Starter of SAG Mills with rotor resistance

Q: For now I am working on a mining project which involves starting two SAG mills, the method of starting these mills is by rotor resistance and likewise we are using an energy recovery system (SER), could someone tell me how this system works SER? Each mills have two motors of 8000 kW at 13.8 kV.

A: For large mills requiring variable speed, the wound rotor motor and SER drive are economical for a total rating of approximately 2MW to 16MW. Above 16MW, the gearless drive (cyclo-converter) is typically used because gearboxes and pinion gears reach their present limit in size. Around 2MW and below, the squirrel cage/VVVF drive is simple and cost effective.

Advantages of the wound rotor/SER drive are:
1. If the SER converter drive fails, the drive can be switched to fixed speed bypass - starting the usual way with the LRS.
2. The converter only needs to be sized for 15-20% of the total motor rating with associated reduction in floor space, air-conditioning etc. The converter is only sized for the feedback energy which is proportional to the speed difference from synchronous speed. The drives are typically set up to run between about 85% to 110% of synchronous speed for an optimized arrangement.
3. Relatively low capital cost when all things considered - including spare motor cost etc.

Brush/slip ring maintenance is one issue. However, when the brushes are specified correctly for the load, the wear is manageable. Once the maintenance program is set up for shutdowns, it is not a major issue.
I expect that this type of drive would be the most common large mill variable speed drive in the world's minerals processing industry for the range mentioned above for the last 15 years (approximately).

The SER drive converter controls the voltage in the rotor. Motor speed is proportional to rotor voltage. Resistance in the rotor indirectly achieves the same thing (with a different torque curve shape), but energy is lost in the resistors which is very inefficient. The SER drive via a feedback transformer feeds energy back into the power supply. This returned energy is proportional to the speed difference from synchronous speed. So at say 85% speed, 15% of the motor rated power is returned from the rotor to the supply. At a hypersynchronous speed, the SER drive feeds power into the motor rotor allowing it to run faster than synchronous speed. So for a fixed torque and higher speed, the power obtained from the motor is higher than the motor nameplate rating.

Gearbox ratio is best set up to allow the speed range to be covered using the SER drive's hyper-synchronous capability.