Overview of Voltage Sag Mitigation

Ambra Sannino Michelle Ghans Miller Math H.J. Bollen

Department of Electrical Engineering Department of Electric Power Engineering
University of Palermo Chalmers University of Technology
Palermo, Italy Gothenburg, Sweden

Abstract: This paper gives an overview of methods used in the The magnitude of the voltage sag is mainly determined by
mitigation of voltage sags. Different solutions for improving the the impedance between the faulted bus and the load and by
performance of the power system, as well as the immunity of the the method of connection of the transformer windings [1].
equipment, are described. Finally, mitigation devices to be installed The voltage sag lasts until the fault is cleared by a protective
at the system-load interface for power quality enhancement are
device, therefore the duration of the sag is determined by the
presented.
Keywords: voltage sags, power quality, electromagnetic fault-clearing time of the protection system adopted.
compatibility (EMC), distribution system design, power electronics Moreover, if automatic reclosure is used by the utility, the
voltage sag condition can occur repeatedly in the case of a
I. INTRODUCTION permanent fault. Finally, depending on its magnitude and
duration, the sag can cause an equipment trip, thus becoming
Power quality and reliability are essential for proper a power quality problem.
operation of industrial processes which involve critical and Based on the mechanism leading to a voltage sag (from
sensitive loads. Short-duration power disturbances, such as short-circuit fault to equipment trip, Fig. 2) three different
voltage sags, swells and short interruptions, are major locations, for the mitigation of voltage sags can be
concerns for industrial customers. Due to the wide usage of distinguished [2]: on the power system side or upstream of
sensitive electronic equipment in process automation, even the meter, on the equipment, downstream of the meter, or,
voltage sags which last for only few tenths of a second may finally, at the system-equipment interface, at the meter.
cause production stops with considerable associated costs;
these costs include production losses, equipment restarting,
damaged or lower-quality product and reduced customer Reduction of number and
SHORT-CIRCUIT FAULT
satisfaction [1]. duration of faults
The high costs associated with these disturbances explain
the increasing interest towards voltage sag mitigation
techniques. The cost of the mitigation intervention has to be
compared with the loss of revenue and takes into account all PROPAGATION THROUGH Changes in the structure
the economic factors involved. THE POWER SYSTEM of the power system
To understand the different ways of mitigating voltage
sags, various factors contributing to the problem have to be
understood. The cause of most voltage sags is a short-circuit
fault occurring either within the industrial facility under SYSTEM-EQUIPMENT Installation of
INTERFACE mitigation devices
consideration or on the utility system. The starting of large
motors also results in voltage sags, but these are not usually
very severe. The short-circuit fault causes the voltage to drop
to almost zero at the fault position. This zero voltage turns
Improvement of
then into an event of a certain magnitude and duration at the EQUIPMENT TRIP
equipment immunity
interface between the power system and the equipment. A
typical voltage sag waveform is shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Establishment of the voltage quality problem
V [V ] and various ways of mitigation
8000

6000
This paper gives a comprehensive overview of various
mitigation methods. It is organised in the following way: in
4000
Section II the mitigation through intervention on the power
2000 system is treated, considering both changes in the electrical
components of the system and in its structure. In Section III
0
0,00 0,02 0,04 0,06 0,08 0,10 0,12 0,14 0,16 0,18 0,20 0,22 0,24 0,26
t [s] the effect of voltage sags on the performance of the
-2000 equipment is described, together with possible actions to be
-4000
taken on loads in order to improve their immunity. Low-
power electronics (computers, process-control equipment), as
-6000
well as higher-power electronics (ac and dc drives) are
-8000
considered. Section IV is dedicated to mitigation devices to
be installed at the interface between the system and the
Fig. 1. Typical waveform of a voltage sag caused by remote fault-clearing
equipment. Finally, conclusions are drawn in Section V.
 II. CHANGES IN THE POWER SYSTEM than a static circuit breaker) is very suitable in this case, since
no re-closure is necessary: with a single load, the fault is
A. Reducing the number of faults likely to be permanent and repair is needed before power
restoring.
Limiting the number of faults is an effective way to
reduce not only the number of voltage sags, but also the
frequencies of short and long interruptions.
Fault prevention actions may include the institution of tree
trimming policies, the addition of lightning arresters,
insulator washing and the addition of animal guards [3].
Insulation on transmission systems cannot withstand the most
severe lightning strokes, but lines which are often subject to
lightning-induced faults should be carefully investigated for
improvement of the insulation level. Faults due to lightning time-graded overcurrent protection
can be reduced by lowering the ground resistance at the foot
Fig. 3. Radial distribution system with cascaded substation
of the tower for overhead static wires. Other measures
include the use of recently introduced special wires, which An ideal application of a static breaker, even in already
are covered by a thin layer of insulation material [4], or the existing distribution systems, is at the tie-line location shown
installation of additional shielding wires, placed in such a in Fig. 4 [8]. In the event of a fault on a feeder downstream, it
way that they are more likely to be hit by a lightning stroke provides fast bus-splitting after which the fault is cleared by a
than the phase conductors. downstream protective device, thus reducing the total fault
A considerable reduction in the number of faults per year current and the duration of the sag as seen by the loads
can otherwise be achieved by replacing overhead lines by supplied by the adjacent feeder.
underground cables, which are less affected by adverse
weather. The fault rate of an overhead line is much higher
than that of an underground cable [5], but in case of a fault 66 kV substation
the repair time of the latter is longer.

B. Reducing the fault-clearing time

Reducing the fault-clearing time leads to less severe

voltage sags; this method affects not the number of events,
but their duration. Present utility equipment for clearing
faults on distribution circuits has been shown to be generally
incompatible with customer equipment [6]. Therefore utilities
could consider the opportunity to install current-limiting
fuses [7] or modern static circuit breakers, which are able to
clear the fault well within a half cycle at the power frequency,
thus ensuring that no voltage sag can last longer.
Some caution has to be used, however, when applying
these new protection devices in existing distribution systems.
If only some of the protective devices were replaced with
static breakers (on incoming transformer circuits or feeder
circuits, for instance), it would not be possible to co-ordinate
them with previously existing downstream protective devices,
due to their extremely fast operation [8]. In the system of Fig.
3, with multiple substations in cascade, time-grading of the
overcurrent relays is normally used in order to achieve the
necessary selectivity. Moving from the load to the source, the
tripping delay increases with 300 to 500 ms. If faster fault-
clearing is needed, then the whole system has to be re-
designed and all the protective devices have to be replaced
with faster ones. This would greatly reduce the grading
margin between the breakers, thus leading to a significant
reduction in fault-clearing time.
Fast devices can still be placed directly on the load, e.g.
where there is no downstream protective device with which
they must co-ordinate. A current-limiting fuse (much cheaper
66/11 kV
tie-line
bus I breaker bus II
11 kV
various industrial load
Fig. 4. Double-radial system with tie-line breaker
Unfortunately, these fast devices cannot be used at present
at transmission level (although static breakers will probably
become available for higher voltages in the future). The fault-
clearing time for transmission systems is already kept rather
low (rarely exceeding 200 ms), as there are transient-stability
constraints involved. This makes a further reduction of the
fault-clearing time very difficult.
C. System design
For distribution systems a simple, radial structure is
usually preferred, particularly because it enables the use of a
simple and cheap system of overcurrent protection. The
performance of radially-operated systems can be improved by
reducing the number of feeders originating from the same
bus, thus limiting the number of faults leading to a voltage
sag for equipment fed from that bus. A common practice is to
supply the sensitive load through a dedicated feeder. Where it
is not possible, a certain improvement can be achieved by
installing current-limiting reactors or fuses in all the other
feeders originating from the same bus as the sensitive load.
This increases the electrical distance between the fault and
the common bus, thus decreasing the depth of the sag for the
sensitive load.
132 kV
33 kV
loop
parallel
feeders
6.6 kV
6.6 kV
11 kV
Fig. 5. Redundancy through parallel operation
A higher redundancy level, as compared to a simple radial
scheme, can be achieved by parallel operation, either with
two feeders operated in parallel or with a looped system (Fig.
5). The system is characterised by single redundancy,
meaning that it can be operated correctly in case of outage of
one component, as long as the alternative path for the supply
is available. Unfortunately, looping the feeders or putting
them in parallel exposes the load to more severe voltage sags,
since these configurations serve to lower the impedance
between the fault and the load [9].
66 kV substation I 66 kV substation II
66/11 kV
11 kV bus
various industrial load
Fig. 6. Spot network
Both redundancy and voltage sag mitigation capability can
be ensured by feeding the load from two independent sources
(spot network, Fig. 6). The second feeder can be either
connected to an on-site synchronous generator, or derived
from another substation or another bus in the same substation,
connected to it by a normally open breaker: therefore they are
not likely be subject to a sag simultaneously. The connection
to the second, independent feeder increases the probability of
the load being subject to a sag; but, in the event of a voltage
sag in one substation, the in-feed from the other source keeps
the voltage up. The sag seen by the load will never be lower
than 50% [2].
Fast switching operations provide a solution for operating
the system radially, while having redundancy readily
available if needed. Assuming that the system of Fig. 4 is
operated with the tie-line breaker normally open, an
alternative healthy supply is made available by switching the
total load (or part of it) from bus I to bus II in case a
disturbance occurs, while the system is operated radially in
normal conditions. This kind of switching operation,
traditionally intended as a counter-measure against long
interruptions, also reduces the severity of short interruptions
and voltage sags at customers locations, provided that the
switching takes place very fast.
For this purpose, a static transfer switch composed by two
solid-state switching units (Fig. 7) can be used, as it allows a
fast transfer of sensitive loads from a primary source that
experiences a disturbance to an alternative supply that is
unaffected. The healthy source can be either another
distribution feeder or a standby power supply.
The extremely fast operation of the solid-state breakers
allows the restoration of power to the load within a quarter of
a cycle (transfer times of 4 ms have been reported, [10]). This
results in a very effective way of mitigating the effects of
both interruptions and voltage sags, by limiting in the latter
case not their magnitude, but their duration.
PRIMARY ALTERNATE
SOURCE SOURCE
SWITCH 1 SWITCH 2
LOAD
Fig. 7. Static Transfer Switch
III. INCREASING EQUIPMENT IMMUNITY
Case studies and power quality surveys show that sensitive
equipment include both low-power electronics (computers,
process-control devices, consumer-electronics) and high-
power electronics (for ac and dc drives) [1,3,8]. It has been
reported that an installation using only electromechanical
control could tolerate a sag down to 60% voltage without
problems, while a completely automated factory could be
disrupted by a sag to 85% [9].
 Improvement of equipment voltage tolerance thresholds
appears as the most effective solution against voltage sags in
the long term. This is especially true for short-duration and
shallow sags which can hardly be mitigated by means of the
utility-side solutions described above.
Unfortunately, customers can only require a specific
voltage tolerance level for very large industrial equipment,
and these are usually tailored for specific applications. In
most cases, the customer has no direct contact with the
manufacturer and can in no way intervene to modify
equipment sensitivity to voltage disturbances [2].
A. Computers and process-control equipment
The power supply of computers and other low-power
devices normally consists of a single-phase diode rectifier
followed by a dc-dc voltage regulator. The latter transforms
the non-regulated dc voltage at a few hundreds volts into a
regulated dc voltage. A capacitor is connected to the non-
regulated dc bus in order to reduce the voltage ripple at the
input of the voltage regulator.
If the RMS value of the ac voltage drops suddenly, the
capacitor discharges not only for half a cycle, as in normal
operation, but for a longer period, until its voltage drops
below the ac value of voltage again, and a new equilibrium is
reached. The duration of the discharge of the capacitor is
directly dependent on the magnitude of the voltage sag. The
voltage regulator is normally able to maintain the output
voltage constant over a certain range of variation of the input
voltage. But if the voltage on the non-regulated side becomes
too low, the protection will trip the device to protect the
digital electronic components on the other side of the
regulator.
This can be a limiting factor in applying electronic
equipment for the automation of production lines: the
operation of a 120 V ac PLC I/O unit, for instance, has been
reported to be disrupted by a sag of less than 86 % magnitude
and more than 16 ms duration [11].
B. AC Drives
AC drives usually include a three-phase diode rectifier
which converts the ac voltage into a dc voltage. The latter is
then re-converted into a three-phase voltage of variable
magnitude and frequency by an inverter. A capacitor on the
dc side smoothes the voltage (Fig. 8).
Under normal, balanced operation, the output voltage of
the rectifier peaks six times per cycle and the capacitor
charges to the peak of the input line voltage. Between two
subsequent peaks, the diodes are reverse biased and the
capacitor discharges through the inverter.
During balanced sags (equal voltage in all three phases) the
capacitor discharges quickly, as with a single-phase load. It
continues to discharge until the voltage at its terminals drops
below the ac voltage, so that the diodes can once again be
forward biased. The current drawn from the ac mains can be
quite high, since the capacitor has discharged more than
normal.
AC
SUPPLY
AC
MOTOR
DIODE RECTIFIER INVERTER
Fig. 8. Scheme of an ac drive
The ac drive is normally set to trip either upon an
undervoltage on the dc bus or in the event of an overcurrent
through the diodes or on the ac side. Sometimes line-side
fuses blow because of the high current on voltage recovery.
Assuming, however, that no protections trip the drive during
the sag, the process may not be able to tolerate the drop in
speed or the torque variations due to the sag.
Improvements in drive performance can be obtained by
adding a series reactor to limit the post-sag inrush and by
reducing the setting of the dc bus undervoltage protection
[12]. Note that the latter needs to be co-ordinated with the
protection and tolerance of the rectifier and the inverter.
However, it is generally accepted that the current design of
adjustable-speed drives does not leave much room for
improvement of the tolerance against balanced sags.
During unbalanced sags, the behaviour depends to a large
extent on the size of the dc bus capacitance. For a moderate
capacitor size, the dc bus voltage will not drop very much
during one half-cycle [2]. The result is that the minimum dc
bus voltage during the event is determined by the highest of
the three phase-to-phase supply voltages. It can be shown that
the highest phase voltage is rarely below 80% of nominal
voltage during an unbalanced sag. The dc bus voltage will
therefore rarely drop below 80%. [2].
C. DC Drives
In a dc drive, a three-phase ac voltage is fed into a three-
phase controlled rectifier which powers the armature winding
of the motor. The average dc output voltage is varied by
controlling the firing angle of the thyristors in the bridge. A
single-phase diode rectifier is normally used for the field
winding (Fig. 9).
AC POWER +
SUPPLY DC
MOTOR
DC MOTOR
FIELD ARMATURE
WINDING WINDING
-
Fig. 9. Scheme of a dc drive
DC motor drives are more sensitive to voltage sags than ac
drives, due to their inherent lack of energy storage devices
other than the motors own inertia. Many dc drives will trip if
the voltage magnitude on any of the supply phases falls
below 90% [13]. If the drive is subject to a sag then a small
drop in the armature voltage leads to a large drop in the
armature current and thus in torque and speed of the motor.
DC drives are typically used for speed-sensitive processes, so
that a drop in speed quickly leads to process disruption.
Moreover, the phase-angle jump of the sag can disrupt the
firing-angle control of the three-phase controlled rectifier.
Providing the drive with some energy storage capability by
connecting a capacitor in parallel with its terminals does not
represent a viable option, as it limits the control range of the
rectifier [13].
Improvement of the voltage tolerance requires fast control
of the output voltage of the armature rectifier. A proper
algorithm may be implemented for adjusting the firing angle
of the thyristors according to the variation of the input
voltage.
IV. MITIGATION DEVICES
Customer solutions usually involve power conditioning for
sensitive loads. Different devices are currently available for
the mitigation of power quality problems. Correct
understanding of their features, as well as that of load
requirements, is needed for their proper application. To
provide voltage sag ride-through capability, the different
solutions available always include some kind of energy
storage.
A. Motor-generator sets
Motor-generator sets store energy in a flywheel (Fig. 10).
They consist of a motor supplied by the plant power system, a
synchronous generator supplying the load and a flywheel, all
connected to a common axis. The rotational energy stored in
the flywheel can be used to perform steady-state voltage
regulation and to support voltage during disturbances. This
system has high efficiency, low initial costs and enables long-
duration ride through (several seconds) but can only be used
in industrial environments, due to its size, noise and
maintenance requirements.
MOTOR GENERATOR
POWER SENSITIVE
SYSTEM LOAD
Fig. 10. Motor-generator set
B. Transformer-based solutions
A Constant Voltage, or ferro-resonant, Transformer (CVT)
works in a similar manner to a transformer with a 1:1 turns
ratio which is excited at a high point on its saturation curve,
thus providing an output voltage which is not affected by
input voltage variations. In the actual design (Fig. 11) a
capacitor, connected to the secondary winding, is needed to
set the operating point above the knee of the saturation curve.
This solution is suitable for low-power, constant loads:
variable loads can cause problems, due to the presence of this
tuned circuit on the output [1].
power
system
sensitive
load
Fig. 11. Typical circuit for a ferro-resonant transformer
Electronic tap changers (Fig. 12) can be mounted on a
dedicated transformer for the sensitive load, in order to
change its turns ratio according to changes in the input
voltage. They can be connected in series on the distribution
feeder and placed between the supply and the load. Part of the
secondary winding supplying the load is divided into a
number of sections, which are connected or disconnected by
fast static switches, thus allowing regulation of the secondary
voltage in steps. This should allow the output voltage to be
brought back to a level above 90% of nominal value, even for
severe voltage sags. Thyristor-based switches which can only
be turned on once per cycle are used, therefore the
compensation is accomplished with a time delay of at least
one half cycle.
power
system load
1
static
2 switches
3
Fig. 12. Transformer with electronic tap changers
C. Inverter-based solutions
A UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) consists of a diode
rectifier followed by an inverter (Fig. 13). The energy storage
is usually a battery block connected to the dc link. During
normal operation, power coming from the ac supply is
rectified and then inverted. The batteries remain in standby
mode and only serve to keep the dc bus voltage constant.
During a voltage sag or an interruption, the energy released
by the battery block maintains the voltage at the dc bus.
Depending on the storage capacity of the battery block, it can
supply the load for minutes or even hours.
 lagging voltage in quadrature with the load current [17]. The
POWER SENSITIVE inverter is usually based on IGBTs characterised by high
SYSTEM ~ LOAD switching frequencies: therefore, with proper control, it is
~ possible to perform perfect voltage compensation in less than
half a cycle.

POWER SENSITIVE
ENERGY
SYSTEM LOAD
STORAGE
DEVICE
Fig. 13. Uninterruptible power supply

Low cost, simple operation and control have made the UPS
Voltage Source
the standard solution for low-power equipment like Inverter
computers. For higher-power loads the costs associated with
losses due to the two additional conversions and the
maintenance of the batteries become too high and this
solution no longer appears to be economically feasible. Energy Storage
Device

POWER SENSITIVE Fig. 15. Series voltage controller

SYSTEM LOAD
This solution, although still costly (but the prices are likely
to decrease rapidly in the near future), is very attractive for
large industrial customers (a few MVA) which have very
high power quality demands. It allows for the protection of
the entire plant from voltage sags (usually down to 50%
magnitude and a few hundred milliseconds duration) through
VOLTAGE the installation of only one device. However, sensitive loads
SOURCE
INVERTER
inside the plant will not be protected against sags originating
within the plant. Being a series device, this voltage controller
has the obvious disadvantage of not protecting the load
ENERGY against interruptions [18].
STORAGE The shunt-connected voltage controller [19]) is a voltage-
DEVICE source converter that is shunt connected to the distribution
Fig. 14. Backup power source feeder circuit via a tie reactance. It can exchange both real
and reactive power with the distribution system by varying
To avoid the losses due to the additional energy
the amplitude and phase angle of the voltage source with
conversions in the UPS, a backup power source can be used
respect to the line terminal voltage. The result is controlled
instead (Fig. 14). As soon as a disturbance is detected, the
current flow through the tie reactance between the device and
sensitive load is isolated from the power system by a static
the distribution line, which enables a certain voltage support
switch and supplied from the stored energy. For storing the
capability.
necessary energy, either batteries (Transportable Battery
The contribution of the shunt controller to the bus voltage
Energy Storage System, TBESS, [14]) or small-sized
is equal to the injected current times the impedance seen by
Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) systems,
the device. This is the source impedance in parallel with the
which take advantage of the high efficiency of
load impedance. This impedance becomes very small for
superconducting coils, can be used [15]. The main advantages
faults at the same voltage level, close to load. The device will
of the SMES as compared to the batteries are the reduced size
then draw a very large reactive current without providing any
and lower maintenance requirements.
noticeable change in voltage. For these reasons, a shunt
A series voltage controller consists of a voltage-source
controller is normally used not for mitigating voltage sags,
converter connected in series with the distribution feeder by
but for the implementation of other functions such as power
means of an injection transformer (Fig. 15). It can inject
factor correction, the mitigation of load fluctuation (including
voltages of controllable amplitude, phase angle and frequency
voltage flicker) and active filtering purposes [20]. The same
into the distribution feeder, thus restoring the voltage to
voltage source controller, equipped with an isolation switch
critical loads during sags [16]. The reactive power exchanged
for disconnection from the distribution feeder, results in the
between the series controller and the distribution system is
backup source of Fig. 14.
internally generated by the controller, while the real power
A very flexible device can be obtained by combining the
exchanged at its ac terminals must be provided at the dc
above-mentioned series and shunt controller with a common
terminal by an energy storage system. Even without stored
dc bus. In the event of a voltage sag, the remaining voltage
energy, the series controller can provide limited
can be used by the shunt controller to extract the energy
compensation for variations of terminal voltage by injecting a
required for the compensation of the sag from the system.
This is performed by the series controller in the previously
described manner.
If the power drawn by the shunt controller is kept equal to
the power delivered by the shunt part, then no energy storage
device will be necessary. The device will be able to
compensate all sags above a specified magnitude. It cannot
mitigate interruptions, but all other functions mentioned can
still be implemented with proper control of the shunt-
connected converter. The main disadvantage will remain the
high current drawn for the mitigation of very deep sags.
V. CONCLUSIONS
The installation of mitigation devices at the system-
equipment interface appears as the most attractive short-term
solution for customers, who rarely have the chance to request
either specific tolerance levels for equipment or an improved
power supply. Nevertheless, the mitigation of these
phenomena in the long term requires significant improvement
in the immunity of the equipment. The increasing demands
from the customers side will hopefully induce equipment
manufacturers to take the necessary actions in this direction
in the near future.
This appears to be the most suitable solution, particularly
for short-duration voltage sags due to faults in the
transmission systems which can hardly be mitigated through
system improvement. For longer duration sags caused by
faults in the distribution system, improvement of system
performance may be easier. Reduction of the fault-clearing
time and changes in the power system structure are possible
solutions.
VI. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to thank Dr. Jan Svensson for his
assistance. Ambra Sannino acknowledges the support of the
Foundation BLANCEFLOR Boncompagni-Ludovisi, ne
Bildt during her stay at Chalmers. Michelle Ghans Miller
and Math Bollen acknowledge the support received from the
ELEKTRA programme.
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VIII. BIOGRAPHIES
Ambra Sannino (S00) is a Ph.D. student in the Department of
Electrical Engineering at the University of Palermo, Italy. She is
currently a guest researcher in the Department of Electric Power
Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg,
Sweden.
Michelle Ghans Miller (M94) is a Ph.D. student in the Department
of Electric Power Engineering at Chalmers University of
Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Math H.J. Bollen (M93, SM96) is an Associate Professor in the
Department of Electric Power Engineering at Chalmers University
of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden. Math is co-chair of the
IEEE/IAS power system reliability subcommittee.