Solutions for ASD nuisance tripping caused by utility capacitor switching

Technical Report · Thu Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1995

OSTI ID:376835

Alegria, E; Hensley, G ^[1]

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1. Pacific Gas & Electric Co., San Francisco, CA (United States)

In the last ten years, there has been increasing market penetration of small and medium size adjustable speed drives (ASDs). The dominant topology for these drives in sizes up to 200 HP is the voltage source variable frequency drive which uses a smoothing capacitor on the DC link. This topology is used because of the low cost and simplicity of the drive and also because the existing induction motor can be used when the ASD is used for retrofitting a system. Because of the popularity of these drives, there is increased concern about the drives` sensitivity to utility transients. Two of the most con-anon utility events are fault-clearing voltage sags and capacitor switching transients. Unfortunately, voltage source variable frequency drives are sensitive to both types of events (DC drives and current source variable frequency drives are only sensitive to voltage sags). This paper win address the voltage source variable frequency drive capacitor switching sensitivity. We will discuss the cost effective solution to the problem and comment on other beneficial effects of solving this problem.

• Research Organization: Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States); CK and Associates, Albany, CA (United States)
• OSTI ID: 376835
• Report Number(s): EPRI-TR--104581; CONF-9311343--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
CAPACITORS
CONTROL
ELECTRIC MOTORS
ELECTRICAL TRANSIENTS
MITIGATION
POWER SYSTEMS
SWITCHING CIRCUITS