EAF SMARTrafo solution

The reduction of energy consumptions is a relevant topic all around the world, since recently the international attention has been focused on stringent and environmental-friendly targets. These targets result extremely imperative for the steel industry as it is one of the major energy consumer among the different sectors. Several huge improvements in the energy efficiency has already been performed in the history of the electric arc furnace (EAF); however additional progresses are still requested but now difficult or costly. A significant chance to further improve the global performance is identified by the opportunity to adopt a holistic approach considering not only the furnace operation but also all the other relevant process components, especially the electric transformer, as it manages all the melting energy. In addition, EAF transformers are exposed to very critical conditions, which could cause relevant and expensive stop in the steel production process and thus they should be monitored in order to achieve a higher energy efficiency and reliability. The best EAF transformer solution should be designed evaluating the life cycle cost: i.e. purchase price, ownership costs (i.e. energy losses and auxiliary costs, e.g. cooling system costs) and maintenance costs. In the present work, a LCC model is proposed and numerical examples are presented to show its behavior in the determination of the best selection among different EAF transformer solutions.