IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 24, NO.

2, APRIL 2009 797

Analytical Study of Voltage Magnification

Transients Due to Capacitor Switching
Aaron Kalyuzhny, Member, IEEE, Silviu Zissu, Member, IEEE, and Dan Shein, Member, IEEE

AbstractThis paper addresses the voltage magnification

phenomena at the terminals of customer transformers due to
switching the medium-voltage utility capacitors. The traditional
approach to understanding the voltage magnification phenomena
is analyzed and its drawbacks are shown. The closed-form expres-
sions for the magnified transient voltage waveforms are derived.
The simulation results using the analytical expressions were found
to be in very good agreement with those obtained using the Elec-
tromagnetic Transients Program. Novel relationships between the
network parameters corresponding to maximal peak values of the
overvoltages are developed. A simple procedure for evaluation of
the maximum magnified overvoltages is presented. The developed
procedure has been applied in a real-world power utility. The
envelope of maximum expected overvoltages on the secondary side
of the customer transformers has been obtained. The customer
transformers, wherein the magnified overvoltages may exceed the
permissible level, have been found.
Index TermsCapacitor switching, maximum transient over- Fig. 1. Typical circuit for analysis of the voltage magnification phenomena.
voltages, power quality (PQ), two-loop system, voltage magnifica-
tion.

significantly differ from the parameters calculated on the basis

I. INTRODUCTION
HE magnified transient voltages appearing at the ter-
T minals of a low-voltage customer due to the switching
of a utility capacitor at a higher voltage level are well-known
phenomena. The phenomena adversely affect the power quality
(PQ), resulting in the nuisance tripping of adjustable speed
drives (ASDs) as well as causing flashovers at the customer
terminals or even damage to sensitive equipment [1][9].
Determination of the maximal magnified overvoltages, which
may be applied across the customer terminals, has become an
important task for power utility engineers. The magnified over-
voltages are usually analyzed in the circuit shown in Fig. 1
by using the Electromagnetic Transients Program (EMTP) [3],
[5], [6]. Combinations of the circuit parameters leading to the
maximum overvoltages are determined in compliance with the
analytical research of voltage magnification performed in [1].
According to the analysis, the phenomenon of voltage magni-
fication occurs when two series connected LC loops have the
same natural frequency. The results of the aforementioned anal-
ysis (further referred to as the traditional approach) have been
adopted in technical literature [2][9].
Numerical studies of voltage magnification performed in [3]
and [9] enabled calculating the combinations of the circuit pa-
rameters that lead to maximum overvoltages. Those parameters
Manuscript received March 06, 2008. Current version published March 25,
2009. Paper no. TPWRD-00131-2008.
The authors are with the Israel Electric Corporation, Haifa 35434, Israel
(e-mail: aharon@iec.co.il).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2008.2002844
0885-8977/$25.00 2009 IEEE
of the traditional approach [1].
The aforementioned discrepancy invites further analytical
study of the voltage magnification phenomena.
As the voltage magnification has presently become a wide-
spread issue, it is desirable to provide power utility engineers
with a simple procedure to predict the maximum anticipated
overvoltage stresses during the voltage magnification transients
in real-world systems.
The work objectives can be formulated as follows.
1) Development of a simple procedure for evaluation of the
maximum overvoltages, which may take place during the
voltage magnification.
2) Identification of the relationships between the network
parameters corresponding to the maximum overvoltage
stresses.
II. ANALYTICAL STUDY OF VOLTAGE MAGNIFICATION
Consider the voltage magnification at the low-voltage
(LV) customer busbars following the switching of the
medium-voltage (MV) utility capacitor (see Fig. 1) using
the single-phase oscillatory circuit shown in Fig. 2. The cir-
cuit can be regarded as a double-loop system [4], where the
inductance and the resistance represent the short-circuit
impedance of the transmission system and the utility trans-
former. is the capacitance of the switched utility capacitor
bank. The inductance and the resistance stand for
the equivalent impedance of the feeders and the customer
transformer and the capacitance represents the customer
power-factor correction capacitor.
798 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 24, NO. 2, APRIL 2009

The intricate expression of the voltage across the customer

capacitor derived in [1] may be presented in more simple
form in terms of and

(5)
Fig. 2. Two-loop single-phase circuit for analyzing the voltage magnification.
where is the voltage of the dc source.
The condition of maximum voltage stress can be derived ana-
The single-phase circuit can be used for analyzing the max- lytically from (5). If the angular frequencies and are close
imum overvoltages taking place in the three-phase network [10]. to each other, the transient component of the magnified over-
The maximum overvoltages at the MV busbars, during simulta- voltage can reach the following peak value:
neous closing of all three phases of the utility capacitor switch,
will occur on the phase, where the voltage reaches its peak (6)
value at the closing instant. These overvoltages will be magni-
fied at a particular phase of the line-to-line LV terminals. For ex- The relationship between the circuit parameters complying
ample, for the customer transformer having the standard D/Y-11 with the condition of maximum value of can be found
vector group, the maximum overvoltage transients across the through the partial differentiation of with respect to ,
phase A on its MV side are magnified across the ac ter- and equating the derivative to zero
minals on its LV side (see Fig. 1). If the capacitance in the
single-phase scheme in Fig. 2 is switched at the instant, when the (7)
voltage-source waveform reaches its peak value, the transient
voltage across the capacitance corresponds to the maximum Our simulations of switching the two-loop circuit to the
overvoltage transients in the three-phase circuit. The voltage voltage source done by means of the EMTP show that the max-
across the capacitance represents the maximum magnified imum magnified overvoltages occur if the derived relationship
line-to-line overvoltage on the customer LV side in per unit. (7) takes place.
The traditional approach to the analysis of the voltage mag- Equation (5) neglects the trapped charge in the customer ca-
nification phenomena considers switching the two-loop circuit pacitor at the instant of the utility capacitor switching and does
with zero initial conditions to a dc source [1]. The analysis is not take into account the damping due to the circuit resistances.
performed in terms of the natural angular frequencies of the first In order to study the voltage magnification phenomena with
loop composed of the inductance and the capacitance and due account of the trapped charge in the capacitance and
of the second loop including and . the circuit damping, consider switching of the capacitance
The condition of maximal magnified overvoltage was in Fig. 2. The voltage across the customer capacitor before the
determined in [1] under the assumption of equality of the natural capacitor switching is
frequencies of the aforementioned two loops
(8)
(1)
The peak value of the voltage can be expressed
According to [8], the maximum magnified switching surges as follows:
can be expected if the following relationship takes place:
(9)
(2)

Since the circuit under consideration is a two-loop circuit, we In (9) and peak value and angular frequency of the
suggest that the analysis should be performed in terms of its voltage source; natural angular frequency of the loop
actual natural angular frequencies and composed of the inductances and and the capacitance

(10)

The steady-state voltage across the customer capacitor after

switching the utility capacitor bank is
(3)
(11)
where
The peak value of the voltage can be expressed in terms
of the natural angular frequencies and

(4) (12)
KALYUZHNY et al.: ANALYTICAL STUDY OF VOLTAGE MAGNIFICATION TRANSIENTS DUE TO CAPACITOR SWITCHING 799

Derivation of the transient overvoltage across the ca-
pacitance following switching the capacitance (see
Fig. 2) is performed using the Laplace transform method. The
closed-form expression for the voltage across the capacitance
, which takes into account the trapped charge in the capaci-
tance and the circuit damping, can be given by
(13)
The voltage [as it follows from (19)] includes the
steady-state component and the transient component. The
transient component can be presented as a sum of two transient
terms changing with the natural angular frequencies and
and having the same peak value .
This simplified expression of the voltage can be used
to find the time instants corresponding to the peaks of the wave-
form. Equation (19), on the condition that the damping is ne-
glected, can be given as

The peak values and in (13) are as follows:

(14)
(21)
It should be noted that the terms and refer to the
transient component caused by switching the two-loop circuit
The transient component of the voltage obtained regardless of
to the voltage source under zero initial conditions. The terms
the circuit damping can be presented as the voltage signal with
and refer to the transient component of the mag-
the frequency being equal to the average of the angular frequen-
nified voltage due to the trapped charge in at the instant of
cies and the amplitude
switching (see Fig. 2). The constants in (14) are given by
changing with time. The time instants , when the transient
component of the voltage reaches its peak values, can be
determined from the condition

(15) (22)

and presented as follows:

The circuit resistances and are taken into account
only for calculation of the damping factors and [10][12],
(23)
which are determined similar to [12]

where is a natural number that denotes

a peak number of the voltage waveform across the customer
capacitor.
The substitution of = determined from (23) into
(16) (13) or (19) enables one to obtain the peak values of the voltage
across . According to our calculations for real-world systems,
where the peak number , corresponding to the maximum value of the
voltage, does not exceed 20 due to the circuit damping. Thus,
(17) the maximum voltage across the customer capacitor can
be determined as a maximum value of the first 20 peaks of the
In order to enable a parametric analysis of the voltage , waveform after switching the system capacitor
it is desirable to simplify (13). The simplification can be per-
formed taking into account that in real-world power utilities,
switching the utility capacitor banks results in a rather insignif- (24)
icant voltage change across the customer capacitor [13], that is,
it may be assumed that The value of maximum voltage peak depends on the
circuit parameters and . In the circuit with known
(18) values of and , it is desirable to obtain the size of the
customer capacitor corresponding to the maximum value of
Substitution of (18) into (13)(15) enables receiving the simpli- as well as the maximum voltage peak.
fied expression for the magnified transient voltage The derived equations (13)(24) enable determining the enve-
lope of versus the size of the customer capacitor . The
critical value of and the maximum magnified overvoltage
(19) may be determined numerically from the envelope. The simple
procedure for obtaining the maximum overvoltages and the crit-
where
ical sizes of capacitors may be realized by a utility engineer
using standard technical calculation tools, such as MathCAD
(20)
or Matlab.
800 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 24, NO. 2, APRIL 2009

In addition to using the numerical procedure, it is desirable

for a utility engineer to estimate the critical values analyti-
cally. The analytical interrelation between the critical values of
and can be obtained on the assumption that the
critical combination of the circuit parameters corresponding to
the maximum peak of the magnified overvoltage is close
to their combination conforming to the condition of maximum
value of its transient component.
If the natural angular frequencies and are close to each
other, the transient component of the magnified voltage can be
assumed to be maximal under the condition that reaches
its maximum value [see (19)(21)].
Capacitance of the customer capacitor complying with the
condition of maximum value of can be found through the
partial differentiation of the voltage with respect to ,
and equating
Fig. 3. Relationships between the circuit parameters corresponding to the max-
(25) imum magnified transients.

Assuming that , the solution of (25) is found as

(26)
where
(27)
The is the per-unit voltage change at the utility busbars due
to switching of the utility capacitor bank [13]. Taking into ac-
count that usually lies in a range of 2%3% [13], one can
see that the capacitance ratio conforming to the con-
dition of maximum values of depends above all on the
inductance ratio . source under zero initial conditions. The difference between the
According to our calculations, the sizes of the customer ca-
pacitor , calculated in compliance with (26), are close to
the sizes determined numerically from the envelopes of
versus . relationships (1) and (26) give similar results.
Compare the obtained relationship of the circuit parameters
(26) (further referred to as the new relationship) to the well-
known relationship (1) developed in [1], to the relationship (2)
derived in [8] and to the relationship (7) derived before. The
curves of versus , corresponding to the above re-
lationships, are presented in Fig. 3.
The curves in Fig. 3 illustrate that all of the relationships give
similar results if the ratio does not exceed 0.05. Since
the inductance ratio means the ratio of the short-circuit kilovolt-
amperes at the LV customer busbars to the short-circuit kilovolt-
amperes at the MV utility busbars, it is obvious that for small
customer transformers, all of the relationships give similar sizes
of the utility capacitor leading to the maximum overvoltages.
The difference between the curves becomes significant with the
increase of the short-circuit kilovolt-amperes at the LV customer
busbars.
We suggest that the relationship (1) of the traditional ap-
proach, obtained numerically in [1], can be treated as an approx-
imation of the derived above relationship (7) for small customer
transformers.
Examine the difference between the curves obtained by using
the traditional approach (1) and the new relationship (26).
According to our analysis, the relationship (7) corresponds to
the maximum peak value of the magnified overvoltage regard-
less of the trapped charge in the customer capacitor. Thus, the
circuit parameters complying with the condition (1) lead to the
transient component caused by switching the two-loop circuit
to the voltage source under zero initial conditions to be close
to its maximum. If the customer capacitor is connected to the
LV side of a small customer transformer (the ratio does
not exceed 0.05), the transient component due to the trapped
charge is rather small in comparison with the transient com-
ponent caused by switching the two-loop circuit to the voltage
voltage waveform calculated regardless of the trapped charge
and the real-world waveform computed from (13) or (19) is in-
significant. This is why, for the small customer transformers, the
The transient component caused by switching the two-loop
circuit to the voltage source decreases with the growth of the
kilovolt-amperes rating of the customer transformer [1]. If the
ratio exceeds 0.2, the transient component caused by the
trapped charge has the same value as the transient component
due to switching the two-loop circuit to the voltage source. The
voltage waveform calculated with due account of the trapped
charge (13) differs significantly from the waveform obtained re-
gardless of the trapped charge. This is why for the big customer
transformers , the relationships (1) and (26) give
different results.
According to our analysis, the maximum overvoltages in the
circuits, where the ratio exceeds 0.2, occur at the first
peak (after discharge of the customer capacitor). In order to ob-
tain the critical values of in those circuits, determine the crit-
ical size of the customer capacitor leading to the maximum value
of the first peak of the magnified overvoltage. The substitution
of (1) calculated from (23) into (13) or (19) enables
obtaining the magnitude of the first peak . This magni-
tude can be computed as a function of the capacitance . The
KALYUZHNY et al.: ANALYTICAL STUDY OF VOLTAGE MAGNIFICATION TRANSIENTS DUE TO CAPACITOR SWITCHING
TABLE I
PARAMETERS OF CUSTOMER TRANSFORMERS
critical size of the customer capacitor can be found through nu-
merical partial differentiation of the voltage with respect
to and equating the derivative to zero.
Combinations of the parameters leading to the maximum
values of the first peak can be determined by the fol-
lowing empirical expression:
(28)
In (28), is the kilovolt-amperes rating of the customer
capacitor, is the MVAr rating of the utility capacitor bank,
is the rated voltage of the distribution system, is the
rated voltage of the utility capacitor bank, is the inductance
ratio , and are the empirical functions of
(29)
In (29)
III. CASE STUDY AND THE PROCEDURE VALIDATION
A. Circuit Description
The developed procedure and the derived relationships have
been used for the analysis of the voltage magnification phe-
nomena in the circuit shown in Fig. 1. The circuit parameters
are similar to the typical parameters of the 24-kV distribution
systems in the Israel Electric Corporation.
The utility is represented by the step-down transformer fed
from an infinite HV busbar. The equivalent parameters of the
transformer are: rated power of 45 MV, short-circuit impedance
of 18%, and per-unit copper losses of 0.00375. The system
source strength at the MV utility busbars is 250 MVA.
The MVAr ratings of the 24-kV utility capacitor banks are
as follows: 3 MVAr, 5 MVAr, 6 MVAr, and 9 MVAr.
The phenomena of voltage magnification were analyzed on
the secondary size of the following customer transformers (see
Table I).
These days, the minimum available size of LV power-factor
correction, three-phase capacitors is 1 kVAr [14]. Thus, it is as-
sumed that the size of the customer capacitor varies from 1
kVAr to the customer transformer rating (see Table I).
801
Fig. 4. Voltage magnification at 400-V busbars. (a) Waveform during the first
cycle of the fundamental frequency. (b) Zoom of the waveform near the max-
imum voltage peak.
In order to estimate the maximum expected overvoltages, it
is assumed that the loads connected to the distribution feeders
as well as the load in parallel to the LV capacitor (Fig. 1) can be
neglected.
To limit the number of variables in the study, parameters of
the distribution feeders (see Fig. 1) are not considered in the
model. The location of the customer transformer is assumed to
be electrically close to the MV busbars [3].
The objectives of the case study are:
validation of the developed procedure;
calculation of the maximal magnified transients;
verification of the applicability of the obtained relation-
ships for estimation of the critical sizes of the customer
capacitor.
B. Procedure Validation
In order to validate the developed procedure, the voltage
waveforms computed by using the derived closed-form ex-
pression (19) were compared with the waveforms obtained
by means of EMTP for the three-phase model in Fig. 1. The
waveforms illustrating the voltage magnification at the 400-V
busbars of the 400-kVA transformer due to switching the
6-MVAr utility capacitor bank are shown in Fig. 4.
The analytical waveform (the solid curve) practically co-
incides with the EMTP waveform (the dotted curve) [see
Fig. 4(a)]. The discrepancy between the curves may be found
only if the zoom is used [see Fig. 4(b)]. Analysis of other cases
of the voltage magnification also revealed very good agreement
802 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 24, NO. 2, APRIL 2009

of the analytical results with the pertinent results of EMTP

simulations.

C. Case Study Results

For each combination of the customer transformer size and
the utility capacitor bank size, the following four types of results
are obtained.
1) Results according to the numerical procedure.
The envelope of maximal overvoltages across the LV ter-
minals versus is calculated by using the devel-
oped procedure. The maximal value of the overvoltages
and the corresponding value of are determined
from the envelope.
2) Results according to the new relationship.
The size of the customer capacitor is computed in com-
pliance with (26). Substitution of the obtained value of
into (13) or (19) enables obtaining waveform with the max-
Fig. 5. Envelopes of maximum magnified voltages at LV busbars of the
imum voltage peak . 400-kVA transformer versus kVAr rating of the customer capacitor.
3) Results according to the condition of the maximum value
of the first peak.
The size of the customer capacitor conforming to (28) and TABLE II
VOLTAGE MAGNIFICATION AT THE LV SIDE OF THE 400-kVA TRANSFORMER
(29) is calculated. Substitution of the into (13) or (19)
enables obtaining the waveform with the maximized value
of the first peak .
4) Results according to the traditional approach.
The size of the customer capacitor is calculated subject to
(1). Substitution of the obtained value of into (13) or
(19) enables obtaining .
Maximum values of the magnified overvoltages depend on
the ratio of the equivalent inductances [1], [2].
This ratio for the considered sizes of the customer transformer
(Table I) varies from 2.5 to 37. The study results of the voltage
magnification at the LV terminals of the 400-kVA transformer are more than twice as big than the sizes calculated under the
and of the 4000-kVA transformer are condition of the maximum value of the first peak. The afore-
hereinafter detailed. mentioned difference takes place because in the circuits with
high ratio of the equivalent inductances , the max-
D. Voltage Magnification on LV Busbars of the 400-kVA imum overvoltages never occur at the first peak of the transient
Transformer voltage but at the subsequent peaks (see Fig. 4).
The envelopes of maximal transient overvoltages at the LV The sizes of , calculated according to the traditional ap-
terminals of the 400-kVA transformer for the considered sizes proach (1) are 13%25% bigger than the sizes determined from
of the utility capacitor are shown in Fig. 5. the envelopes of the maximum transient voltages. The maximal
The voltages are given in per unit of the line-to-line peak overvoltages according to the traditional approach are 4%7%
voltage. The curves illustrate that the voltage magnification tran- smaller than the real maximal overvoltages.
sients on the LV customer busbars may reach 4.85.3 p.u. These
severe overvoltages can occur over a wide range of the customer E. Voltage Magnification on the LV Busbars of the 4000-kVA
capacitor sizes. Transformer
The maximum overvoltages and the corre- The envelopes of maximal magnified voltage stresses on the
sponding kVAr ratings of the customer capacitor determined customer capacitor for the considered sizes of the utility
in compliance with the detailed aforementioned types of the capacitor bank are shown in Fig. 6.
results are given in Table II. The curves illustrate that the voltage magnification transients
Table II illustrates that the sizes of the customer capacitor on the LV customer busbars may reach 3.23.3 p.u. One can see
calculated according to the new relationship (26) as well that the size of the utility capacitor bank (varying from 3 to 9
as the maximum overvoltages are in good agreement with the MVAr) exerts an insignificant effect on the maximum values of
data determined from the envelopes of the maximum transient the magnified overvoltages.
voltages (the numerical procedure). The results of calculations of the maximal magnified tran-
The maximum overvoltages occurring at the first peak are sients are summarized in Table III. From Table III, we notice
30%45% smaller than the maximum magnified overvoltages. that the sizes of the customer capacitor , calculated according
The sizes of , corresponding to the maximum overvoltages, to the new relationship (26), are 12%14% bigger than the sizes
KALYUZHNY et al.: ANALYTICAL STUDY OF VOLTAGE MAGNIFICATION TRANSIENTS DUE TO CAPACITOR SWITCHING
Fig. 6. Envelopes of maximum magnified voltages at LV busbars of the
4000-kVA transformer versus the kVAr rating of the customer capacitor.
TABLE III
VOLTAGE MAGNIFICATION AT THE LV SIDE OF THE 4000-kVA TRANSFORMER
determined from the numerical procedure. The aforementioned
difference results from the fact that , computed according
to the new relationship, conforms to the maximum value of
the transient component of the magnified voltage The
determined according to the numerical procedure, complies
with the condition of the maximum value of the voltage curve
, where the transient component is superimposed upon
the steady-state 50-Hz fundamental voltage [see (19)].
The maximum overvoltages and the capacitor sizes com-
plying with the condition of the maximum value of the first
peak are in very close agreement with the pertinent values
determined from the numerical procedure.
The aforementioned agreement takes place because in the cir-
cuits, with the ratio being smaller than 5, the maximum
overvoltages occur at the first peak of the waveform
This is why the sizes of the customer capacitor, calculated ac-
cording to the condition of the maximum value of the first peak
(28)(29), coincide with the capacitor sizes corresponding to the
maximum magnified overvoltages.
The sizes of , calculated according to the traditional ap-
proach (1), are about three times the size of those determined
by using the numerical procedure.
803
Fig. 7. Maximum transient overvoltages at LV busbars of the 4000-kVA trans-
former versus MVAr rating of the utility capacitor.
The maximum magnified transients determined from the nu-
merical procedure as well as the maximal overvoltages corre-
sponding to the capacitor sizes obtained in compliance with the
new relationship and with the traditional approach are presented
in Fig. 7.
We see that the voltage envelope calculated by using the new
relationship (the dotted line) is in very close agreement with the
voltage envelope determined from the numerical procedure (the
solid line). On the other hand, the overvoltages corresponding
to the capacitor sizes, which were determined conforming to the
traditional approach, are 20%30% smaller than the maximum
expected overvoltages.
It is evident that using the traditional approach for estimation
of the maximum overvoltages in the circuits with the inductance
ratio may result in calculation of the magnified
overvoltages that are significantly smaller than the real-world
values.
The results of the case study show that the critical sizes of the
capacitors conforming to the maximum magnified transients can
be evaluated by using the new relationship (26) for all possible
values of the ratio . These values can be used as a first
approximation for the developed numerical procedure.
The critical sizes of the customer capacitors in the circuits
, with the ratio smaller than 5, may be obtained from the
condition of the maximum value of the first peak (28)(29).
F. Envelope of the Maximum Overvoltages on the Secondary
Side of the Customer Transformers
The calculation of the magnified transients on the secondary
side of the customer transformers listed in Table I enabled de-
termining the envelope of the maximum overvoltages versus the
inductance ratio .
The maximum magnified voltages were compared with the
permissible transient voltages that may be applied across the
. phases on the LV side of the customer transformers. According
to [15], the rated impulse voltage of three-phase 400-V equip-
ment is 4000 V (peak). Taking into account that the basic
switching impulse insulation level of the equipment can be
estimated as 0.83 BIL as well as that the 15% safety factor
for the permissible overvoltages shall be considered [16], it was
assumed that the permissible magnified overvoltage is 2887 V
(peak) (i.e., 5.1 p.u.).
804 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 24, NO. 2, APRIL 2009

In the circuits with the ratio smaller than 5, the critical

sizes of the capacitors may be obtained from the condition of the
maximum value of the first peak (28)(29).
The developed procedure and the derived relationships have
been applied in the real-world power utility. The envelope of
maximum expected overvoltages on the secondary side of the
customer transformers has been obtained. The customer trans-
formers, wherein the magnified overvoltages may exceed the
permissible level, have been found.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank D. Amdur and B. Reshef from
the Israel Electric Corporation for their support of this research.

Fig. 8. Envelope of the maximum magnified overvoltages at the LV busbars of
the customer transformers: 1) 250 kVA, 2) 400 kVA, 3) 630 kVA, 4) 1000 kVA,
5) 2000 kVA, 6) 4000 kVA, and 7) 5000 kVA.
The envelope of the magnified overvoltages, together with
the permissible voltage level, is shown in Fig. 8. The points
corresponding to the maximum magnified transients on the LV
side of the customer transformers under study are indicated on
the envelope.
The curves in Fig. 8 illustrate that the maximum magnified
transients vary from 3.15 to 6.1 p.u., depending on the type of
customer transformer. The magnified overvoltages may exceed
the permissible level on the LV side of 250-kVA and 400-kVA
customer transformers. Solutions to reduce the magnified over-
voltages on the secondary sides of the aforementioned trans-
formers should be considered [3], [5], [6].
IV. SUMMARY
The traditional approach to understand the voltage magnifi-
cation phenomena is analyzed. It is shown that the existing con-
dition of the maximum magnified overvoltages was derived re-
gardless of the trapped charge in the customer capacitor at the in-
stant of switching the utility capacitor. Using the traditional ap-
proach for the circuits with big customer transformers may give
values of the voltage stresses, which are significantly smaller
than the real magnified overvoltages.
The closed-form expressions for the waveform of the magni-
fied overvoltages are derived. The voltage waveforms computed
by using the closed-form expressions were found to be in very
good agreement with the waveforms obtained by means of the
EMTP program.
The simple numerical procedure based on the aforementioned
closed-form expressions is developed. The procedure enables
determining the maximal magnified overvoltages and the corre-
sponding sizes of the capacitors.
The critical sizes of the capacitors corresponding to the max-
imum overvoltages can be evaluated by using the derived new
relationship (26).
REFERENCES
[1] A. J. Schultz, I. B. Johnson, and N. R. Schultz, Magnification of
switching surges, AIEE Trans. Power App. Syst., vol. PAS-77, pp.
14181426, Feb. 1959.
[2] J. Zaborszky and J. W. Rittenhouse, Fundamental aspects of some
switching overvoltages on power systems, AIEE Trans. Power App.
Syst., vol. PAS-82, no. 64, pp. 815822, Feb. 1963.
[3] M. F. McGranaghan, R. M. Zavadil, G. Hensley, T. Singh, and M.
Samotyj, Impact of utility switched capacitors on customer sys-
temsMagnification at low capacitors, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol.
7, no. 2, pp. 862868, Apr. 1992.
[4] D. M. Dunsmore, E. R. Taylor, B. F. Wirtz, and T. I. Yanchula,
Magnification of transient voltages in multi-voltage-level-shunt-ca-
pacitor-compensated circuits, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 7, no. 2,
pp. 664673, Apr. 1992.
[5] T. E. Grebe, Application of distribution system capacitor banks and
their impact on power quality, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 32, no. 3,
pp. 714719, May/Jun. 1996.
[6] R. A. Adams, S. W. Middlekauff, E. H. Camm, and J. A. McGee,
Solving customer quality problems due to voltage magnification,
IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 15151520, Oct. 1998.
[7] N. Ramasamy, Power Systems Capacitors. New York: Taylor &
Francis, 2005.
[8] M. Saied, Analysis of the amplitude and frequencies of the voltage
magnification transients in distribution networks due to capacitor
switching, in Proc. IEEE Power Eng. Soc. Transm. Distrib. Conf.
Expo.: Latin America, Nov. 2004, pp. 3438.
[9] J. S. Das, Analysis and control of large-shunt-capacitor-bank
switching transients, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 41, no. 6, pp.
14441451, Nov./Dec. 2005.
[10] IEEE Application Guide for Capacitance Current Switching for AC
High Voltage Circuit Breakers Rated on a Symmetrical Current Basis,
ANSI/IEEE Std.C37.0121979 (R2000), 1979.
[11] A. Greenwood, Electrical Transients in Power Systems. New York:
Wiley, 1991.
[12] M. L. Levinstein, Operational Calculus in Electrical Power Problems
Leningrad: Energia, 1972, (in Russian).
[13] IEEE Guide for Application of Shunt Power Capacitors, IEEE Std.
1036-1992, Sep. 1992.
[14] Low-voltage power factor correction capacitors, GE Corp., GEP-
974-G 2003.
[15] Insulation Coordination for Equipment Within Low-Voltage Sys-
temsPart 2-1: Application Guide, IEC Std. 60664-2-1, 1997.
[16] M. Vogel, Improve reliability and protection of your substation with
silicone rubber-housed MOV technology, The Line, vol. 5, pp. 1718,
May 2006.
Aaron Kalyuzhny (M98) graduated from the
Novosibirsk Technical University, Novosibirsk,
Russia, in 1980. He received the Ph.D. degree in
electrical engineering from the Siberian Research
Institute of Energy, Novosibirsk, in 1990.
Currently, he is with the Israel Electric Corporation
Ltd., Haifa, Israel. His research interests include un-
balance steady states and transients in power systems
as well as different aspects of reactive power com-
pensation.
KALYUZHNY et al.: ANALYTICAL STUDY OF VOLTAGE MAGNIFICATION TRANSIENTS DUE TO CAPACITOR SWITCHING 805

Silviu Zissu (M87) received the M.S. and Ph.D. de- Dan Shein (M89) received the Dipl.-Ing. degree in
grees in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic electrical power engineering from the Polytechnic
University, Bucharest, Romania, in 1970 and 1984, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania, in
respectively. 1972 and the M.S. degree in electrical engineering
Currently, he is an Expert Engineer in the Tran- from TechnionIsrael Institute of Technology,
sient Phenomena Section of the Israel Electric Cor- Haifa, Israel, in 1982.
poration Ltd., Haifa, Israel, where he has been since Currently, he is a Senior Expert Engineer in the
1986. His research interests include electromagnetic Planning, Development and Technology Division of
transients, insulation coordination, overvoltage pro- Israel Electric Corporation. Currently, he is the Head
tection, and ferroresonance in power systems. of the Transient Phenomena Section. His research
interests include overvoltage protection, insulation
coordination, electromagnetic transients, Electromagnetic Transients Program
(EMTP) applications, and power system stability.