A project led by Erich Gunther, this study of flicker undertaken by PacifiCorp in response to customer complaints about lamp flicker.  These complaints are geographically diverse, indicating a transmission-propagated cause.  PacifiCorp conducted a series of measurements, which validated the customer complaints.  These measurements also indicated that a large steel mill with an arc furnace and a Static VAR Compensator (SVC) in the area could be the primary cause.  There was also the possibility of another customer facility contributing to the problem.

PacifiCorp retained Erich to develop an accurate electrical model of the northern Utah area that can predict IEC flicker and harmonic distortion at PacifiCorp’s major load serving substations in the northern Utah area.  Once developed the model helped in providing an assessment of the relative contributions of the sources of the flicker.  EnerNex staff ran cases with this model to test various solutions to mitigate flicker to acceptable levels.