The impact of electrical disturbances on the casting of an arc furnace

Arc furnaces are among the most disturbing loads connected to the high voltage systems, due to the strong non-linearity and the intrinsic variability of the arc. Generally, they are supplied by dedicated lines and proper actions are taken to mitigate the injection of disturbances in the network. However, situations occur where a cluster of arc furnaces operated by different steel manufacturers in the same industrial area is connected to the same electric system. In such a case, each furnace can suffer for Power Quality problems caused by the disturbances injected by the other ones, and these problems may have a detrimental effect on the efficiency of the furnace and the quality of the casting. This paper describes a power quality monitoring system that analyses the supply quality on the supply section of a steel plant, and correlates it to the quality of the casting.