causing a voltage sag with duration of more than 1 cycle occurs within
the area of vulnerability. However, faults outside this area will not
cause the voltage to drop below 0.5 pu. The same discussion applies to
the area of vulnerability for ASD loads. The less sensitive the equip-
ment, the smaller the area of vulnerability will be (and the fewer times
sags will cause the equipment to misoperate).
3.2.3 Transmission system sag
performance evaluation
The voltage sag performance for a given customer facility will depend on
whether the customer is supplied from the transmission system or from
the distribution system. For a customer supplied from the transmission
system, the voltage sag performance will depend on only the transmission
system fault performance. On the other hand, for a customer supplied
from the distribution system, the voltage sag performance will depend on
the fault performance on both the transmission and distribution systems.
This section discusses procedures to estimate the transmission sys-
tem contribution to the overall voltage sag performance at a facility.
Section 3.2.4 focuses on the distribution system contribution to the
overall voltage sag performance.
Transmission line faults and the subsequent opening of the protec-
tive devices rarely cause an interruption for any customer because of
the interconnected nature of most modern-day transmission networks.
These faults do, however, cause voltage sags. Depending on the equip-
ment sensitivity, the unit may trip off, resulting in substantial mone-
tary losses. The ability to estimate the expected voltage sags at an
end-user location is therefore very important.
Most utilities have detailed short-circuit models of the intercon-
nected transmission system available for programs such as ASPEN*
One Liner (Fig. 3.7). These programs can calculate the voltage through-
out the system resulting from faults around the system. Many of them
can also apply faults at locations along the transmission lines to help

equipment will experience during a fault on the supply system.
Math Bollen
16
developed the concept of voltage sag “types” to describe
the different voltage sag characteristics that can be experienced at the
end-user level for different fault conditions and system configurations.
The five types that can commonly be experienced are illustrated in Fig.
3.8. These fault types can be used to conveniently summarize the
52 Chapter Three
Figure 3.7 Example of modeling the transmission system in a short-circuit program for
calculation of the area of vulnerability.
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Voltage Sags and Interruptions 53
0.58 1.00 0.58 0.00 1.00 1.00
0.58 1.00 0.58 0.33 0.88 0.88
0.33 0.88 0.88 — — —
0.88 0.88 0.33 0.58 1.00 0.58
TABLE 3.1 Transformer Secondary Voltages with a Single-Line-to-Ground
Fault on the Primary
Transformer
connection Phase-to-phase Phase-to-neutral Phasor
(primary/secondary) V
ab
V
bc
V
ca

Note: Three-phase sags
should lead to relatively
balanced conditions;
therefore, sag type A is a
sufficient characterization
for all three-phase sags.
Number of Phases
12 3
Figure 3.8 Voltage sag types at end-use equipment that result from different types of
faults and transformer connections.
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expected performance at a customer location for different types of
faults on the supply system.
Table 3.2 is an example of an area of vulnerability listing giving all the
fault locations that can result in voltage sags below 80 percent at the cus-
tomer equipment (in this case a customer with equipment connected
line-to-line and supplied through one delta-wye transformer from the
transmission system Tennessee 132-kV bus). The actual expected per-
formance is then determined by combining the area of vulnerability with
the expected number of faults within this area of vulnerability.
The fault performance is usually described in terms of faults per 100
miles/year (mi/yr). Most utilities maintain statistics of fault perfor-
mance at all the different transmission voltages. These systemwide
statistics can be used along with the area of vulnerability to estimate
the actual expected voltage sag performance. Figure 3.9 gives an exam-
ple of this type of analysis. The figure shows the expected number of
voltage sags per year at the customer equipment due to transmission

54 Chapter Three
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Voltage Sags and Interruptions 55
TABLE 3.2 Calculating Expected Sag Performance at a Specific
Customer Site for a Given Voltage Level
Voltage at
Bus monitored
Fault type Faulted bus voltage bus (pu) Sag type
3LG Tennessee 132 0 A
3LG Nevada 132 0.23 A
3LG Texas 132 0.33 A
2LG Tennessee 132 0.38 C
2LG Nevada 132 0.41 C
3LG Claytor 132 0.42 A
1LG Tennessee 132 0.45 D
2LG Texas 132 0.48 C
3LG Glen Lyn 132 0.48 A
3LG Reusens 132 0.5 A
1LG Nevada 132 0.5 D
L-L Tennessee 132 0.5 C
2LG Claytor 132 0.52 C
L-L Nevada 132 0.52 C
L-L Texas 132 0.55 C
2LG Glen Lyn 132 0.57 C
L-L Claytor 132 0.59 C
3LG Arizona 132 0.59 A
2LG Reusens 132 0.59 C

4
SYSTEM
SOURCE
SUBSTATION
FUSED
LATERAL
BRANCH
LINE
RECLOSER
RECLOSING
BREAKERS
Figure 3.9 Estimated voltage sag performance at customer equipment due to transmis-
sion system faults.
Figure 3.10 Typical distribution system illustrating protection devices.
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■
Feeder reactors, if any.
■
Average feeder fault performance which includes three-phase-line-
to-ground (3LG) faults and single-line-to-ground (SLG) faults in
faults per mile per month. The feeder performance data may be avail-
able from protection logs. However, data for faults that are cleared by
downline fuses or downline protective devices may be difficult to
obtain and this information may have to be estimated.
There are two possible locations for faults on the distribution systems,
i.e., on the same feeder and on parallel feeders. An area of vulnerabil-
ity defining the total circuit miles of fault exposures that can cause

p3
where N
1
and N
3
are the fault performance data for SLG and 3LG
faults in faults per miles per month, and E
p1
and E
p3
are the total cir-
cuit miles of exposure to SLG and 3LG faults on parallel feeders that
result in voltage sags below the minimum ride-through voltage v
s
at the
end-user location.
Faults on the same feeder. In this step the expected voltage sag magni-
tude at the end-user location is computed as a function of fault location
on the same feeder. Note that, however, the computation is performed
only for fault locations that will result in a sag but will not result in a
momentary interruption, which will be computed separately. Examples
of such fault locations include faults beyond a downline recloser or a
Voltage Sags and Interruptions 57
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branched fuse that is coordinated to clear before the substation
recloser. The voltage sag performance for specific sensitive equipment
with ride-through voltage v

s
) ϩ E
same
(v
s
).
The total expected sag performance can be computed for other voltage
thresholds, which then can be plotted to produce a plot similar to ones
in Fig. 3.9.
The expected interruption performance at the specified location can
be determined by the length of exposure that will cause a breaker or
other protective device in series with the customer facility to operate.
For example, if the protection is designed to operate the substation
breaker for any fault on the feeder, then this length is the total expo-
sure length. The expected number of interruptions can be computed as
follows:
E
int
ϭ L
int
ϫ (N
1
ϩ N
3
)
where L
int
is the total circuit miles of exposure to SLG and 3LG that
results in interruptions at an end-user facility.
58 Chapter Three

through capability into the equipment specifications themselves. This
essentially means keeping problem equipment out of the plant, or at
least identifying ahead of time power conditioning requirements.
Several ideas, outlined here, could easily be incorporated into any com-
pany’s equipment procurement specifications to help alleviate prob-
lems associated with voltage sags:
1. Equipment manufacturers should have voltage sag ride-through capa-
bility curves (similar to the ones shown previously) available to their
customers so that an initial evaluation of the equipment can be per-
formed. Customers should begin to demand that these types of curves
be made available so that they can properly evaluate equipment.
2. The company procuring new equipment should establish a proce-
dure that rates the importance of the equipment. If the equipment
is critical in nature, the company must make sure that adequate
Voltage Sags and Interruptions 59
3 - Overall
Protection
Inside Plant
CONTROLS
MOTORS
OTHER LOADS
Sensitive Process Machine
3
2
1
2 - Controls
Protection
1 - Equipment
Specifications
Utility

when the machines themselves can withstand the sag or interruption,
but the controls would automatically shut them down.
At level 3 in Fig. 3.12, some sort of backup power supply with the
capability to support the load for a brief period is required. Level 4 rep-
resents alterations made to the utility power system to significantly
reduce the number of sags and interruptions.
3.4 Solutions at the End-User Level
Solutions to improve the reliability and performance of a process or
facility can be applied at many different levels. The different technolo-
gies available should be evaluated based on the specific requirements
of the process to determine the optimum solution for improving the
overall voltage sag performance. As illustrated in Fig. 3.12, the solu-
tions can be discussed at the following different levels of application:
1. Protection for small loads [e.g., less than 5 kilovoltamperes (kVA)].
This usually involves protection for equipment controls or small,
individual machines. Many times, these are single-phase loads that
need to be protected.
2. Protection for individual equipment or groups of equipment up to
about 300 kVA. This usually represents applying power condition-
ing technologies within the facility for protection of critical equip-
ment that can be grouped together conveniently. Since usually not
all the loads in a facility need protection, this can be a very econom-
ical method of dealing with the critical loads, especially if the need
for protection of these loads is addressed at the facility design stage.
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3. Protection for large groups of loads or whole facilities at the low-volt-

of nominal voltage (that will result in at least 90 percent voltage on the
CVT output) versus ferroresonant transformer loading, as specified by
one manufacturer. At 25 percent of loading, the allowable voltage sag
is 30 percent of nominal, which means that the CVT will output over 90
percent normal voltage as long as the input voltage is above 30 percent.
This is important since the plant voltage rarely falls below 30 percent
of nominal during voltage sag conditions. As the loading is increased,
the corresponding ride-through capability is reduced, and when the fer-
roresonant transformer is overloaded (e.g., 150 percent loading), the
voltage will collapse to zero.
Voltage Sags and Interruptions 61
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62 Chapter Three
Figure 3.13 Examples of commercially available constant-voltage transformers (CVTs)
(www.sola-hevi-duty.com).
LINE IN
PRIMARY
WINDING
NEUTRALIZING
WINDING
COMPENSATING
WINDING
SECONDARY
WINDING
CAPACITOR
LOAD
Figure 3.14 Schematic of ferroresonant constant-voltage transformer.

Figure 3.15 Voltage sag improvement with ferroresonant transformer.
Percent Loading of Ferroresonant Transformer
Input Voltage
Minimum %
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
25 50 75 10
0
Figure 3.16 Voltage sag versus ferroresonant transformer loading.
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from saturated transformers. The waveform energy is stored in the sat-
urated transformers and capacitors as current and voltage. This
energy storage enables the output of a clean waveform with little har-
monic distortion. Finally, three-phase power is supplied through a
zigzag transformer. Figure 3.18 shows a magnetic synthesizer’s voltage
sag ride-through capability as compared to the CBEMA curve, as spec-
ified by one manufacturer.*
3.4.3 Active series compensators
Advances in power electronic technologies and new topologies for these
devices have resulted in new options for providing voltage sag ride-

the remaining voltage during a voltage sag condition. These are
referred to as active series compensation devices. They are available in
size ranges from small single-phase devices (1 to 5 kVA) to very large
devices that can be applied on the medium-voltage systems (2 MVA and
larger). Figure 3.19 is an example of a small single-phase compensator
that can be used to provide ride-through support for single-phase loads.
A one-line diagram illustrating the power electronics that are used
to achieve the compensation is shown in Fig. 3.20. When a distur-
bance to the input voltage is detected, a fast switch opens and the
power is supplied through the series-connected electronics. This cir-
cuit adds or subtracts a voltage signal to the input voltage so that the
output voltage remains within a specified tolerance during the dis-
turbance. The switch is very fast so that the disturbance seen by the
load is less than a quarter cycle in duration. This is fast enough to
avoid problems with almost all sensitive loads. The circuit can pro-
vide voltage boosting of about 50 percent, which is sufficient for
almost all voltage sag conditions.
Voltage Sags and Interruptions 65
Figure 3.19 Example of active series com-
pensator for single-phase loads up to about
5 kVA (www.softswitch.com).
H
N
LOAD
Figure 3.20 Topology illustrating the operation of the active series compensator.
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3.4.4 On-line UPS

Rectifier/
Charger
Inverter
Battery
Bank
Manual
Bypass
Line
Load
Figure 3.21 On-line UPS.
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load and momentary ride-through when the transfer from normal to
UPS supply is made.
3.4.7 Motor-generator sets
Motor-generator (M-G) sets come in a wide variety of sizes and config-
urations. This is a mature technology that is still useful for isolating
critical loads from sags and interruptions on the power system. The
concept is very simple, as illustrated in Fig. 3.24. A motor powered by
the line drives a generator that powers the load. Flywheels on the same
shaft provide greater inertia to increase ride-through time. When the
line suffers a disturbance, the inertia of the machines and the fly-
wheels maintains the power supply for several seconds. This arrange-
ment may also be used to separate sensitive loads from other classes of
disturbances such as harmonic distortion and switching transients.
While simple in concept, M-G sets have disadvantages for some types
of loads:
1. There are losses associated with the machines, although they are

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3. The frequency and voltage drop during interruptions as the machine
slows. This may not work well with some loads.
Another type of M-G set uses a special synchronous generator called
a written-pole motor that can produce a constant 60-Hz frequency as
the machine slows. It is able to supply a constant output by continually
changing the polarity of the rotor’s field poles. Thus, each revolution
can have a different number of poles than the last one. Constant out-
put is maintained as long as the rotor is spinning at speeds between
3150 and 3600 revolutions per minute (rpm). Flywheel inertia allows
the generator rotor to keep rotating at speeds above 3150 rpm once
power shuts off. The rotor weight typically generates enough inertia to
keep it spinning fast enough to produce 60 Hz for 15 s under full load.
Another means of compensating for the frequency and voltage drop
while energy is being extracted is to rectify the output of the generator
and feed it back into an inverter. This allows more energy to be
extracted, but also introduces losses and cost.
3.4.8 Flywheel energy storage systems
Motor-generator sets are only one means to exploit the energy stored in
flywheels. A modern flywheel energy system uses high-speed flywheels
and power electronics to achieve sag and interruption ride-through
from 10 s to 2 min. Figure 3.25 shows an example of a flywheel used in
energy storage systems. While M-G sets typically operate in the open
and are subject to aerodynamic friction losses, these flywheels operate
in a vacuum and employ magnetic bearings to substantially reduce
standby losses. Designs with steel rotors may spin at approximately
10,000 rpm, while those with composite rotors may spin at much higher
speeds. Since the amount of energy stored is proportional to the square
of the speed, a great amount of energy can be stored in a small space.
68 Chapter Three

(Courtesy of Active Power, Inc.)
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The SMES-based system has several advantages over battery-based
UPS systems:
1. SMES-based systems have a much smaller footprint than batteries
for the same energy storage and power delivery capability.
13
2. The stored energy can be delivered to the protected system more
quickly.
3. The SMES system has virtually unlimited discharge and charge
duty cycles. The discharge and recharge cycles can be performed
thousands of times without any degradation to the superconducting
magnet.
The recharge cycle is typically less than 90 s from full discharge.
Figure 3.26 shows the functional block diagram of a common system.
It consists of a superconducting magnet, voltage regulators, capacitor
banks, a dc-to-dc converter, dc breakers, inverter modules, sensing and
control equipment, and a series-injection transformer. The supercon-
ducting magnet is constructed of a niobium titanium (NbTi) conductor
and is cooled to approximately 4.2 kelvin (K) by liquid helium. The
cryogenic refrigeration system is based on a two-stage recondenser.
The magnet electrical leads use high-temperature superconductor
(HTS) connections to the voltage regulator and controls. The magnet
might typically store about 3 megajoules (MJ).
70 Chapter Three
~
=

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In the example system shown, energy released from the SMES
passes through a current-to-voltage converter to charge a 14-micro-
farad (mF) dc capacitor bank to 2500 Vdc. The voltage regulator keeps
the dc voltage at its nominal value and also provides protection control
to the SMES. The dc-to-dc converter reduces the dc voltage down to 750
Vdc. The inverter subsystem module consists of six single-phase
inverter bridges. Two IGBT inverter bridges rated 450 amperes (A) rms
are paralleled in each phase to provide a total rating of 900 A per phase.
The switching scheme for the inverter is based on the pulse-width
modulation (PWM) approach where the carrier signal is a sine-triangle
with a frequency of 4 kHz.
15
A typical SMES system can protect loads of up to 8 MVA for voltage
sags as low as 0.25 pu. It can provide up to 10 s of voltage sag ride-
through depending on load size. Figure 3.27 shows an example where
the grid voltage experiences a voltage sag of 0.6 pu for approximately 7
cycles. The voltage at the protected load remains virtually unchanged
at its prefault value.
3.4.10 Static transfer switches and fast
transfer switches
There are a number of alternatives for protection of an entire facility
that may be sensitive to voltage sags. These include dynamic voltage
restorers (DVRs) and UPS systems that use technology similar to the
systems described previously but applied at the medium-voltage level.
Voltage Sags and Interruptions 71
0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2 0.22 0.24 0.2
6
–1

a significant percentage of the events affecting the facility are caused by
faults on the transmission system, the fast transfer switch might have
little benefit for protection of the equipment in the facility.
3.5 Evaluating the Economics of Different
Ride-Through Alternatives
The economic evaluation procedure to find the best option for improv-
ing voltage sag performance consists of the following steps:
Primary Source
12 kV
Alternate Source
12 kV
Static Transfer Switch
Mechanical Automatic
Transfer Switch
Figure 3.28 Configuration of a static transfer switch used
to switch between a primary supply and a backup supply
in the event of a disturbance. The controls would switch
back to the primary supply after normal power is
restored.
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Voltage Sags and Interruptions 73
1. Characterize the system power quality performance.
2. Estimate the costs associated with the power quality variations.
3. Characterize the solution alternatives in terms of costs and effec-
tiveness.
4. Perform the comparative economic analysis.
We have already presented the methodology for characterizing the

Ancillary costs such as damaged equipment, lost opportunity cost,
and penalties due to shipping delays.
Focusing on these three categories will facilitate the development of a
detailed list of all costs and savings associated with a power quality dis-
turbance. One can also refer to appendix A of IEEE 1346-1998
18
for a
more detailed explanation of the factors to be considered in determin-
ing the cost of power quality disturbances.
Costs will typically vary with the severity (both magnitude and dura-
tion) of the power quality disturbance. This relationship can often be
defined by a matrix of weighting factors. The weighting factors are
developed using the cost of a momentary interruption as the base.
Usually, a momentary interruption will cause a disruption to any load
or process that is not specifically protected with some type of energy
storage technology. Voltage sags and other power quality variations will
always have an impact that is some portion of this total shutdown.
If a voltage sag to 40 percent causes 80 percent of the economic
impact that a momentary interruption causes, then the weighting fac-
tor for a 40 percent sag would be 0.8. Similarly, if a sag to 75 percent
only results in 10 percent of the costs that an interruption causes, then
the weighting factor is 0.1.
After the weighting factors are applied to an event, the costs of the
event are expressed in per unit of the cost of a momentary interruption.
The weighted events can then be summed and the total is the total cost
of all the events expressed in the number of equivalent momentary
interruptions.
Table 3.3 provides an example of weighting factors that were used for
one investigation. The weighting factors can be further expanded to dif-
ferentiate between sags that affect all three phases and sags that only

vary with the severity of the power quality disturbance. This relation-
ship can be defined by a matrix of “% sags avoided” values. Table 3.6
illustrates this concept for the example technologies from Table 3.5 as
they might apply to a typical industrial application.
3.5.3 Performing comparative economic
analysis
The process of comparing the different alternatives for improving per-
formance involves determining the total annual cost for each alterna-
Voltage Sags and Interruptions 75
TABLE 3.3 Example of Weighting Factors for Different Voltage Sag Magnitudes
Category of event Weighting for economic analysis
Interruption 1.0
Sag with minimum voltage below 50% 0.8
Sag with minimum voltage between 50% and 70% 0.4
Sag with minimum voltage between 70% and 90% 0.1
TABLE 3.4 Example of Combining the Weighting Factors with Expected Voltage
Sag Performance to Determine the Total Costs of Power Quality Variations
Weighting for Number of Total equivalent
Category of event economic analysis events per year interruptions
Interruption 1 5 5
Sag with minimum voltage
below 50% 0.8 3 2.4
Sag with minimum voltage
between 50% and 70% 0.4 15 6
Sag with minimum voltage
between 70% and 90% 0.1 35 3.5
Total 16.9
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