Abstract
During the short duration from fault inception to fault clearing in electric power systems, large fault currents will be injected from the power sources to the fault location which causes significant voltage drop at the substation busbars and subsequently effects customers in the electrical neighborhood. The durations of these voltage drops are usually only a few cycles as such they are also commonly referred to as "voltage dips". In Taiwan's Hsinchu Science Based Industrial Park (Hsinchu SBIP) area, voltage dips have caused many semiconductor plants' wafer processing tools to trip. When this occurs, the normal production in these semiconductor plants are interrupted. Furthermore, the tripped tools also usually require an additional recover period of more than 10 hours after sustaining a voltage dip thus costing hundreds of millions of dollars for these semiconductor plants. As such, voltage dip problems must be properly addressed in the Hsinchu SBIP area. The purposes of this thesis are to present calculation methodologies and to propose solutions for the voltage dip problems in the SBIP area. A simulation tool combining standard simulation package (ASPEN) and self-developed, VB-based, programs are first developed in this thesis for fast calculation of voltage dips. After the simulation tool is developed, interfacing programs which connects the simulation tool to external programs such as Central Weather Bureau's Lightning Prediction System and Taipower's Distribution GIS System are then developed. Based on Taipower's experiences, lightning is the most frequent cause of voltage dips in the SBIP area. By interfacing the simulation tool to these external programs, effects of possible lightning strike can be simulated in advance quickly and the simulation results be forwarded to the semiconductor plants in real time. The semiconductor plants can then based on the simulation results determine whether the standby power generators should be started to offset any possible voltage dips thus solving the voltage dip problem in SBIP. For ease of future maintenance, all system parameters are stored in an easily manageable central database.