Operational experience with a superconducting magnetic energy storage device at Owens Corning Vinyl Operations, Fair Bluff, North Carolina

This paper presents the operational and power quality monitoring results for 21 months operating experience of a superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) device used to mitigate power quality disturbances at the Owens Coming Vinyl Operations in Fair Bluff, North Carolina, USA, a vinyl siding manufacturer. The SMES unit at Owens Coming provides sag and momentary interruption ride-through for the plant´s extrusion lines. Prior to SMES installation, power disturbances caused frequent production interrupts, which resulted in extensive extrusion line cleanup and contributed to other maintenance problems. Two SMES units have provided 233 carry-overs as of March 2, 1999. The recorded power disturbance data corroborates previously published power quality data indicating that the overwhelming majority of voltage sag and interruption power quality disturbances were less than two seconds in duration