Forum

Subscribe

About Us

Magazine Issues

Newsletters

Adv ertise

REGISTER

NEC

Design

Ops & Maintenance

Contractor

Safety

Power Quality

T raining

Shop

LOG IN

Basics

Products

HO M E > P O W ER Q U A LI TY > SW I TC HI NG O P ERA TI O N TRA NSI ENTS LEA D TO FA I LU RES

Switching Operation Transients Lead to Failures

Case study reveals answers to switching transient problem on plants power
factor correction capacitor banks
Larry Ray, Schneider Electric Engineering Services | Electrical Construction and
Maintenance
SHARE

Tw eet

Jun 22, 2011

COMMENTS 0

Case study reveals answers to switching transient problem on plants power factor correction capacitor
banks

When a metal-casting plant, producing ductile iron

castings for the automotive industry, suffered catastrophic
shutdowns of both of its induction melting furnaces (see
The Heat is On), the consequences were significant. The
furnace failures occurred within three days of each other,
shortly after the plant returned to production after
Christmas shutdown. After investigating the first failure,
plant and electric utility personnel assumed the cause of the
first failure had been found. They resumed the start-up procedure three days later, only to
have an almost identical failure of their backup furnace, causing yet another shutdown.
Plant engineers were concerned that recent changes in the electric utilitys distribution
system might have initiated the failures. However, the utility denied any relationship
between the changes and the failures. At this point, the discussion reached an impasse.
The plant shutdown continued for nearly a week, while repairs were being completed,
jeopardizing the plants just-in-time status with its automotive customers.
Upon completion of the repairs, plant personnel had to decide whether to start up the
newly repaired furnaces, thus risking another failure. If production could not start, the
plant faced the expense and delay of shipping patterns to its overseas sister company to
make the necessary castings. The Thursday after the second failure, plant managers
realized that if the facility could not restart by Sunday, the patterns would be shipped
overseas and customers notified of the pending delay. The prospect shook the company all
the way up to its CEO. At this point with both furnaces shut down and only three days
before the deadline our team was called in to analyze the situation.
Testing pointed to switching transients associated with the metal casting plants 12kV
power factor correction capacitor banks as initiating the failures (click here to see Fig. 1).
These capacitors had been in service for more than a year prior to the failures, but had
been operating in manual mode. Just before the Christmas shutdown, the capacitor bank
control was changed from manual to automatic. This meant that the capacitors were
switching periodically, whereas they had previously remained online all the time. Failures
were linked with transients created by switching operations.
The engineering team recommended the capacitor banks be turned off and locked out.
The plant returned to full production before the Sunday deadline, and the plant engineer
kept the only key to the capacitor lock on the dresser in his home!
Although the immediate crisis had been averted, the full extent of the problem remained
unclear. In addition, the plant would need the capacitors online by summer for voltage
support and power factor correction, so the bank could not remain de-energized

Watch Out for that Voltage Drop

Electrical Troubleshooting Quiz - July 21, 2015
Price Versus Cost Versus Value
Tip of the Week: When it Comes to Safety,
Maintenance is Not an Option
Test Your Electrical Symbols IQ

Photo Galleries
Test Your Electrical
Symbols IQ
Are you ready? Its time
for another challenge on
the symbols front. If you
think youre an electrical symbols master, then now is
your chance to prove it.

Jo in the Discussio n o n EC &M T alk

Hot Topics

Comments

New Topics

Shocks & Electrocutions at Marinas and Docks

13

la st r eply by kpr o in Gen er a l El ect r i ca l T a l k

Di scu ssi on

Isolated Ground for DC Instruments

la st r eply by jbu t h m a n n in Bon di n g &
Gr ou n di n g

E C&M White Papers

Know Your TCO: A
Look at Medium

indefinitely. The team needed to conduct additional analysis that was broad in scope,
including taking a more in-depth look at transients modeling, fuse testing, bus bar finiteelement modeling, harmonics measurements, and simulation.

Voltage VFDs

On-site assessment

affect it....

Learn about the intricacies

involved in calculating TCO
and the elements that

More

Additional on-site testing showed that high-frequency transients were initiated each time
the capacitors switched (Fig. 1). The transients were large enough to cause false turn-on
and possible failure of the induction furnace silicon-controlled rectifiers (SCRs). The
transients did not indicate problems with the vacuum switches; the problems were caused
by the particular configuration of the electrical distribution system. At the end of the onsite testing, the engineering team formed a theory about the failures:

VIEW MORE WHITE PAPERS

EC&M Webinars
JUL 2 1 , 2 0 1 5

Capacitor switching transients caused false turn-on of induction furnace SCRs and a short
circuit through the converters DC bus.

SPONSORED

ON DEMAND:
Mitigation Methods for
Arc Flash Hazards Enhancing Personal

Fast-acting fuses blew to clear the short circuit.

The fuse blowing event chopped current in the supplying transformer, creating huge
transient voltages across the bus bars.

Safety

Transient voltages were sufficient to jump the air gap between the bus bars and cabinet.

JUL 1 4 , 2 0 1 5

Deficiencies in fuse coordination allowed the resulting short circuit to burn until the bus
bars separated.

However, additional engineering analysis, fuse testing, and computer modeling were
required to test each phase of the theory.
Fuse testing at high-power laboratory

Fuses from the metal casting plant were obtained to test their response to high-current
short circuits. The fuses were tested at 39,525 peak amperes at the high-power test lab.
The results clearly eliminated the fast-acting fuses as the cause of the bus failures. Voltage
developed across the fuses was limited to only about 1,500V (click here to see Fig. 2),
much less than the 20,000V required to jump the air gap between bus bars and the
furnace cabinet. This led the engineering team to abandon the initial current chop theory.

SPONSORED

ON DEMAND:
Understanding the
2015 Edition of NFPA
70E and the Arc Flash
Hazard
VIEW MORE WEBINARS

E C&M TV
New Certification
Announcement from
NFPA
...

Computer modeling of transients

At this point, the engineering team suspected that the plants electrical system was
amplifying transients due to its unusual response characteristics. The only way to
investigate this theory, short of turning capacitors on and off with the induction furnaces
energized and at risk of failure, was to model the power systems response to highfrequency events. The model included both the plants 12kV capacitors and the electric
utilitys four separate 34kV capacitors, assessing the effects of all the possible
combinations of the seven banks.

More

BROWSE ALL VIDEOS

Modeling showed that capacitor switching transients were severe enough to cause false
turn-on, or even failure, of the furnace SCRs. Further analysis showed that the transients
could be reduced by converting the capacitors to harmonic filters with the addition of line
reactors. In fact, the capacitors had originally been selected to accommodate line reactors
in a harmonic filter arrangement.
Measurements of power system harmonics

The process of converting AC power to DC and back to AC generates harmonic currents.

Power factor correction capacitors do not produce harmonics but can create conditions
that worsen harmonics on the power system. During the on-site assessment, our power
system engineers learned that circuit monitors were located on the capacitor circuits and
were storing harmonic information. This data revealed that voltage distortion at the plant
was slightly higher than the IEEE 519 recommended level of 5%. Although harmonics
had not contributed to the failures, voltage distortion levels were high enough to warrant
further action. Converting the existing banks to harmonic filters solved both the
switching problem and reduced excessive harmonic distortion levels as well.

EC&M Learning Center

Understanding the 2014 NEC,
Volume 1 (Articles 90 to 480)
This resource has proven itself in the
field and in the exam room. This latest

Computer modeling of bus bar movement

The location of the bus bar failures indicated that current had either jumped the air gap
between the bus bars and cabinet, the bus bar structure had moved during the fault and
touched the cabinet, or the bus bars from different phases had touched during the event.
Fuse testing eliminated the first theory. The bus bars were then modeled to determine if
they moved or touched.
Fault currents flowing through bus bars or wires create large mechanical forces that act
to repel conductors on different phases. The analysis work first required that a finiteelement computer model of the bus bars be created. This model was then analyzed to

edition w ill provide you w ith a rock-solid

foundation...

Understanding NEC Requirements

for Grounding vs Bonding
One of the most confusing areas of the
trade continues to be grounding and
bonding, w hich is w hy this book needs
to be in the hands...

Changes to The NEC 2014

Don't let the scale of the code changes intimidate you,

determine the amount of mechanical force generated during various kinds of faults. Once
the mechanical forces were determined, the amount of deflection, or movement, of the
bus bars could be predicted.
Figure 3 (click here to see Fig. 3) shows the results of the modeling. Clearly, mechanical
forces generated by the short circuit current were sufficient to cause bus bars to touch.
Once the bus bars touched, the fault current flowed until bus bars burned in two.

this book w ill get you up to speed on the

most essential...

BROWSE ALL TITLES

Lessons learned

The final results of the engineering teams extensive analysis revealed a simple cause of
the failures: Bus bars were inadequately braced to withstand the forces generated during
a short circuit (click here to see Fig. 4). The short circuits resulted from unintended SCR
conduction due to capacitor switching transients, but the short circuits would have
caused little damage if the bus bars had been adequately braced.
Our power system engineers inspected the induction furnace repairs and found that the
furnace manufacturer had installed additional bus bracing after the first failures,
indicating that perhaps the vendor suspected the real problem from the beginning.
In addition to the bus bracing, it was recommended that the bus bars be equipped with
transient voltage surge suppression devices. These devices limit the magnitude of voltage
transients and provide additional protection.
Finally, the power factor correction capacitors are being converted to harmonic filters.
This conversion helps to limit the magnitude of voltage transients, and removes some of
the harmonic currents produced by the furnaces.
The benefits realized from this engineering analysis were significant. First, the cause of
catastrophic failures that had cost $750,000 in repair and restart for the facility were
identified and eliminated. The just-in-time status was preserved, saving millions in
potential lost sales. Not only was the electric utility exonerated, but the plant and utility
gained a better understanding of the intricacies of their shared power system
characteristics.
Ray is the director of Schneider Engineering Services based in Raleigh, N.C. He can be
reached at Larry.ray@schneider-electric.com.
Connect With Us
SIDEBAR: The Heat Is On
The furnaces at this plant melt scrap iron, attaining a temperature of 2,600F. They operate by
inducing currents in the scrap by rapidly varying the magnetic field around the metal. The
highly fluctuating field is produced from a constant frequency AC source through use of large
electronic power converters. These converters change 60-Hz AC voltage and current to DC and
then to 200-Hz AC through silicon-controlled rectifiers (SCRs).

The induction furnaces were served by twin 12kV to 575V transformers. The furnaces
each had an electrical capacity of 8MW. AC power was delivered from transformers to
the SCRs through large copper bus bars, which experienced the catastrophic failures

Twitter
Facebook
LinkedRSS

shown in the Photo.

The plant operated three 12kV capacitor banks for power factor control. These banks were
turned on or off with vacuum switches. Testing and analysis showed that the vacuum
switches initiated voltage transients each time the capacitors were turned on and
sometimes when the banks were turned off. Vacuum switches are commonly used on
capacitor banks and other loads that require connection or disconnection at high power
levels.

Tw eet

SHARE

Please Log In or Register to post comments.

Re late d Article s
Using Transient Simulation Tools in PQ Investigations
Understanding Transients: A Primer
Tracking Down Transient Voltages
Protecting Communication Networks From Overvoltages
PQ Tip: PWM Drives May Have Bearing on Bearing Failures

Ecmwe b .co m
NEC

Design

Ops & Maintenance

Contractor

Safety

Site Fe ature s

EC &M C o rp o rate

Author Guidelines

Priv acy Policy

RSS

T erm s of Serv ice

Sitem ap

About Us

Site Archiv e

Adv ertise

Subscribe

Contact Us

View Mobile Site

Fo llo w Us

Power Quality

T raining

Products

Se arch e cmwe b .co m

Sub scrib e to the p rint mag azine

Re late d EC &M Site s

Electrical Wholesaling Electrical Marketing T ransm ission & Distribution World

Copy right 2 01 5 Penton

Basics