Decision Theory Process for Making a Mitigation Decision on Harmonic Resonance

A three-stage process for making a harmonic resonance mitigation decision in an end-user power plant is developed. Two new indices are developed to assist in making the decision. The first index assesses the severity of resonance and the second is used to make a mitigation decision. In Stage 1, a quantitative model is developed to structure and represent the decision problem with the harmonic resonance severity index as the objective function. In Stage 2, “Utility Theory” is used as the decision criterion to select the most desirable capacitor size. In Stage 3, the mitigation index is applied to assess whether mitigation is needed or not for the chosen capacitor. A case study, based on a model made up of three end-users is conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of this new process.