| Abstract |
Elettra, the synchrotron light source in Trieste (Italy), is quite sensitive to disturbances in the electrical supply. These are responsible for some tens outages/year and several hours/year downtime (i.e. absence of electron beam). In particular, the most concerning electrical disturbances are voltage sags, whose consequences are orbit perturbations and partial or total electron beam losses. The paper illustrates the experimental analysis performed in Elettra, starting from mid 1999, aimed to better understand the effects of grid disturbances on the plant operation and individuate the most sensitive components. A long measurement campaign and several tests performed on each type of power supply led to significant results and helped choosing a solution for mitigating the problem. The solution is based on a SMES system, presently under construction in the frame of a research project partly funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Scientific Technological Research and involving a group of the most important Italian Companies operating in the field of superconductivity and power quality analysis as Ansaldo Ricerche, Europa Metalli and CESI. The advantages of the SMES over other available electrical energy storage technologies for the application of concern and the main features of the power conditioning device under development, together with its future projected upgrading, are discussed and illustrated in the paper. |
