MOTOR REACCELERATION TO IMPROVE PROCESS UPTIME
Copyright Material IEEE
Paper No. PCIC-
Lubomir Sevov, PE Dave Allcock
IEEE Senior Member IEEE Member
GE DE Multilin GE DE Multilin
Markham, ON L6E 1B3 Markham, ON L6E 1B3
Canada Canada
lubomir.sevov@ge.com dave.allcock@ge.com
Abstract – Reacceleration is a method of automatically
restarting motors after unexpected de-acceleration caused by
system voltage events, such as, dips, outages, or bus
transfers. Reacceleration schemes are designed to minimize
process disruptions by rapid detection of supply loss,
recovery/ monitoring of acceptable transient torque limits, and
then automatic reclosure of the motor contactors.
Depending on the connected load and minimum available
fault current, the reacceleration may be ‘instantaneous’ or a
staged event designed to assure the bus voltage is maintained
at an acceptable level during the process restart. Poor
coordination of the reacceleration process may cause further
system outages if the nominal bus voltage drops below
tolerable levels.
Special consideration is required to prioritize loads, to
maintain production, prevent lifting of safety valves, and avert
equipment damage.
Various processes differ in their ability to withstand
temporary outages, from milliseconds (ms) to several
seconds. Today’s protection and control Intelligent Electronic
Devices (IED) provide settings, dedicated measurement, and
timing circuits, to allow these variances to be pre-programmed
and activated based on outage duration and magnitude.
Short time outages within milliseconds range combined with
electrically held contactors, provide the least complex
situations for enabling a reacceleration system. More complex
situations arise when motors are still decelerating, and when
the supply is restored, especially if the contactors were
maintained closed during the outage.
Certain more advanced IEDs also provide multiple
reacceleration schemes that are automatically deployed based
on longer outages – typically up to 30 minutes.
Index Terms - reacceleration, under voltage auto restart,
step reacceleration, motor torque, process time constant,
residual voltage
I. INTRODUCTION
A. “Motor Reacceleration and system benefits”
Modern petrochemical facilities are predominantly designed
around electric motors for process drives. These “all electric”
designs place greater burdens on the electrical system ride
through capability when compared with older plant designs
1
Ray Luna Jim Bowen, PE
IEEE Member IEEE Fellow
GE DE Multilin Aramco Services Company
4418 Canonsburg 9009 West Loop South
League City, TX 77573 Houston, Texas 77096
USA USA
ray.luna@ge.com jim.bowen@aramcoservices.com
that also used steam turbines, to maintain essential services
such as instrument air and boiler feed-water.
Reacceleration can be applied to all types of substation
designs to assist in recovery from severe voltage dips. A
common industrial application for medium voltage and low
voltage systems is the secondary selective substation. The
secondary selective system transfers motor load bus from a
normal source (bus A) to an alternate source (bus B) when the
normal source is lost. This is accomplished by isolating the
motor bus until the residual voltage of the motor bus has
decayed to a safe level. The allowable residual voltage and
the resultant worst case transient torque are recommended in
the IEEE Guide for AC Motor Protection [6].
Once the residual voltage decays to the allowable 20%-
25% of the initial level, the load bus is reenergized utilizing the
tie-breaker. In the past, to assure continuous process
operation after low or no voltage conditions, group motor
reacceleration was implemented to automatically restart
previously online motors. When electrical faults and outages
make a transfer necessary, reacceleration systems can be
applied to maintain process continuity. The time constant of
the process unit must be sufficient to allow reacceleration of
the motor loads to occur while maintaining process control.
B. Issues Associated with Reacceleration of Motors
Modern relaying systems are available for high speed
synchronous reclosure of the tie-breaker. If the tie-breaker is
successfully closed quickly enough in synchronism with the
residual voltage, the motor contactors and breakers may not
open, and the motors may not need to be reaccelerated.
However, if the voltage collapses quickly, to very low levels,
the high-speed bus transfer mechanism may not be able to
transfer. In such cases, the bus transfer falls back on residual
transfer. One measure of a system's transient performance is
its ability to reaccelerate groups of motors when voltage is
restored after a system voltage loss or disturbance thus
maintaining process integrity. These abnormal voltage
conditions may be caused by short circuits, either in the plant,
the utility system, or by the loss of a generating unit or utility
tie connection.
During voltage losses or disturbances, running induction
motors will incur a reduction in torque output, due to the low
voltage conditions. The driven equipment torque requirement
exerts a deceleration effect causing an increase in motor slip
and a decrease in operating speed.
 When healthy voltage is restored to the motor terminals, the
corresponding motor torque must be sufficient to meet the
load torque requirements at that instant in time, and have
additional torque margin to provide accelerating torque until
the motors reach normal operating speed.
If the restored voltage is insufficient to provide the required
torque, the motors will fail to accelerate, and either will remain
at one speed, or continue to slow down until tripped by the
motors’ protective devices. At approximately 90 percent of
rated speed and lower, the typical motor draws almost full
starting current.
During the automatic transfer of a secondary selective
substation, after voltage is restored to the isolated load bus by
the transfer operation, all critical motors that were operating
before the transfer must reaccelerate to maintain process
continuity. Further, the voltage drop caused by the
reacceleration must not be so great as to upset the running
motors fed from the restoring bus.
Computer modeling of the dynamic motor starting can be
used to determine the power system's ability for motor starting
and reacceleration. If the system supplies a single large
motor, with a rating of approximately 25% or greater than the
minimum generator operating KVA, the dynamic model
simulations of the motor starting must be performed early in
the design. The simulations should check the adequacy of the
system for minimum short circuit current configuration, to start
the motor and reaccelerate the motor under worst case
loading conditions. Since definitive data is often not available
on most low voltage motors in the early stage of the project, a
simplified system representation of lumped loads in staged
reacceleration can be used to set-up the reacceleration steps.
C. Criteria for Successful Motor Reacceleration
The design criteria typically used for successful re-
acceleration aims to maintain the initial voltage of the motor
bus at roughly 80% of the bus rated voltage. This should
insure that voltage at the motor terminals is at least 75% of the
motor nameplate voltage. The 75% voltage is sufficient for
reaccelerating normal inertia loads, such as pumps, when
motors have at least 100% starting and 200% maximum
torques. High inertia loads, such as fans, compressors or
motors requiring higher terminal voltage, need special
attention during the design and need be flagged for specific
checks.
II. WHAT IS RESIDUAL VOLTAGE AND WHY DO WE HAVE
TO WORRY ABOUT MOTOR STARTING?
NEMA MG1 Section 1 defines the unusual service
conditions for the motors, such as bus transfer or reclosing.
This standard defines a slow transfer as one in which the time
between disconnection and reclosing is 1.5 times the open
circuit time constant of the machine. By waiting until 1.5 times
the open circuit time constant, before transferring a motor,
possible damage to the motor and driven equipment is limited.
See Fig. 1.
During a fast transfer and/or reclose in a period less the
open circuit time constant interval, the closing should be
synchronized to occur when the difference between the motor
residual voltage and the frequency, and the voltage and
2
frequency from the newly connected system, will not result in
damaging transient torques.
Vb
100
% ter m in al vo lta ge
To - open circuit time constant
61
37
safe level
20
0
0 0.5 1 1.6
t / To
Fig. 1 Open circuit time constant determines the decay of
terminal voltage with time
The trapped energy in the inertia and the magnetic field of
the spinning motor loads from a bus disconnected from the
power supply, results in residual voltage on the motor
terminals. If the motor contactors have not dropped out, there
is a net effect on the residual bus voltage. This voltage will
continue to do work on the other loads of the isolated motor
bus. The magnitude and frequency of the motor’s residual
voltage, decreases as the group of rotating motors spin down.
But, the reduction in RPM of the motor is not the same as the
coast down of an uncoupled motor. The frequency decay is a
function of the normal losses, and the shaft speed is a function
of the process load, friction, winding, and the regenerative
braking effects of the voltage from the other loads. The
magnitude of the residual voltage falls with the exponential
decay in rotor flux, and is a function of the load inertia. See
Fig. 2 for an example of the open circuit collapse of a 6,000
HP induced draft fan.
Once the system is isolated from the power supply, the
various motors will each have a different time constant. Until
the individual contactors and circuit breakers open, isolating
the motors, the ones with shorter time constants and faster
drops in shaft speeds will continue to be “motor” driven by the
reverse power from the motors with longer time constants,
higher inertias, or lighter loads that are operating as induction
generators. There will be one bus voltage and one bus
frequency throughout the collapse. This residual voltage is
the source of “induction motor contribution to fault current”
used in short circuit calculations. A fault on the system
constitutes a severe load, which dissipates the stored energy
in the isolated system in a very few cycles.
A. The Nature of Residual Voltage
The open circuit time constant used in analyzing the time
delay requirement before reapplying voltage from the alternate
source is determined by the motor model. The definition of
open circuit time constant is the time in seconds for a motor’s
terminal voltage, to decay of 36.8% of its initial value, after
being isolated from the source. The value is found by dividing
the motor inductive reactance by the rotor resistance. The
equivalent motor model from Fig. 3 below shows the motor
reactance and resistance at rated speeds in Ω per phase. The
circuit is shown in per-phase, and is valid for balanced voltage
Vt  Ve  t T0 (2)
analysis. where,
100 0 Vt Voltage at motor terminals
V Voltage before power loss
80 PHASE - 72
V o l ta g e M ag n it u d e ( %)

T0 Open circuit time constant, (s)

Ph a se ( de gr ee s)
t Time after open circuit
60 - 144
VOLTAGE
MAGNITUDE
B. Residual Bus Voltage and Transient Torque
40 - 216
In the secondary selective system, the de-energized bus
voltage decrement is a function of the connected motors'
20 - 288 open-circuit time constants and the isolated system
impedance once the incoming breaker is opened. As motor
internal voltage decays in magnitude, it also changes in
0 - 360 frequency.
10 10 20 30 40 50 60 Equation (3) represents an induction motor voltage and
T im e ( cyc les )
torque relationship, and provides the approximation ∆%
Fig. 2 Phase angle and residual voltage decay of a large Torque = (∆% Voltage)2.
motor with high inertia load
Rr/s
%Torque  V 2 (3)
 X s  X r   Rs  Rr / s 
2 2
 1/ 2

Rs
Fig. 3 Motor model schematic
where,
Rs = hot stator resistance
Xs = stator leakage reactance
XM = magnetizing reactance
Xr = rotor leakage reactance, referred to stator
Rr = hot rotor resistance, referred to the stator
s = Slip
f = frequency
This model is defined by the design of the motor. The motor
open circuit time constant, at any given time, is given by the
following equation:
To
At any fixed point in time, the magnetizing reactance has a
larger impact on the motor flux density than on the rotor
leakage reactance, and thus, on the open circuit time
constant. Therefore, the model can be simplified using only
the magnetizing reactance and rotor resistance.
As stated above, when the line voltage is removed from a
motor, its terminal voltage does not instantaneously drop to
zero. After the motor is isolated from the system voltage, the
flux remains entrapped and the voltage continues to appear at
the motor open circuited terminals. To ascertain what the
instantaneous motor terminal voltage is, at a given t seconds
time after isolation, the open circuit time constant is used, as
seen in Fig 1, according to (2).
Xs Xr
If the feeder breaker opens, the tie-breaker closes in-
Xm Rr/ s phase, and the motor internal voltage is 30% of the bus
voltage rating, the ∆% voltage is 70%. Squaring 70% results
in 49% starting torque.
Consider 30% residual voltage magnitude and 180º out-of-
phase with the system voltage, on the healthy side of the tie-
breaker. The resultant voltage would be 130%V with a
reacceleration torque of 170% (130% squared) of normal
starting torque. With 50% residual voltage, and 180 out-of-
phases with the system voltage on the healthy side of the tie-
breaker, the resultant voltage would be 150% and the
reacceleration torque would be 225% of rated starting torque
results. From (2), it can be seen that the transient torque
magnitude may range from 2 to 20 times the rated torque.
This indicates the importance of reviewing the motor open-
circuit time constant, and the need for residual under-voltage
27R detection.
Xm  Xr III. HOW ARE CONTACTORS AND BREAKERS AFFECTED
= (1) BY THE BUS UNDERVOLTAGE?
2fRr
Today’s petrochemical projects consist of motors fed by soft
starts; variable speed drives; manual, magnetically held
starters and smart magnetic starters; medium voltage (MV),
magnetically held DC contactors; MV latched contactors; and
circuit breakers. Each of these devices behaves quite
differently when a voltage dips and an outage is experienced.
In some cases, the internal smart starter of the unit may be
counter productive to the step reacceleration.
Manual low voltage (LV) magnetically held motor starters
will dropout, as the bus voltage runs down, to the point at
which the starter control power transformer (CPT) secondary
voltage dips below the dropout voltage. Normally, this number
is in the range of 60% to 70% of rated control voltage. There
is also a small time delay that is a function of the

3
manufacture’s starter design, and the stray capacitance and
resistance of the control circuit.
In the case of smart magnetic starters, this dropout voltage
and the time delay may be programmable, depending on the
features of the starter package. Once the bus voltage is back
up to 95%, after the tie-breaker has closed and reenergized all
the individual CPTs, most smart starters will automatically go
through the power-up checks required on start-up after de-
energization. However, it should be confirmed with the
manufacturer, that the smart starter does not require zero
volts to initiate restart.
The dropout voltage of the MV magnetically held contactors,
typically used for MV motors in the petrochemical industry,
have a nameplate dropout rating of 60% to 68% of the coil
voltage. It is important to understand coil voltage dropout. As
discussed above, the dropout voltage becomes a function of
the residual voltage generated by the open circuit time
constant of the motor bus. In many cases, these contactors
have time delayed under-voltage (TDUV) releases, built into
the onboard intelligence to ride through the voltage dips.
These under-voltage releases can be programmed to ride
through a certain level of line voltage for a set period of time.
It is normally recommended that these units be set to dropout,
if the bus voltage drops below 80% for 500 ms. In addition,
the contactor has a normal dropout time that is in the order of
250 ms for control functions. The normal dropout delay can
also be adjustable in the more advanced contactors. It is
important to understand how the specific manufacture’s TDUV
is designed. In some cases, this results in the trip signal, or
an open command being in place for the period of time of the
TDUV, before the contactor drops out, consequently de-
energizing the load. With this number being adjustable out to
2 seconds, a significant impact of arc flash hazards and
equipment damage may ensue.
Large motors are often fed by circuit breakers. This can be
the case for any motor size of 2,500 HP and above. Most
corporations have a breakpoint where the motor differentials
are required as a part of the standard protection. The low
interrupting rating of an MV contactor forces this size motor to
be fed by a circuit breaker. Otherwise tripping delays must be
inserted in the trip circuit for the contactor, to assure the MV
fuses clear all faults above the interrupting rating of the
contactor. This delay normally allows the fault to damage the
magnetic steel of the motor, resulting in a much longer and
more costly repair. Most petrochemical installations use DC
tripping so that voltage is available to open the breaker via the
27M. Nevertheless, some facilities still use AC trip and close.
The AC power may be fed from anywhere in the system,
although typically, there is a CPT on the incomer to power a
distribution panel. In these cases the breaker relies on a
capacitor trip unit to supply power for tripping power on loss of
control voltage. Typically the circuit breaker must be tripped in
less than a second, on loss of AC, to ensure there is sufficient
charge in the capacitor trip unit to open the circuit breaker.
In a few MV cases, latched contactors are used to feed
motors. The latched contactors behave similar to a circuit
breaker. A latched contactor does not dropout like a normal
motor starter. Instead, it must be tripped by energizing the
tripping coil. Commonly, the latched contactor is fed from an
onboard CPT, and must be treated like a circuit breaker with
an AC tripping circuit.
4
In the case of variable speed drives and soft starts, both
have ride through capability to a significantly lower voltage
than the magnetically held contactor through the pre-charge
setting. Special care must be used in establishing how the
drive will respond after voltage is restored, and each drive
manufacturer has different schemes for protecting the drive
while allowing a start.
Each of these motor controllers have to be evaluated
separately, with the selected manufacturer, to understand the
programming required to assure the motor does not dropout,
due to the under-voltage caused while a close in fault is being
cleared. It is critical to the success of any reacceleration
scheme that the effect of residual voltage drop to 25%, without
passing through a zero, and the ability of the hardware to
reaccelerate under this condition, be discussed with the
equipment manufacturer.
IV. METHODS OF REACCELERATION
Group reacceleration relies on contactor dropout to de-
energize online motors.
The motor under-voltage relay (27M), is used to trip feeder
circuit breakers powering motors while contactor fed medium
voltage motors in the past relied on an RC circuit to maintain
the contactor in the closed state, upon loss of voltage.
Then, based on the actual bus voltage and fixed delay
timers, previously online loads are reaccelerated in defined
groups. Reaccelerating motor groups are selected to maintain
adequate bus voltage for motor re-starting torque and
contactor “hold-in” voltage. Load priority considerations are
required to prevent equipment damage, prohibit safety valves
from operating, and maintain “on spec” process production.
Although many processes typically can be restarted, the
process time constant is generally limited. Generally, if
voltage is not restored within 5 to 15 seconds, reacceleration
is aborted. The chance of a safe process restart and the
capabilities of the electrical system, establish the acceptable
time interval. The total time period required to reaccelerate all
priority loads may require several minutes. As Fig. 4
indicates, loads must be prioritized and restarted, only after
voltage recovers from the initial event, and from the dip
associated with restarting subsequent groups of motors.
Voltage must be adequate during all motor group restarting
periods.
Depending on the fault location, and the fault clearance
time, the time duration of the voltage dips may vary from some
50-100 ms to 1 second. Due to the relatively high impedance
of the utility transformers, and the voltage support of the on-
site generators at MV levels, the voltage dips caused by utility-
side faults cleared within 400-450 ms will cause only the LV
contactors to dropout. The voltage dips at the MV buses
during such faults does not cause the MV contactors to
dropout or the under-voltage relay to trip the breaker fed
motors.
The worst case requiring full, “large scale” reacceleration
process, is caused by MV faults, where the voltage on all
distribution buses collapse below the 65% of their nominal
voltage levels for longer than 50 ms, and all motor fed
contactors and breakers trip. In such cases, a dynamic
reacceleration process based on accurate process simulation
must be performed. As stated, to assure successful
reacceleration, the motors and loads must be grouped by
priority and importance within the overall process in the plant,
and studied in terms of how low the bus voltage would go
through the dynamics of the reacceleration. In general, during
the step reacceleration, the voltage dip caused by the
individual acceleration of a motor, or a group of motors, must
not decay to 65% or below and cross the contactors to
dropout again.
Bus Volts
Motor locked rotor
current (typical 5)
t3
t1
Fig. 4 Step reacceleration
Fig. 4 shows step reacceleration of five groups of motors,
with the groups of motors connected to Bus A, and a like
group of motors already operating off of another bus. Each of
the two buses is part of a separate, Main-Tie-Main
arrangement; where upon, the loss of a power supply to Bus A
is re-energized by the closing of the tie-breaker after residual
voltage decay and allowing the step reacceleration to function.
The t1 and t5 from the figure shows the instant of time at
which each group of motors are switched for reacceleration,
and the voltage dips at the bus to which they are connected
along with the resulting locked rotor current of starting the
loads. The resulting voltage dips the same on both buses,
thus effecting the motors connected on the other bus. It is
critical for the power engineer to perform motor reacceleration
studies for all motors, groups of motors, and loads connected
to the buses in the same proximity (supplied by the same
utility sources), to optimize the reacceleration sequence, and
decrease the severity of voltage dips.
Perhaps the most frequently misunderstood part of
reacceleration is the role of the bus residual voltage relay.
This relay limits the impact of transient torque. The following
case study illustrates the importance of this transient torque.
The facility had a 15kV system that depended on secondary
relays to monitor bus voltage and control the system
automatic transfer. During normal operation of the plant, an
outage occurred that required an automatic transfer of the
substation. The substation transferred without incident in the
middle of the night - - however, the mechanical 27R had
malfunctioned and allowed the tie to immediately close rather
than waiting for the residual voltage to decay.
About a month after the transfer, we had a motor failure that
originated in the shaft of the motor. The motor was a 1,250
HP 3,600 RPM induction motor with sleeve bearings. The
pump was an ethylene product pump, and as such, a rather
important load in an ethylene plant that was in step zero of the
reacceleration scheme. As noted later in the paper, step zero
means that those contactors stayed in-service as the tie-
breaker closed, thus allowing these motors to be the first to
5
reaccelerate. In the process of doing a failure analysis, the
machinery engineers decided that a thrust load resulted in the
failure of the shaft, due to an unusual electrical displacement
of the magnetic center of the motor. After all, they observed
motor shafts on uncoupled motors, bouncing back and forth
between the side walls when the motors run uncoupled to the
loads. This particular motor shaft had a shoulder designed
into the motor. The shoulder permitted the motor shaft to
move back and forth about 0.5“, before the step in the shaft
would touch the matching face of the bearing housing. The
pump had a large thrust bearing. The thrust bearing and the
alignment distance of the pump shaft coupling and motor
shaft, assured the motor would run in magnetic center.
A month or so later, during normal maintenance of another
motor, which happened to be fed by the same substation bus
as the failed motor, it was discovered that the shim pack set in
the gap between the motor coupling face and the pump
coupling face was shattered. The pieces of the shim pack
realigned themselves, so that the coupling was pushing the
motor shaft into the motor. When the motor was dismantled in
the shop, it was found that the motor face between the bearing
casing and the step in the shaft was badly damage. Evidently,
this appears to be the cause of the previous failure, and also,
the likely cause of the shim pack damage. When that process
unit came down, all the shim packs on similar couplings, were
replaced. A year later, during substation relay checks, it was
discovered that the 27R relay was permanently dropped out,
which permitted transfers at any residual voltage on the bus.
This meant that when the transfer occurred, it subjected all of
the motors to severe transient torques. The transient torque
played major part in the failure of the shim packs in the
couplings.
V. COORDINATION BETWEEN DETECTION OF LOSS OF
VOLTAGE AND MOTOR CONTACTOR DROPOUT
The following is a list of potential issues associated with
setting up reacceleration:
 If the contactor drops out before the relay senses the
voltage dip, the relay may assume the motor was
stopped by operations, and stop reacceleration;
 Too many motors in Step 0 will result in voltage
collapse. HVAC motors, which automatically start on
loss of flow, two wire motor controls, etc., all can
cause the amount of motors started as soon as
power returns, to be too large, resulting in excessive
motor starting voltage drop;
 Frequency sensitivity of the under-voltage relay,
which is used to permit restart of the motor on the
lost bus, can result in incorrect timing. RPMA bus
with low inertia loads and power factor correcting
capacitors, may experience a much faster drop in
frequency than voltage resulting in incorrect timing, if
the under-voltage relay responsible for permitting
restart cannot measure voltage accurately at low
frequencies;
 Reboot time of reacceleration relays, after loss of
power, results in delay restarting motor in early steps,
which may be critical. The typical response is to
power the relays in DC reaccelerating motors with
high inertias or high restart load, which often results
in motor overload trips. Reacceleration study must
 evaluate the level of load, to minimize process upsets
during the restarts. Unloading may be necessary.
Large motors with high inertia, act like generators on buses
with smaller loads, resulting in reacceleration malfunction. The
relays sense the brief, higher voltage, which usually indicates
the bus has recovered, and begin reacceleration timing. This
residual voltage then decays below the relay dead bus
voltage, tricking the relay into responding as if the motors
were not running before the outage. Consequently, motors
which were supposed to reaccelerate, do not. Large transient
torques on motor shafts, can damage couplings if
reacceleration relays are set to restart motors with too much
residual voltage. Torques 12 x rated can occur.
 Connecting the under-voltage transfer relay, residual
under-voltage relay, and motor under-voltage relay
to different phases can result in malfunction;
 Lack of maintenance in setting of step timers can
cause reacceleration problems. Plant load grows
over time, and every 5 or 10 years, the
reacceleration study must be re-run to verify that
none of the steps have grown too large;
 Relays that assume all motor capacity is used when
they are powered down and quickly powered back
up, during a power loss event, can result in failed
reacceleration. Some vendor's relays produce an
inaccurate "thermal capacity used" value, when
powered down while operating with a running load
and then quickly repowered. This results in the
reaccelerated motor tripping, due to a false thermal
overload, upon reacceleration. It is important to
know how relays function during power events, when
they are used on motors that must reaccelerate.
These design considerations must be evaluated when
installing reacceleration in a modern system.
VI. INTELIGENT ELECTRONIC DEVICE (IED) CONTROL TO
ASSURE SMOOTH MOTOR REACCELERATION
The primary goal of automatic motor reacceleration is to
keep the process running after short or prolonged power
outages. This simple objective is more complex than first
imagined, since it requires an accurate measurement of
voltage dip and duration, and coordination with the contactor
coil dropout / pickup level.
Traditionally, motors were either configured to restart or not,
with little configurability other than a coarse approximation of
power outage time. This facility was provided using a discrete
device, fitted to the motor starter and connected in parallel
with the contactor coil. Upon detection of an ‘approved’
voltage dip, the device would provide a voltage pulse to the
contactor coil.
During the early 1990s, IEDs were developed which
provided crude approximation of dip magnitude and outage
duration. IEDs replaced the discrete device, but had a wide
tolerance, often resulting in some motors restarting and some
not - especially if the outage was close to a configured
boundary.
The diagram from Fig.5 shows a typical wiring scheme for
an IED. The IED and contactor are connected to the same
control supply, which is derived from the line voltage. The IED
controls the contactor via an output relay and monitors the
status via an auxiliary contact.
6
A typical voltage dip is shown. Dropout is defined as the
point at which the IED declares an under voltage, and this
should be set above the contactor dropout to avoid incorrect
operation. It is crucial that the IED correctly records the motor
status at this point, because it will be used when the voltage is
restored as a “go/no go” for the reacceleration function. The
pickup point is defined as the voltage level at which motor
reacceleration will not cause another dip event to occur. The
difference between dropout and pickup is the Power Fail Time
(PFT).
N
L
C
L N L N
PS U V T In p u t
O u tp u t R e l a y
IED D i g i ta l I n p u t # 4
D i g i ta l I n p u t # 3
D i g i ta l I n p u t # 2
D i g i ta l I n p u t # 1
C1
Li ne v olt age
90%
65%
P ower Fail Ti me
Fig. 5: Typical IED schematic and generic voltage dips profile
A. Voltage Dip Measurement and Motor Reacceleration
The following are key problems associated with voltage dip
measurement PFT required for reacceleration, and notes on
how newer IEDs have overcome these problems:
1) Coordination of the reacceleration IED and the
contactor dropout voltage;
If the contactor drops out before the IED detects the
Under-voltage condition, the motor will not be
recorded as running; and thus, it will not be
reaccelerated when voltage is restored;
2) An electronic IED must be designed to coordinate its
output relay status with the contactor and provide
accurate measurement of a voltage dip and duration;
The IED and contactor are often powered from the
same source, so both see the same voltage during an
under-voltage event. Accurate measurement of the
UV event requires special circuits in the IED;
3) Power up time of an IED - Following a short power dip,
typically <500 ms, the motor can be restarted
immediately, avoiding the inrush and voltage drop
normally associated with motor starting. However, if
the IED is slow to power up, this immediate restart
facility cannot be used;
4) Alternate IED response dependent on voltage dip
duration - It is desirable to modify the restart scheme
 based on the motor status prior to the event, dip
duration, and number of sequential dips.
Configurability of this nature requires a flexible IED and is
not possible with conventional relay logic.
Three Types of response are usually required:
 Immediate Restart - As discussed in item 3 above, this
is relevant to very short duration dips, typically
associated with automatic bus transfer, and it requires
good timing resolution and accurate measurement of
the dip magnitude. This is typically set for dips below
65%, and between 100 ms and 500 ms in duration.
Due to the short nature of these events, the IED should
be able to ride through the dip;
 Delayed Restart (Brown out) - Typically used for dips of
several seconds, this function is applied when
automatically staggering the restart in decentralized
systems. IED ride through is not required in this case,
as long as the power up time is short (<1 second);
 Delay Restart (Black out) - Typically used for dips
greater than 15 minutes, this function allows the user to
configure a smaller set of motors to reaccelerate when
utility power is not available for an extended time
period.
B. IEDs Performing Automatic Transfer on Buses With
Large Induction Motors
As noted above, the IEDs used for secondary selective
system operation must correctly measure the decaying
residual voltage magnitude and frequency, after lost of power
to a bus with large induction motors. The residual voltage
measurement is also used by the IEDs to compare against
under-voltage threshold for safe transition, and timing for
switching to the healthy power source. An incorrect switching
time of the disconnected bus with decaying residual voltage,
and motors with connected contactors, can result in motor
shaft damage, process downtime, and high costs.
VII. CONCLUSIONS
When combined with a secondary selective or a spot
network system, reacceleration is a useful technique, enabling
process continuous operation through power system voltage
dips. However, there are several steps that must be
considered to successfully apply a reacceleration system with
modern hardware. These include:
 Care must be taken in setting the reacceleration timers,
to avoid grouping too many loads in a single
reacceleration step. Pulling the healthy bus voltage
down to the level requiring lighting restarts, instrument
power supplies to shut down, or contactor to dropout;
 A system study is required in order to set the
reacceleration timers, ensuring sufficient accelerating
torque, and must be periodically updated to fix
problems created by creep load growth;
 Coordination is required between the specific
manufacturer’s contactor and the reacceleration relays'
dropout voltages;
 Accurate measurement of the bus voltage, at low
frequencies, is necessary for proper operation of the
reacceleration scheme.
7
The commissioning of a reacceleration system relies on
component testing of the individual starters, breakers and
drives. As with the various high speed and residual voltage
transfer schemes, it is nearly impossible to acquire permission
to test a loaded substation. This requires a well-developed
start-up and commissioning plan.
VIII. REFERENCES
[1] R. H. Daugherty, “Analysis of Transient Electrical
Torques and Shaft Toques in Induction Motors as a
Result of Power Supply Disturbances,” IEEE
Transactions Power Application Society, Vol PAS-101,
pp. 2826-2836, August 1982.
[2] C. L. Becnel, “Maintaining Process Continuity Suring
Voltage Dip,” IEEE PCIC Conference Record, 1981, pp
57-63.
[3] A. R. Kelly, “Relay response to Motor Residual Voltage
During Automatic Transfers,” AIEE Transaction, Vol 74,
PT II, Application and Industry Paper 55-4271, Sept
1955, pp 245-252
[4] G. W. Bottrell and L. Y. Yu, “Motor Behavior through
Power System Disturbances,” IEEE PCIC Conference
Record, 1979, pp 57-63.
[5] R. E Cosse, J.E. Bowen, and S.H. Kerr, “Secondary
Selective System Residual Bus Transfer – A Modern
Application Approach” IEEE Transaction on Industrial
Applications, Vol 41, No. 1, Jan/Feb 2005, pp 112-119.
[6] C37.96 – IEEE “Guide for AC Motor Protection”
IX. VITA
Lubomir Sevov earned his M.Sc. degree from Technical
University of Sofia, Bulgaria in 1990. After graduation, he
worked for six years as a protection and control engineer for
National Electric Company (NEC) Bulgaria. Mr. Sevov joined
GE Multilin in 1998 as a test design engineer, and shortly after
he was promoted to an applications engineer. He currently
works as a senior applications engineer in the research and
development of new protection and control devices. Mr.
Sevov has been involved in the design and application of GE
universal family (UR) of relays, and in the design of new
industrial relays. Mr. Sevov authored and co-authored more
than 15 papers, and presented at numerous protective relay
conferences. He is a member of the association of
professional engineers Ontario, Canada, and an IEEE Senior
Member.
James E. Bowen earned a BSEE degree, from Texas A&M
University, in 1976. After working for SIP Engineering, as a
Power Engineer, for three years, he joined Exxon Chemicals
in 1979. His duties included maintenance, project design,
construction follow-up, and commissioning for the
petrochemical and cogeneration processes.
In 1997, Mr. Bowen joined Powell Electrical Manufacturing
Company, as the Technical Director, where he provided
leadership in the design development of MV switchgear and
circuit breakers. In 2009, Jim accepted the position of Vice
President of Advanced Technical Services, at Dashiell
Corporation, where he advanced the concepts of safety by
design into the high voltage substation. In 2010, Jim accepted
a position with Aramco Services Co. as Power System
Technologist. His current role includes investigating
technologies that can be applied by Aramco to improve safety,
reliability and profitability. Mr. Bowen presented at numerous
technical seminars for the IEEE Houston Section’s Continuing
Education on Demand. He is a Professional Engineer in the
state of Texas, and a newly elected Fellow Engineer of IEEE.
Dave Allcock holds a degree in Computer Science and MSc
degree in Information Systems specializing in software
engineering of secure distributed computer systems. In 1991,
he joined Supervisory and Industrial Process Controls, Ltd. to
develop process control software for industrial systems in the
oil and gas, paper and water industries. In 1993 he moved to
Switchgear and Instrumentation to develop Low Voltage Motor
Protection relays, PLC control system for load shedding
applications and firmware for Ethernet and serial
communications gateways. During this time he also travelled
extensively to design and commission LV Motor control and
communications systems.
In 2005, Dave joined GE Multilin, as Program Manager, to
lead the development of the MM300 motor protection relay
and in 2008 was promoted to Technology Manager, leading a
global team in Canada, Spain and India. Dave is a registered
engineer in UK, a professional member of the British
Computer Society and the IEEE.
Ray Luna (M’08) received a BSEE degree from the Instituto
Tecnologico de Saltillo, Mexico, in 1982, and an MS degree in
Electrical Power Systems, from the Tecnologico, of Monterrey,
Mexico, in 1984.
He was a Protection Engineer with Comision Federal de
Electricidad (CFE-Monterrey Mexico) and was the Engineering
Director of Tech Power Controls, in Houston, providing
leadership in the design and development of MV and LV
power systems for the marine and oilfield industries. Mr. Luna
executed coordination and arc flash studies for several
industrial plants. He joined GE Multilin, in 2008, as an
application engineer, and is a member of the IEEE Industry
Applications Society (IAS).