The impact of electric arc furnaces on voltage fluctuations in the steelworks power supply line
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24136/jaeee.2026.004Keywords:
electric arc furnace, power quality, voltage disturbances, flicker of lights, SVCAbstract
The electric arc of a three-phase AC furnace is used as an energy source for melting scrap metal. The nonlinear nature of the electric arc directly affects voltage quality. This article presents an analysis of voltage variations recorded simultaneously at six points in the arc furnace power supply network. Results from model-based studies using a new electric arc model are also presented. The model was developed based on measurements of power-quality indicators in the power supply network for arc furnaces. The effectiveness of the SVC system in reducing disturbances generated by arc devices was analyzed.
References
Grünbaum R., Ekström P., Hellström A.A. (2013) “The EAF, rated at 300 MVA, is among the largest installed in a steel plant in the world”, 4th International Conference on Power Engineering, Energy and Electrical Drives, Istanbul, Turkey, 13-17 May 2013, ISBN:978-1-4673-6392-1
Abel M., Hein M., (2008) “The breakthrough for 320 t tapping weight”, MPT International, No 4
Best Company, Company Catalogue, Available online: https://www.besttransformer.com/en/ products/special-transformers (accessed on 22 March 2026)
GE Verova, Grid Solutions, Electrical Arc Furnace Power Transformers, GEA-N50093, 2025, Available online: https://www.gevernova.com/grid-solutions/sites/default/files/2025-09/Arc-Furnace-Power-Transformers-brochure-EN-N50093-Hybrid-202504-R001.pdf, (accessed on 22 March 2026)
Seker M., Ünsal E., Aksoz A., Dursun M. (2025) “A Novel Voltage–Current Characteristic Model for Understanding of Electric Arc Furnace Behavior Using Experimental Data and Grey Wolf Optimization Algorithm”, Appl. Sci. 15, 4005, 2025, https://doi.org/10.3390/app15074005
Kanálik M., Margitová A., Bena L., Kanáliková A. (2021) “Power System Impedance Estimation Using a Fast Voltage and Current Changes Measurements”, Energies, 14, 63, https://doi.org/10.3390/app15074005
IEEE Power Engineering Society, (2004) “IEEE Recommended Practice for Measurement and Limits of Voltage Fluctuations and Associated Light Flicker on AC Power Systems”, IEEE Std. 1453™, ISBN 0-7381-4483-5 SS95274
Akinyemi A.S. (2019) “Impact of Renewable Energy Generation on Voltage Flicker with Dynamic Load Connected to Distribution Network”, International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Vol. 14, No 14 pp. 3137-3145
Şeker M., Memmedov A. (2014) “Investigation of Voltage Quality in Electric Arc Furnace with Matlab/Simulink”, International Journal of Engineering and Technical Research, Vol. 2, ISSN: 2321-0869,
Mali N.L., Kalkhambkar V.N., Shete A. (2018) “Power Quality Enhancement in Arc Furnace Environment”, Proceedings of 4th RIT Post Graduates Conference, JournalNX- A Multidisciplinary Peer Reviewed Journal (ISSN No:2581-4230)
Hernández A., Mayordomo J.G. (2005) “A Method Based on Interharmonics for Flicker Propagation Applied to Arc Furnaces”, IEEET ransactions On Power Delivery, Vol. 20, No. 3
Daniele Gallo D., Landi G., Pasquino N. (2008) “An instrument for objective measurement of light flicker”, Measurement, No 41, (334–340)
Azimi M., Kolagar A. D., Kiyoumarsi A. (2013) “Voltage Flicker Severity Improvement in a Power Distribution System Including Electric Arc Furnaces”, C I R E D 22nd International Conference on Electricity Distribution Stockholm, 10-13 June
Singh A., Singh R.K., Singh A.K. (2017) “Power Quality Issues of Electric Arc Furnace and their Mitigations - a Review”. Int. J. Adv. Eng. Res. Sci. (IJAERS) 2017, 4, 237114
Akkaya S., Salor O. (2019) “Enhanced spectral decomposition method for light flicker evaluation of incandescent lamps caused by electric arc furnaces”. J. Fac. Eng. Archit. Gazi Univ., 34, 87–1005
Jin Y., Wang J., Liu Y., Sai X., Ji Y. (2019) “Analysis of unbalanced clustered voltage and control strategy of clustered voltage balancing for cascaded H-bridge STATCOM”. J. Mod. Power Syst. Clean Energy 2019, 7, 1697–1708
Samet H., Golshan M.E.H. (2012) “A wide nonlinear analysis of reactive power time series related to electric arc furnaces”. Electr. Power Energy Syst. 36, 127–134
Yakimov I.A., Maklakov A.S., Voronin S.S., Maklakova E.A. (2017) “Results of modeling operation of the high-speed regulator of non-contact secondary voltage of furnace transformer of the high-power arc steel furnace”. Procedia Eng. 206, 1853–1860
Lozynskyi O.Y., Lozynskyi A.O., Paranchuk Y.S., Paranchuk R.Y. (2019) “Synthesis and analysis of arc furnace electrical mode control system on the basis of three-dimensional phase currents vector distribution”. Electr. Eng. Electromech, No 4, 26–34
Olczykowski Z., (2021) “Electric Arc Furnaces as a Cause of Current and Voltage Asymmetry”, Energies, 14(16), 5058; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14165058
Jebaraj B.S., Bennet J., Kannadasan R., Alsharif M.A, Kim N. K., Aly A.A., Ahmed M. H.; (2021) “Power Quality Enhancement in Electric Arc Furnace Using Matrix Converter and Static VAR Compensator”, Electronics, 10, 1125, https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10091125
Xu H., Zhenguo Shao Z., Chen F., (2019) “Data-Driven Compartmental Modeling Method for Harmonic Analysis—A Study of the Electric Arc Furnace”, Energies, 12, 4378, 1-16
Lange A.G., Redlarski G., (2020) “Selection of C-Type Filters for Reactive Power Compensation and Filtration of Higher Harmonics Injected into the Transmission System by Arc Furnaces”, Energies, 13, 2330
Durna E., Gerçek C. O., Salor O., Ermi ¸M.; (2019) “Suppression of the Second Harmonic Subgroup Injected by an AC EAF: Design Considerations and Performance Estimation of a Shunt APF”, Energies, 12, 4378; doi:10.3390/en12224378
Brociek W., Grzywacz T., Wilanowicz, R. (2017) “Propagation of higher harmonics of voltage and current in the power system at changing location of nonlinear load”, 18th International Conference on Computational Problems of Electrical Engineering (CPEE), Kutna Hora, Czech Republic
Olczykowski Z., (2022) “Arc Voltage Distortion as a Source of Higher Harmonics Generated by Electric Arc Furnaces”, Energies, 15(10), 3628; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15103628
Regulation of the Minister of Climate and Environment of 22 March 2023 on Detailed Conditions for the Operation of the Power System, 2023, Available online: https://isap.sejm.gov.pl/isap.nsf/download.xsp/WDU20230000819/O/D20230819.pdf (accessed on 29 September 2025). (In Polish)
PN‐EN 50160: 2023‐10; Parameters of the Supply Voltage in the Public Power Net-works. Polish Committee of Standardization: Warsaw, Poland. 2023. Available online: https://sklep.pkn.pl/pn-en-50160-2023-10e.html (accessed on 29 September 2025).
Kiyoumarsi A., Ataei M., Hooshmand R., Kolagar A.D., (2010) “Electric Arc Furnace Voltage Flicker Mitigation by Applying a Predictive Method with Closed Loop Control of the TCR/FC Compensator”, Journal of Electrical Engineering&Technology, Vol. 5, No. 1, 116–128 DOI:10.5370/JEET.2010.5.1.116
Jin Y., Wang J. Liu Y., Sai X., Ji Y., (2019) “Analysis of unbalanced clustered voltage and control strategy of clustered voltage balancing for cascaded H-bridge STATCOM”. J. Mod. Power Syst. Clean Energy, 7, 1697–1708, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40565-019-0520-y
Samet H., Golshan M.E.H., (2012) “A wide nonlinear analysis of reactive power time series related to electric arc furnaces”. Electr. Power Energy Syst. 36, 127–134, DOI:10.1016/j.ijepes.2011.10.033
Yakimov I.A., Maklakov A.S., Voronin S.S., Maklakova E. A., (2017) “Results of modeling operation of the highspeed regulator of non-contact secondary voltage of furnace transformer of the high-power arc steel furnace”. Procedia Eng. 206, 1853–1860, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.10.725
García-Cerrada A., García-González P., Collantes R., Gómez T., Anzola J., (2000) “Comparison of Thyristor-Controlled Reactors and Voltage-Source Inverters for Compensation of Flicker Caused by Arc Furnaces”, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol. 15, No. 4, 1223–1231, DOI:10.1109/61.891507
Shojaei F., Samet H., (2022) “Electric Arc Furnaces Reactive Power Optimized Calculation Used in SVC”, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 69, No. 6
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Journal of Automation, Electronics and Electrical Engineering

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

