paper describes the importance of the voltage sag problem in such plants and possible mitigation methods. It turns out that the number of process outages due to voltage sags is less than described in other papers for other geographical grid locations. Still, there are economically attractive mitigation methods. Depending on the manufacturer of the production line, these methods get economically interesting if they mitigate between one and three outages a year. Together with a cost-benefit analysis, this paper describes the methods that have already been implemented as well as possible future options.