Reactive power compensation in power systems supplying electric arc furnaces

Electric arc furnaces are powerful source of disturbances that deteriorates power quality in power systems. The electric furnace load is of nonlinear and drastically variable character, which leads to significant voltage fluctuations and, consequently, flicker. To stabilize AC voltage, reactive power compensation is an effective and sufficient measure. The article presents a brief review of the most widely used compensating devices and analyses efficiency of these. An ATP/EMTP model simulating the operation of EAF reactive power compensation device in real power system of one facility of heavy industry is presented.