Journal of International Council on Electrical Engineering

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Reliability analysis of application of variable

frequency drive on condensate pump in nuclear
power plant

John K. Avor & Choong-Koo Chang

To cite this article: John K. Avor & Choong-Koo Chang (2019) Reliability analysis of application
of variable frequency drive on condensate pump in nuclear power plant, Journal of International
Council on Electrical Engineering, 9:1, 8-14, DOI: 10.1080/22348972.2018.1564548

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/22348972.2018.1564548

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UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis
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Published online: 16 Jan 2019.

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JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
2019, VOL. 9, NO. 1, 8–14
https://doi.org/10.1080/22348972.2018.1564548

ARTICLE

Reliability analysis of application of variable frequency drive on condensate

pump in nuclear power plant
John K. Avor and Choong-Koo Chang
Department of NPP Engineering, KEPCO International Nuclear Graduate School (KINGS), Ulsan, Korea

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

The aim of this paper is to analyze the reliability of Variable Frequency Drives (VFD) when used to Received 5 October 2018
control condensate pump motor in a nuclear power plant. IEC 60812 system reliability analysis Accepted 27 December 2018
procedure for Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) was used to determine the potential failure KEYWORDS
modes for VFD and its effects on the operation of the condensate pump motor. In addition, Electrical Reliability; Variable
Transient Analysis Program (ETAP) was used to simulate the performance and evaluate system reliability Frequency Drives (VFD);
indices of the VFD for APR1400 auxiliary power system. The objective for adopting these two failure modes and effects
approaches is to use the FMEA for comprehensive identification and evaluation of unwanted effects analysis; nuclear power
of VFD malfunction on the condensate pump operation; and the ETAP was used to quantify the impact plant
of VFD operation on system reliability indices. From the FMEA model, the Insulated Gate Bipolar
Transistor (IGBT) and the motor stator winding were identified as the components with high suscept-
ibility to failure. The overall reliability assessment showed that VFD failure effects are generally incipient.
Average system availability increased marginally when VFD was used instead of the existing throttle
valve for condensate flow control.

1. Introduction with the cube of the speed. Thus, there is a potential

to save power consumed by the pumps when the speed
Recent problems facing most Nuclear Power Plant
is regulated to match the needs of the process. Ongoing
(NPP) owner/operating organizations has been eco-
research showed that when centrifugal pumps are con-
nomic. Nuclear power plant operational cost has been
trolled with VFD there is the potential to save energy
increasing steadily over the years and this is partly due
consumed between 30% – 50% [4].
to implementation of additional safety enhancement
Despite the popularity of VFDs in other industries,
and coping capabilities for extended loss of AC
it has not gain significant attention for full deployment
power. This became profound after the Fukushima
in nuclear power plant due to concerns of reliability
accident [1]. Power plant owners have therefore
and economic justification especially when existing
adopted various strategies to limit the rising opera-
systems has to be retrofitted. Notwithstanding that,
tional cost and maximize revenue. One of the key
introducing new technology in NPP are often subjected
strategies is to reduce the energy consumed by auxili-
to rigorous regulatory requirements which are mainly
ary power systems and make the energy saved available
safety and reliability related [3]. Reliability therefore, is
to the commercial grid for additional revenue [2,3].
a major concern for NPPs and over the years research-
In view of these, many energy saving methods have
ers have investigated into ways of improving the relia-
been considered to be used in the auxiliary power
bility of drives and power electronics to enhance their
system. Variable Frequency Drives (VFD) is one of
performance [6–8].
such methods which showed a remarkable potential
The uncertainty and challenge most researches face
for both energy saving and improvement in induction
however, is that, accessing power generation plant per-
motor control. The basic principle governing the
formance data to carry out actual analysis and identify
operation of VFD is to match the input power required
areas for system improvement is often very difficult.
to a motor’s terminal to the needs of the process, and
The aim of this work is to contribute to ongoing
by matching this parameter, the benefits are magnified
researches by investigating reliability related issues
using the cube-law. For example, centrifugal pump in
of VFD when installed on a condensate pump
general operate based on affinity laws, which implies
motor by adopting the concept of Failure Mode
that the power requirements of the pump increases

CONTACT John K. Avor jkavor@miners.utep.edu Department of Nuclear Power Plant Engineering, KEPCO International Nuclear Graduate School,
Ulju-gun, Ulsan 45014, Korea
© 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING 9

Effects Analysis (FMEA) to determine component
level failures and its overall impact on the system.
The condensate pump motor was selected for this
research because, to achieve full potential of VFD
on a combined system, it is important that the
controlled motor is not 100% loaded [9]. This pro-
vides flexibility for the VFD to modulate the motor
power to match the load. The APR1400 nuclear
power plant for example comprise of three conden-
sate pump motors capable of delivering 50% of the
required condensate flow capacity. Also, these
makes it possible for comprehensive reliability ana-
lysis when using electrical power systems simula-
tions software.
The paper is organized in the following manner,
section 2 describes the FMEA theoretical concept and
the methodology for this research. In section 3 & 4 the
results for the FMEA model developed and the ETAP
system reliability analysis are presented respectively.
Section 5 contains a brief conclusion for the findings
of this research.
result from each failure mode and its severity was
evaluated for each failure mode as determined by
the failure effects. The effects were classified as
follows:
● Catastrophic: immediate loss of motor function
due to VFD malfunctioning
● Degraded: reduced motor performance
● Incipient: early problems that can be repaired
easily but would become more severe if left
unchecked.
Four main components: converter (rectifier circuit),
DC link, Inverter and controller were selected for the
FMEA analysis on the VFD. In Figure 1, the harmonic
filter and power factor correction were included as
optional packages and have not been considered
neither for the FMEA model nor the reliability
calculation.

13.8kV, 2000A, 40kA

2. FMEA approach to reliability analysis AC Input:
Fixed Frequency
The FMEA provides a systematic procedure for deter- Fixed Voltage
mining how each component of a device or system can
fail, the mechanisms that cause it to fail, and how it can 1200 AF
affect the overall performance of the system [10,11].
CT
Therefore, to understand the relation between all com- 400/5A
ponent level failures and the overall impact on
a combined system, FMEA is a useful tool in carrying Harmonic Power
out such analysis. Filter Factor
Correction
It should be noted that, reliability for VFD is appli-
Transformer
cation-dependent, this is because the magnitude and

VFD Major components

type of failure governing stresses vary with each appli-
cation [11,12]. Practical understanding of the combine AC-DC Conversion
DC link

Capacitor
system is crucial in carrying out reliability analysis. By or Inductor
DC-AC Conversion
adopting IEC 60,812 procedure for FMEA, this offers
useful approach in carrying out practical reliability
AC Output:
analysis. In this research, the FMEA analysis was car- Variable Frequency Output Filer
ried out in accordance with the IEC 60,812 procedure Variable voltage
[10,13].
300/5A

2.1 Methodology for VFD reliability analysis

CT
Specific FMEA was performed on VFD installed to
control 4600 HP condensate pump motor. For each U1 V1 W1
major component of the VFD, a brief functional
description of how the component fits into the design
of the VFD was stated. The main failure modes of the
M Condensate
Pump Motor
component and the failure mechanisms that can con- 4960 HP

tribute to occurrence of that failure mode was also

listed. Consequently, the possible effects that can Figure 1. VFD general structure arrangement.
10 J. K. AVOR AND C.-K. CHANG
2.2 Reliability analysis of combined effect on
condensate pump motor
To provide a better understanding of the effects of VFD
failure on the condensate pump motor and its effect on
the entire condensate system, FMEA was also carried out
on major components on the pump motor. Although the
condensate pump motor has high number of defects that
can occur, only the components which has possible direct
impact from VFD malfunctioning were analyzed. Three
components: stator winding, bearings, and stator leads &
cross ties were analyzed.
The boundary of the study with respect to the relia-
bility of VFD and condensate motor reliability calcula-
tion is shown in Figure 2. The assumption is that the
VFD and the motor are in series connection and with
this configuration, if any one of the system components
fails, the entire system fails as show in the block dia-
gram representation in Figure 2. It is important to
mention at this point that, VFD bypass mode and
redundancy were not considered for the reliability
analysis. The aim is to present the worst-case scenario
in determining the failure rate.
3. The FMEA model
The FMEA for the VFD main components identified in
this study is show in Table 1. In performing subcom-
ponent analysis, harmonics were identified as major
concerns because it has a wider potential to induce
failure and its likely effect on the condensate pump
motor is to cause stator winding to ground faults.
The harmonic contents usually come from early fre-
quency converters due to non-linear switching action
of VFD inverter electronics. As confirmed in [14] this
has the potential to cause failures resulting in heating
of the motor winding.
Boundary of Study for Reliability Calculation
Inductor
Capacitor
Gate
Rectifier Circuit
Input Power DC link
Figure 2. Boundary of study for reliability calculation.
From the analysis, failure effects from gate unit supply
is very severe as this would result in uncontrolled voltage
and frequency from the inverter and consequently result-
ing in degraded operations of the pump motor. Similarly,
failure of the DC link which is responsible to store con-
stant DC energy for inverter use is catastrophic. This
could be due to failure of the capacitor leading to IGBT
failure to produce the desired sinewave.
Inverter failure, in particular the IGBT has signifi-
cant effect on the overall reliability of the VFD and on
the motor as well. From literature, it was noted that the
rise time of VFD PWM pulse has a major impact on
the peak voltage at the motor terminal, and this peak
voltage when overshoot results in insulation break-
down and subsequently causing stator coil damage.
Therefore, the effect of IGBT mis-operation is high.
As shown in Table 1, it emerged that most of the
induce failure effects from VFD malfunction are rather
incipient and maintenance and monitoring activities
must be designed to focus on identifying the incipient
failures before they lead to more severe operating fail-
ures. More importantly, out of the eleven failure effects
identified for the VFD eight of the failures involve IGBT
failures, and only one for controller inoperability.
The FMEA representing possible effect of VFD
induced failures on condensate pump motor perfor-
mance is shown in
Table 2. As mentioned earlier, induction motors
have several components that can fail leading to loss
of motor functionality. Bearing, insulation faults and
loose connections are among the highest causes of
failures in induction motors. It is essential to keep in
mind that motor bearings and insultations failures
generally occur due to underlying factors such as high
temperature, wear, motor loading condition, operating
environment and overvoltage. Therefore, the overall
mode of failure for those components vary greatly.
Stator Stator Leads & Condensate
Bearing
winding Cross ties Pump
Condensate Motor shaft
Coupling
Inverter Circuit
(IGBT’s)
 JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING 11

Per Table 2, stator winding, and stator lead and

Catastrophic Incorporate AC & DC reactors into drive

Check input power source and replace

Install network firewall on condensate

cross-ties were identified as the major components

Reset controller and restart VFD.

with some form of direct impact from VFD malfunc-

design to increase reliability

tion. As shown in the table, winding-to-ground-fault
Corrective Action

Consider installation of UPS

Replace clamp capacitor
occurs due to issues of low frequency or voltage imbal-

Replace Optical fibre

damage converter ance attributable to inverter fault to control the sup-
plied voltage and frequency. This event is catastrophic

Random failure
Visual checks

Visual checks
Replace IGBT
since it leads to electrical trip and subsequent loss of

and VFD
motor functionality. In the same way, a failure mode of
open-winding can be attributed to VFD induced motor
insulation breakdown as a result of interaction between
Consequence

Catastrophic

Catastrophic
Evaluation

voltage pulses applied to the pump motor stator coils.

Degraded

Degraded
Incipient

Incipient
Incipient
Incipient
Incipient

Incipient

This event also degrades the operation of the pump

motor.
As a general principle, nuclear power plants operate
IGBT failure to produce

IGBT failure – fault trip

IGBT failure – fault trip

IGBT failure – fault trip

in specific modes and depending on the operating

Diode fail to open or

Clamp resistor failure Gate unit supply trip

Loss of aux voltage Gate unit supply trip

resulting in signal
Failure effect

VFD control failure

harmonic noise,
Inability to reduce

mode, the requirements for condensate pump motor

IGBT fault trip
IGBT fault trip

operation varies. This variation has the tendency to

sine wave

alter the performance of the VFD and consequently

scams
close

affect its interaction with the condensate pump

motor. To evaluate the degree of impact, usually
input diode failure

FMECA (failure mode effects and criticality analysis)

Loss of optical fibre
IGBT not switching

Loose connections
Transient causing
Failure mode

Gate unit supply

could be performed to categorize and determine the

Clamp capacitor

control signal
Diode failure

severity of each failure mode and effects. However, in

Induced excessive network traffic on shared Integrated PLC failure
failure

failure

this research, ETAP was used to evaluate and quantify

the overall impact on the system reliability indices
when VFD is introduced to control the condensate
Holds the DC voltage at constant level Capacitor wear due to high temperature, over voltage/

flow system. This results are highlighted in Section 4.

Inability to smooth current flow to VFD due to Coil
Converter Converts AC input power to DC power Short or open circuit due increasing voltage and

current, improper mounting or clamping.

three phase AC variable voltage to Failure to control voltage and/or frequency

4. System reliability analysis

Table 1. Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA).

Functional failure

Generally, determination of system reliability indices

can vary greatly depending on published equipment
Computer System network

failure rate data obtained from equipment manufac-

Output converter failure

turers. Understanding the assumptions and methodol-

ogies used in establishing these failure rates can
provide meaningful and realistic system reliability
current

indices. The objective of this section is in twofold;

Failure

first to present mathematical approach in calculating

reliability indices; and second to carry out reliability
as energy source to be used by the

control circuit and load conditions.

operation of IGBT based on sensor

analysis by ETAP to simulate APR1400 auxiliary power

pump motor depending upon the
provides Pulse Width Modulation
(PWM) output to the condensate
Convert constant DC voltage into

system with and without VFD installed to control the

Controller Provides control signal for the
Component Function

condensate pump motor (see Figure 3). For the simu-

lation analysis, careful consideration was made in
selecting the equipment failure rate data for the simu-
lation model. The data used in this research were from
IEEE Std493-1997, IAEA-TECDOC-478 and NUREG/
inverter.

outputs

CR-6928 nuclear power plants component reliability

failure data. Some of these data are shown in Table 3.
Mathematically, component failure is assumed to be
Inverter

exponentially distributed and assume T is considered

DC link
Item

as a random variable representing the time to failure of

12 J. K. AVOR AND C.-K. CHANG

a component, the component reliability at time τ is

keep VFD and motor ventilation

conditions parameters, ambient

Monitor and trend ambient temp.

defined as

Catastrophic Good maintenance practices to

VFD harmonic, cooling and

Monitor and trend insulation
1

Corrective Action

clean and unrestricted

MTTF ¼ ò Rðτ Þdτ

temp. winding temp.

(1)
0

Consequently, the Mean Time Between Failure

motor amps
(MTBT) and Availability can all be calculated using
the equations below.
Total uptime
MTBF ¼ (2)
Consequence

Catastrophic
Evaluation

No: of Breakdowns
Degraded
Degraded

Incipient
Reliability ¼ eMTBF ð3Þ
Time

insulation and conductors

Degradation and damage to
1
Damage to stator windings

leading to electrical trip MTBF ¼

requiring motor repair/

(4)
Failure Rate ðλÞ
Failure effect

Same as above
Same as above

MTBF
Availabiity ¼ ð5Þ
Electrical trip

MTBF þ MTTR
rewind

Using the above equations, the system downtime with

respect to availability can be estimated as shown in Table 4.
Phase to ground fault
Winding-to-ground
Winding-to-ground

Loose leads or coil

Failure mode

Open winding
Open winding

4.1 ETAP reliability simulation results

cross-ties
Table 2. Failure modes effects analysis on combine effects from VFD on condensate pump motor.

fault

fault

Figure 3 shows a portion of the APR1400 auxiliary power

system which was simulated. The comparison results for
the system when operated with VFD installed to control
interaction between voltage pulses VFD applies
uncontrol voltage/frequency supplied to stator

VFD induced motor insulation breakdown due to

VFD contribution to thermal degradation of coils

Insulation breakdown due to electrical transients

Loosening of leads, coil cross-ties, and fasteners

due to vibration, electromagnetic transients

the condensate pump and when operated with throttle

when 3-phase variable AC voltage VFD converter performance issue resulting in
due to low frequency, voltage imbalance.

valve is shown in Table 5. The main reliability indices

considered were System Average Interruption Frequency
Index (SAIFI); System Average Interruption Duration
Functional failure

from VFD induced harmonics.

to pump motor stator coils.

Index (SAIDI); Customer Average Interruption Duration

Index (CAIDI); Average Service Availability Index
(ASAI); and Average Service Unavailability Index (ASUI).
From the simulation results, it was noted that for
and surges

load point reliability indices, there was significant

winding

difference in the reliability indices for the condensate

pump motor when operated with VFD compared to
the existing throttle valve control method in the
rotating magnetic field in the stator

from VFD output to stator winding.

APR1400. The Average interruption rate at the

and Variable frequency is applied

Stator leads Connect motor line terminations to

Produces a sinusoidally distributed,

individual stator winding coils

motor terminal was found to be 1.5963 f/yr and

0.2792 f/yr for the throttle valve method and VFD
controlled method respectively. As shown in Table 5
Function

below, introducing VFD to control condensate pump

motor instead of the existing throttle valves resulted
in marginal improvement in the reliability indices.
The interruption frequency is lower for VFD control
system as compared to throttle valve control.
Similarly, the unavailability index and interruption
cross-ties
Winding

and Coil

duration for the VFD condensate flow control

Stator

method is lower than the indices for throttle valve

Item

controlled method.
 JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING 13

Figure 3. Segment of the APR1400 auxiliary power system.

Table 3. Some equipment failure rate data. Table 4. Downtime of availability.

Availability Data Source Failures Rate/Hrs Availability Downtime
Main Generator IAEA 9.47 x 10–7 80% 73 days/year
Main Transformer IAEA 1.15 x 10–6 90% 36.5 days/year
Power Cable IEEE 5.27 x 10–6 99% 3.65 days/year
13.8kV MV Bus IAEA 1.5 x 10–6 99.9% 8.76 hours/year
15 kV Indoor CB IAEA 6.51 x 10–7 99.99% 52 minutes/year
Circulating Water Pump IAEA 1.8 x 10–5 99.999% 5 minutes/year
Condensate Pump IAEA 3.6 x 10–6 99.9999% 31 seconds/year
Level Control Valve NPRDS 1.0 x 10–5
Induction Motor IEEE 1.53 x 10–5
VFD Manufacture 7 x 10–6
analysis was also carried out using ETAP to determine
the overall impact on auxiliary power system reliability
5. Conclusion when VFD is installed to replace the existing direct
online motor starting method which utilizes throttle
In this paper we have developed an FMEA reliability valve for condensate flow regulation. The assessment
assessment model based on IEC 60,812 for VFD and results for FMEA showed that the VFD failures are
condensate pump motor. The FMEA model covered the mostly incipient. With regards to the overall system
combine effect of VFD malfunction on the entire con- reliability, using the VFD showed marginal improve-
densate system operation. In addition, reliability ment in system reliability.
14 J. K. AVOR AND C.-K. CHANG

Table 5. Summary of system reliability indices. [5] Kuzle I, Bošnjak D, Pandži H Auxiliary system load
Throttle Valve con- VFD controlled schemes in large thermal and nuclear power plants.
trolled Condensate Condensate 8th International Conference: Nuclear option in
Reliability Indices Pump Motor Pump Motor Countries with small and medium Electricity Grid;
ASAI (p.u.) 0.9966 0.9966 2010 May 16-20. p. S4-811–S4-816; Dubrovnik,
ASUI (p.u.) 0.00338 0.00336
Hrvatska.
CAIDI (hr/customer interruption) 88.927 105.255
SAIDI (hr/customer. Yr) 29.5782 29.4641 [6] Yellamati D, Arthur E, James S, et al. Predictive relia-
SAIFI (f/customer. Yr) 0.3326 0.2799 bility models for variable frequency drives based on
application profiles. IEEE Reliability and
Maintainability Symposium; 2013 Jan 28–31;
Acknowledgments Orlando, FL, USA.
[7] Brinzei N, Nahid-Mobarakeh B. Reliability assessment
This work was supported in part by the KEPCO International of adjustable speed drives using state Markov Models.
Nuclear Graduate School (KINGS), Ulsan South Korea. IEEE Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting;
2014 Oct; p. 1–8.
[8] Case MJ, “Effects of Ethernet-based, non-safety related
controls on the safe and continued oprations of nuclear
Disclosure statement power stations”, United States Nuclear Regulatory
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. Commission, NRC information notice: 2007–15.
[9] Handbook ABB, “Power generation, energy efficient
design of auxiliary systems in Fossil-fuel power
plants”, Lovins, 2008, Lovins, Amory. “10xE
ORCID Presentation to Irving Oil.” Presentation, RMI. 2008.
[10] IEC 812, Analysis Techniques for system reliability –
Choong-Koo Chang http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5649- procedure for Failure Mode And Effects Analysis
6779 (FMEA). International Electrotechnical Commission,
185. 40p.
[11] Abhilash BT, Manjunatha HM, Ranjan NA, et al.
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