Enhancement of Power Quality in an Actual Hot Rolling Mill Plant Through a STATCOM

Abstract

A strategic use of a static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) for providing dynamic reactive power management of a hot rolling mill plant along with active mitigation of harmonics is considered in this article. More specifically, the behavior of a cascaded H-bridge (CHB) converter-based STATCOM is assessed. The impact of the steel to be milled and the specific features of the plant on the design of the STATCOM is discussed. The proposed strategy is analyzed from the point of view of reactive power flow management, active power loss reduction, and voltage control at the coupling point, as well as harmonics reduction and decrease of unscheduled shutdowns in the event of a trip in the passive filtering system. The article is based on real plant measurements, simulation tests, and results from an experimental platform built at scale, and represents the first stage of an ambitious plan to renew this type of plants aimed at transforming them into active elements for electrical energy management. Index Terms-Cascaded H-bridge converter (CHB), filtering banks, finishing mill, hot rolling mill, power system harmonics, roughing mill, static synchronous compensator (STATCOM), steel. I. INTRODUCTION S TEEL industry is considered to be an energy-intensive industry [1]. Efficient use of energy plays a strategic role in steel industry, which is the industrial sector with the highest energy demand in numerous countries. Energy consumption accounts for between 15% and 20% of the operating costs of a steel plant and has direct implications on other costs, e.g., those associated with the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG). More

Power Factor Modelling and Prediction at the Hot Rolling Mills’ Power Supply Using Machine Learning Algorithms

“…The articles [8,31] consider the use of a static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) for dynamic reactive power management of a hot rolling mill plant, as well as active harmonic mitigation. Paper [8] proposes a strategy for managing reactive power flow, reducing active power loss, and controlling the voltage at the coupling point, as well as reducing harmonics and reducing unscheduled shutdowns in the event of a trip in the passive filtering system.…”

“…To determine the current hidden state, we will use the PF t and tanh of the updated cell state, as illustrated in (8).…”

“…These consumers can be found in metallurgical plants like electric arc furnaces (EAF) [3,4], ladle furnaces [5], and rolling mills [1]. These high power consumers use a lot of electricity and can have an impact on power quality via reactive power, low power factor, and electric current harmonics [6][7][8]. The largest consumers of electric power in steel plants are EAF [5,9,10], but rolling mills also have significant power and produce harmonic currents [11,12], overcurrents that cause reactive power and low power factor [13,14] or flicker [12].…”

Researches regarding power quality at the hot rolling mills’ power supply

“…These consumers can be found in metallurgical plants like Electric Arc furnaces [3], [4], Laddle furnaces [5], and rolling mills [1]. These high power consumers use a lot of electricity and can have an impact on power quality via reactive power, low power factor, and electric current harmonics [6][7][8][9][10]. Harmonic currents are caused in large part by the widespread use of power converters, which are found in many electrical and electronic systems, including household appliances.…”

A Compact and Cost Efficient Multiconverter for Multipurpose Applications

“…to be stepped up to the required high frequency AC current in order to generate essential heat [5]- [7]. Moreover, in some applications (e.g.…”