Reactive power definitions and optimal compensation in electric arc furnace steel plant

There are several definitions for reactive power in non sinusoidal networks. However, there is still no unique definition that is accepted by the electrical communities. In this study seven of the most common power decompositions, are simulated and compared in AC electric arc furnace (EAF) plants. For this purpose a large amount of data was collected for a considerable number of melting processes, including currents and voltages of eight ac EAFs installed in Mobarakeh steel company (MSC), Isfahan, Iran. The reactive power definitions are compared to each other utilizing different methods and some statistic indices. By calculating the average of each definition over all recorded data the definitions that are beneficial to customers and those that are beneficial to the utilities are obtained. The problem encountered here is that the ideal definition for reactive power is unknown and there is no criterion to evaluate and compare the different definitions. So here the mean of the seven most common definitions is considered as the criterion and the distances of various definitions from it are calculated. Also, the capacitance that completely compensates the EAF reactive power is calculated according to each of the discussed definitions.