IEEE Power Engineering Society

Of all power quality issues, voltage sags and short interruptions are considered to be the main cause of more than 80% of the problems experienced by sensitive equipment. Customers normally suffer from the effect of the induction-motor and supply-system interaction, and utilities can experience significant loss of load. The motor undervoltage protection could trip the motor contactor if the supply voltage stays too low for a long time. New power quality requirements have an important effect on the motor system interaction, for example, the increasingly popular motor fast reconnection to the same source or to an alternative source. The load characteristics during the reconnection instant are also critical for the motor behavior, since it is possible that the motor would stall and not start when the supply voltage is restored. This article documents an experimental study that is the first part of an extensive project with the goal of developing a simple tool for the study of induction motor behavior and system effects under short interruption and voltage sag conditions.