APPLI CATI ON NOTES

In the fall of 2003, The Manitoba HVDC Research Centre Inc., through
its engineering services group, were contracted to perform a study
for an SVC replacement project. The existing SVC, which was near the
end of its life, and not operating efciently, was being used for voltage
control and icker mitigation due to a large reciprocating motor load. This
motor load totals 66,000hp between 9 machines.
There were two types of machines, one set of 6 8000HP compressor
motors rotating at 300 rpm, and one set of 3 6000HP compressor motors
rotating at 327.27 rpm, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1 Reciprocating Motor Flicker Study Diagram
The 8000HP motors were setup into 3 groups of 2, with each groups
compression cycle spread over 120 mechanical degrees on the shaft rotation.
The motors were congured like this to minimize the torque pulsations, and
therefore icker. The 6000HP motors were not congured as such, and had
all 3 motors compressing at the same time. In this conguration, the only
dominant icker component should be at around 5.12 Hz, which can be
easily calculated using a weighted average methodology [eqn 1]:
Flicker in a Large
Reciprocating Motor Load
#1 #2
25.0 [MVA]
115 [kV] / 13.8 [kV]
RRL
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6 - 8000 HP Compressor Motors
300 rpm
3 - 6000 HP Compressor Motors
327.27 rpm
Source Delta connected
TCR/FC
Hz rpm
rpm
rpm
12 . 5 44 . 307
66000
) 8000 6 ( 300
6000 3 8000 6
) 6000 3 ( 27 . 327
=
=

+
+

Despite these measures, in adjacent towns a fairly severe icker
problem was evident in the incandescent lighting and was easily
observed in measurements taken at the station.
If the 8000HP motors were rotating at 300 rpm, and the 6000HP
motors at 327.27 rpm and all machines on the same compression
cycle, the pulsating exhibited was due to the two sets of motors
creating a beat frequency at 0.4546Hz. This beat frequency can be
calculated as follows [eqn 2]:
Hz
rpm
rpm rpm
4546 . 0
60
273 . 27
300 273 . 327
=
=
PSCAD

simulations did reproduce this behaviour if the compres-

sion cycle of the 8000HP machines were set to be additive, and not
spread out over the 120 mechanical degrees, as indicated by the
motor operators. The magnitudes of the oscillations are not the same,
but since actual system conditions in which the actual measurements
were taken are not known, we can conclude that the results are fairly
representative. The 5.12 Hz component was also present in this
simulation.
These two icker components can easily be seen in Figures 2 and
3. A resolution to this issue is still under investigation.
Dan Kell
Application Support Engineer
Figure 2 5 Hz Flicker Disturbance.
Figure 3 0.45 Hz Subsynchronous
Flicker Disturbance.
Manitoba HVDC Research Centre Inc.
244 Cree Crescent
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3J 3W1
T +1 204 989 1240 F +1 204 989 1277
info@pscad.com
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