A Study on the Tolerance Band of Voltage Drop during Motor Startup for Refineries and Chemical Plants with Isolated Power Systems

Refineries and chemical plants with isolated power systems that have a limited power supply are more susceptible to voltage changes from disturbances compared to power systems connected with a power company. Furthermore, most loads in such cases are induction motor loads, and therefore, transient voltage characteristics when starting a high-capacity motor must be examined. In general, high-capacity motors are customized appropriately to the load performance curve by the manufacturer during the construction of an industrial plant. Subsequently, when complying with the voltage drop permitted by international standards during the design process, power supply equipment such as transformers and generators is overdesigned. Therefore, a novel analysis is necessary on standards for startup and constraint voltage drops, as well as on identifying the voltage drop limitations for starting high-capacity motors in refineries and chemical plants with isolated power systems. In this study, field tests on an industrial plant were conducted, and simulations modeled under conditions identical to those of the field test system were performed using the general-purpose program ETAP in order to compare the results.