Impact Assessment and Mitigation of A Power System With Dynamic Electric Arc Furnace Load

The Indonesian government is currently actively involved in down streaming efforts, particularly in nickel, due to its abundant resources. This initiative is accompanied by an increasing number of operational arc furnaces. The Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) represents a high-power, non-linear industrial load that can have adverse effects to power system such as power quality degradation and voltage fluctuations. In this research, a 390 MVA EAF load is considered to be placed in modified IEEE 39 Bus England System network and simulated by DigSILENT PowerFactory. It has been found that the EAF contributes to system voltage fluctuations exceeding their minimum limits. Those detrimental impact can be mitigated by installing a VAR compensator. This research will examine the effects of EAF on system voltage fluctuations and compare the performance of different compensators, including Fixed Capacitor, Static VAR Compensator (SVC), and Static Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM), along with their respective impacts. The simulation results indicate that, among the three compensators, STATCOM exhibits the best performance in mitigating voltage fluctuations caused by the EAF.