The performance of sensitive equipment to voltage dips from field measurements

Contactors and adjustable speed drives (ASDs) are power devices that are commonly used in many industrial processes. A contactor is used for switching and/or protection while an ASD is used for process control. These power devices are vulnerable to voltage dips that can disrupt the whole process, and cause huge economic losses. The economic loss of a process depends on the number of process interruptions and the cost per process interruption. This paper discusses the performances of the two devices, whose sensitivity are experimentally tested for different types of voltage dips, to statistical data set of voltage dips monitored in the Dutch distribution networks. In the analysis, the transfer of voltage dips from the MV to the LV network is taken into consideration. This approach can help to get insight into the economic loss of industrial plants and the setting of limits for voltage dips in the distribution network.