New reactive power calculation method for electric arc furnaces

In this study main reactive power calculation methods are evaluated and compared. Furthermore, a novel simple method that can be used for calculation of reactive power in electric arc furnace (EAF) plants is proposed. The focus here is on their application in the control system of static VAr compensators (SVCs). SVC can compensate only the fundamental harmonic component. So the reactive power signal used in the control system should be sensitive only to the main harmonic component. In addition, the reactive power calculation should be fast enough that SVC can follow the quick changes of the load to mitigate the flicker efficiently. To compare various reactive power calculation methods and to evaluate the proposed method, the simulated known loads are used beside huge amount of practical data recorded in Mobarakeh Steel Company in Isfahan/Iran. Results show the proposed method has the best performance for SVC control system. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.