Voltage sags are short duration reductions in rms voltage, mainly caused by short circuits and starting of large motors. The interest in voltage sags is due to the problems they cause on several types of equipment.
Adjustable-speed drives, process-control equipment, and computers are especially notorious for their sensitivity (Conrad et al., 1991; McGranaghan et al., 1993). Some pieces of equipment trip when the rms voltage drops below 90% for longer than one or two cycles.
Such a piece of equipment will trip tens of times a year. If this is the process-control equipment of a paper mill, one can imagine that the costs due to voltage sags can be enormous.
A voltage sag is not as damaging to industry as a (long or short) interruption, but as there are far more voltage sags than interruptions, the total damage due to sags is still larger. Another important aspect of voltage sags is that they are hard to mitigate.
Short interruptions and many long interruptions can be prevented via simple, although expensive measures in the local distribution network. Voltage sags at equipment terminals can be due to short-circuit faults hundreds of kilometers away in the transmission system. It will be clear that there is no simple method to prevent them.
An example of a voltage sag is shown in Fig. 31.1.1 The voltage amplitude drops to a value of about 20% of its pre-event value for about two and a half cycles, after which the voltage recovers again.
FIGURE 31.1 A voltage sag—voltage in one phase in time domain.
The event shown in Fig. 31.1 can be characterized as a voltage sag down to 20% (of the pre-event voltage) for 2.5 cycles (of the fundamental frequency). This event can be characterized as a voltage sag with a magnitude of 20% and a duration of 2.5 cycles.
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