Second Wind - Solutions - Measure Eletrode Usage with the Phaser

Measure Electrode Usage with the Phaser^®

The Phaser^®'s ability to make sense of highly distorted, unbalanced electrical loads earns it a special place in monitoring electric arc furnaces. Phaser-based arc monitoring maximizes the efficiency of the melt and the life of the very expensive carbon electrodes at the heart of the process.

Two considerations govern electric arc furnace performance: energy costs and carbon electrode usage rates. While the properties of melt materials and furnace design affect the quality of the furnace production, the real costs of energy, process control, and electrode usage rates are easily controlled when the appropriate electrical measurements are made. The problem is, few power measurement devices are able to reliably make the necessary measurements of arc loads, which are inherently highly distorted.

Two critical examples are reactive power (VAR) and power factor (pF) measurement. Most transducers have unpredictable and/or poor VAR and pF accuracy with distorted waveforms. Their pF performance is usually only specified for nearly sinusoidal inputs; that is, where pF and cosq are virtually identical. Some of the more sophisticated (and expensive) devices can report VARs and pF for each measured harmonic and phase. However, getting them to reduce these down to two useful 3-phase control variables is problematic. Either they do so arbitrarily, (for example, by weighted algebraic overaging) or they don't attempt to combine them.

Phaser has no difficulty in the same situation. Among the 56 variables Phaser calculates every 40 milliseconds are true polyphase VARs and pF, based on vector methods that are not affected by waveform distortion or load balance. The variables are directly available as fast analog outputs for PLC-based furnace control, or serial data (RS232, isolated RS485, or fiber) for PC-based process supervision. A digital connection also gives ready access to Phaser's complement of metering data, which includes vector-processed energy information.


	Remote Wind Data Collection
	Power Performance Testing
	Integrating Met Data into Windfarm SCADA
	Autopilot Windfarm Control
	Forecasting Windfarm Production
	Windfarm Substation Monitoring
	Windfarm FAA Lights Monitoring
	Windfarm Output Curtailment
	Turbine Control and Monitoring with the Phaser
	Paralleling Transformers with the Phaser
	Measure Electrode Usage with the Phaser
	Translate Legacy Protocol with the Phaser
	Encoderless Tap Position Reporting


	Phaser Measures Electrode Usage (pdf)