Voltage Sag

What is a Voltage Sag?

Voltage sag is a power quality problem:
A voltage sag is a momentary (Short duration) under
voltage condition usually caused by power system fault.

This is the most important power quality variation for

many industrial customers.

A voltage sag is defined as a decrease in rms voltage for

duration from 0.5 cycles to 1 min and typical magnitudes
are between 0.1 to 0.9 p.u.
 Example of Voltage Sag

Does these voltage sag represent PQ problems?

Only if they cause equipment to misoperation or fail

 Source of Voltage Sag

Voltage Sags are caused by faults on the power system,

generally on the utility side.

Causes of Voltage Sag

Lightning
Cable failures
Cable dig-ins
Equipment failures
Animals
Trees
Insulator contamination
 Source of Voltage Sag

Voltage Sags are caused by faults on the power system,

generally on the utility side: same and parallel feeder.
 Voltage Sag Caused by Faults

Faults on Parallel Faults on

Circuit 46% Transmission
System 31%

Faults on
Own Circuit
23%

Parallel circuits or radial feeders

 Characteristics of Voltage Sag

Voltage sagsare typically characterized by the minimum

rms voltage and duration during sag.
 Voltage Sag Caused by Short Circuit

During short circuits, bus voltages throughout the supply network are
depressed, severities of which are dependent of the distance from each bus to
the point where the short circuit occurs.

After clearance of the fault by the protective system the voltage returns to
their new steady state values.

Part of the circuit that is cleared will suffer supply disruption or Blackout.

Thus, a short circuit will cause voltage sags throughout the system but
cause blackout to a small portion of the network.
Number of Phases Involved

Sags and Interruptions Below 0.9 Per Unit

Three-phase
17%

One-phase
66% Two-phase
17%
 Causes of Voltage Sags in Industrial Plant

Voltage sags can be caused by, switching oh heavy loads or

starting of large induction motors.
An induction motor will draw six to ten times its full load
current during starting. This lagging current causes a voltage
drop across the impedance of the system.
If the current magnitude is large relative to the system
available fault current, the resulting voltage sag can be
significant.
 Effects of Voltage Sag

In general, voltage sag effects:

Motor load to stall * Digital devices to reset because
of loss of data * Equipment damage or failure *
Materials spoilage * Loss production due to
downtime * Additional labour costs * Product
reworks * Product quality impacts * Impacts on
customer relations ( e.g. late delivery, lost sales) *
Cost of investigation into problems.
Voltage Sag Due to Source of Motor
 Estimating Voltage Sag Performance

Followings are the general procedure to estimate voltage sag,

to assure compatibility between supply system and facility
operation.
Determine the number and characteristics of voltage sag that results from
X-mission systems faults.

Determine the number and characteristics of voltage sag that results from
Distribution systems faults.

Determine the equipment sensitivity to voltage sag for actual performance

Of the production process based on voltage sag performance of 1 & 2.

Evaluate the economics of different solutions that could be improve

the performance either on the supply system or within the customer facility.

Area of Vulnerability * Equipment sensitivity of voltage sags * Transmission system

voltage sag performance evaluation * Distribution system voltage sag performance
evaluation.
 Area of Vulnerability

The concept of an area of vulnerability has been developed to help evaluate

the likelihood of sensitive equipment being subjected to voltage lower than its
minimum sag ride-through capability.

An area of vulnerability is determined by the total circuit miles of exposure

to faults that can cause voltage magnitude at an end-user facility to drop below
the equipment minimum voltage sag ride-through capability

Loads will be subjected both X-mission and distribution.

Voltage sag is determined by combination of vulnerability area and

expected fault performance
Area of Vulnerability
 Equipment Sensitivity to Voltage Sag

Equipment within an end-user facility may have different sensitivity based

on specific types of loads, control setting and application

Equipment sensitivity to only magnitude of a voltage sag: under voltage

relay, process control, motor drive control and automatic machines

Equipment sensitivity on both magnitude and duration of a voltage sag:

All equipment that uses electronic power supplies

Equipment sensitivity to characteristics other than magnitude and duration:

Phase unbalance, transient oscillation occur during disturbances
 Transmission System Sag Performance Evaluation

figure book 53
 Distribution System Sag Performance Evaluation

Customers that are supplied from distribution are impacted faults from
both X-mission and distribution system.

These are the following information that need to compute voltage sag
performance on distribution system:

Number of feeder supplied from the substation * Average feeder length *

Average feeder reactance * Short circuit equivalent reactance's at the
substation * Feeder reactor, if any * Average feeder fault performance
on 3LG and SLG in per fault per mile per month.

Faults on parallel Feeder, EParallel (Vs)=N1 x Ep1 + N3 x Ep3

Faults on same feeder, ESame (Vs)=N1 x Ep1 + N3 x Ep3
Distribution System Sag Performance Evaluation
Distribution System Sag Performance Evaluation
 Fundamental Principles of Protection

Utility, end-user and equipment manufacturer have done several solution to

reduce the number and the severity of voltage sag and to reduce the sensitivity
of equipment to voltage sag incorporating ride-through capability into the
equipment.

Equipment manufacturer should have voltage sag ride-through capability

curve available to their customer, so that an initial evaluation of the equipment
can be performed.

The company procuring new equipment should establish a procedure that

rates the importance of the equipment ride-though capability.

Equipment should at least be able to ride-though voltage sag with a minimum

voltage of 70%.
Fundamental Principles of Protection
 Solutions at the End-User Level

Different technologies are evaluated to determine the optimum solution for

improving overall voltage sag performance and reliability.

Protection for small loads (less than 5 kVA): protection for

equipment control, small, Individual machine and single phase load

Protection for individual equipment or groups of equipments up

to about 300 KVA

Protection for large groups of loads or whole facility at the low

voltage level

Protection at the medium voltage level or on the supply system

 Types of Voltage sag Mitigating Instrument

To ride through a voltage sag requires some form of stored

energy at the critical load side. This can be achieved by using
power conditioning devices such as,

- Ferroresonant transformer
- Magnetic synthesizers
- Active series compensator
- UPS systems
- Motor generator set
- Dynamic voltage restorer
- Static transfer switch
- Flywheel energy storage systems
- Superconductor magnetic energy storage (SMES) device
 Ferroresonant Transformers

Also known as constant-voltage transformers (CVT) and can handle

most voltage sag conditions for constant, low power loads. It is
basically a 1:1 transformer which are excited high on their saturation
curves thereby providing an output voltage which is not significantly
affected by input voltage variations.

Example: With the CVT, the process controller can ride through a
voltage sag down to 30% of nominal, as opposed to 82% without one.

CVT should be sized significantly larger than the load because as

loading is increased, the ride-through capability is reduced.
Ferroresonant Transformers
 Magnetic synthesizer

Magnetic synthesizers use a similar operating principle to CVT except they are
three phase devices and take advantage of the three phase magnetics to provide
improved voltage support and regulation for three phase loads.

Sized in the range of 15 to 200 kVA.

Applied for large computer-based loads.

Its operation comprises of energy transfer, line isolation and energy storage.
Energy transfer and line isolation are accomplished through the use of nonlinear
chokes. AC output waveforms are built by combining voltage pulses from
saturated transformers. The waveform energy is then stored in the saturated
transformer and capacitors as current and voltage. This energy storage enables
the output of a clean waveform with little harmonic distortion.
Magnetic synthesizer
 Active series compensator

A electronic device that can boost the voltage by injecting a voltage in series with the
remaining voltage during voltage sag condition
 UPS System

On-line UPS
Standby UPS
Hybrid UPS

On-line UPS: The load is fed through the UPS. The incoming ac power is
rectified into dc power, which charges a bank of batteries. This dc power is
inverted back to ac power , to feed the load. If the incoming ac power fails, the
inverter is fed from the batteries and continues to supply the load.
 UPS System

Standby (Off-line UPS: A standby UPS is termed as off-line UPS since

the normal line power is used to power the equipment until a disturbance is
detected and a switch transfers the load to the battery-backed inverter. A transfer
time of 4 ms would ensure continuity of operation for the critical load. Usually
applied for protection of small computer loads.
 UPS System

Hybrid UPS: The hybrid UPS utilizes a voltage regulator on the UPS
output to provide regulation to the load and momentary ride-through when the
transfer from normal to UPS supply is made.
 Motor_Generator Set

A motor powered by the line drives a generator that powers the Load.
Flywheels on the same shaft provide greater inertia to increase ride-through
time. When the line suffers a disturbance, the inertia of the machines and the
flywheels maintains the power supply for several seconds.

loss associated with machines

Noise and maintenance
Frequency and voltage drop
during sag as the machine slow.
 Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage
(SMES) Device

The SMES based system has several advantage over battery based UPS
# Smaller footprint than batteries for same energy storage and delivery capability

# Energy delivered to the protected

system very quickly

# Unlimited discharge and charge

duty cycles, can do thousands of time
with Degrading Superconducting
magnet
 Dynamic Voltage Restorer

DVR is a voltage compensating device that connected in series

with a source and a load in a distribution system, in which it
consists of an inverter, transformer and dc capacitor.

A DVR is designed to inject a compensating voltage into a

distribution line through an injecting transformer so as to restore
the load voltage to an acceptable level during the period of
voltage sags.
 Dynamic Voltage Restorer

The basic idea in the operation of a DVR is to inject a

controlled voltage generated by an inverter in series to the bus
voltage by means of an injecting transformer. A dc capacitor
Bank which acts as an energy storage device, provides a regulated
dc voltage source. An inverter regulates this dc voltage and
converts its into a synchronous ac voltage of controllable
amplitude and phase angle.
Dynamic Voltage Restorer
 Static Transfer Switch

Static transfer switch is a device that ensures high-quality

power supply to sensitive load by transferring load from faulted
bus to a healthy one. It is usually designed using thyristors as
solid-state breaker because of their higher current capacities to
withstand load side fault levels.

The function of static switch is to maintain ac electrical power

to a critical load by switching between two independent power
sources.
 Static Transfer Switch

It consists of two sets of three phase solid-state static switches,

one for the main feeder and the other one for the back-up feeder.
Each switch is arranged with anti-parallel thyristors which allow
fast transfer of power from the main feeder that is affected by a
disturbance to the backup feeder.
 Levels of Voltage Sags Cause Equipment Problems?

Indices for Voltage sag performance should be based on the

sensitivity of equipment to voltage sags

The eequipment ride-through characteristics to represent power

quality are as follows:
CBEMA Curve
ITIC Curve
SEMI 2844 Curve
Actual Equipment Sensitivity Characteristics
 RMS Variations CBEMA

(Computer & Business Equipment Manufacturers Association)

 ITIC Curve

(Information Technology Industry Council)

RMS Variations- ITIC
SEMI F-47 Curve
 Benchmarking Voltage Sag Performance

Basis for evaluating ongoing system performance

Basis for evaluating economics of power quality improvement

options

Basis for implementing PQ-based contracts

Basis for attracting customers that are concerned about

PQ levels
 Benchmarking Voltage Dip Performance

Determine expected performance from fault statistics and

system electrical characteristics. This establishes benchmark
levels for expected performance.

Monitor performance with a systems monitoring approach.

This tracks actual performance against the expected performance
levels.
System Average RMS Variation Frequency
Index - SAFRI(x)

SARFI(x) for a specific location is the

number of voltage sags per year with a
minimum voltage below x

Country SARFI <70%Sag

USA 50 17

Europe Cable 34 11
Combined (100) 44

South Africa 153 43

 Voltage Swell

A short duration, temporary voltage rise with duration between

0.5 to 30 cycles and with typical magnitudes between 1.1 and 1.8
per unit.

It is a high voltage condition on one or more phases. Voltage

swell Is due to rapid load reduction, utility switching etc. The
effect will be hardware damage.
 Causes and Effect of Voltage Swell

Swell
What : High voltage condition
on one or more phases

Why : Rapid load reduction,

utility switching, etc.

Effect: Hardware damage by

Breaking down
insulation
 Evaluating the Economics of Different Ride-through
Alternatives

The economic evaluation procedure to find the best option for

improving voltage sag performance consist the following steps:

Characterise the system power quality performance

Estimate the costs associated with the power quality variations

Characterise the solution alternatives in terms of costs and effectiveness

Perform the comparative economics analysis

 Estimating the Costs for the Voltage Sag Events

The cost of a power quality disturbance can be captured

preliminary through three major categories

Product related loss i.e. loss of product and materials, loss of production
capacity, disposal charge and increase inventory requirement

Labour related loss i.e. idled employees, overtime, cleanup and repair

Ancillary cot i.e. damaged equipments, lost opportunity cost and penalties
due to shipping delays
Estimating the Costs for the Voltage Sag Events
 Characterizing the Cost and Effectiveness
for Solution Alternatives

The solution of cost and effectiveness includes initial procurement

and installation expenses, operating and maintenance expenses and
Any disposal and salvage value consideration
 Performing Comparative Economic Analysis

The process of comparing the different alternatives for improving

Performance involves determining the total annual cost for each
Alternative, including both cost of voltage sag and the annual cost
of implementing solution.
Total Annual Cost = Power Quality Cost + Solution Cost

Figure P. 78