Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
4, October 1996
Keywords: Shunt capacitor banks, metal oxide arrester In this paper it is assumed that all surge arrester applications
applications, surge arresters, surge protection, overvoltage are of the metal oxide type. However, existing surge arresters
protection, insulation coordination. at a station may consist of gapped silicon carbide, metal oxide,
or a combination of both. If so, the ratings of both types must
1. INTRODUCTION be taken into consideration to ensure proper coordination.
Autility survey, followed by a working group report in 1991 The subject matter is broad and has many complexities. It is
[l], indicated the need for better information on the selection not possible in this limited space, to cover all aspects of
of, and duty imposed on surge arresters located near shunt switched shunt capacitor banks, nor to offer solutions to
capacitor banks. Existing standards and application guides specific problems that may be associated with a particular
[2,3,4,5,6], relating to shunt capacitor banks and surge installation. In some cases reference material may provide the
arresters, are useful in explaining the rating structure and necessary details. In other cases it may become necessary to
capabilities, including the basic applications and procedures. model a part of the power system near the capacitor bank and
However, many important and specific details, as well as carry out a transient analysis using a transient network
system considerations, for the application of surge arresters in analyzer (TNA), [7] or a digital simulation program such as the
combination with shunt capacitor banks are lacking. Electromagnetic Transients Program (EMTP) [SI.
The number of applications of high voltage shunt capacitor 3. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR SHUNT
banks in substations has increased significantly over the past CAPACITOR BANKS
decade. This is primarily due to voltage regulation problems
associated with increasing loading levels on existing 3.1 Capacitor Bank Installations
transmission systems. In many applications shunt capacitor
banks are often switched on a daily basis to maintain control In many utilities there is a growing trend to use shunt capacitor
of system voltage levels during load changes. As a banks to provide voltage support due to the lack of an adequate
consequence, the switching of shunt capacitor banks has often power transmission system. Shunt capacitor banks are usually
become the most common source of transient voltages on installed on the transmission system at major buses to provide
many power systems. Certain switching operations can also voltage support for a large area. The size and location of the
present some potentially hazardous overvoltage conditions, not banks are usually based on load flow and stability studies of
only to the capacitor bank, but to other nearby equipment such the transmission network. As indicated from the survey
as circuit breakers and transformers. referred to above, shunt capacitors are being applied at all
voltage levels up to 500 kV, with bank sizes ranging from a
few Mvar to more than 300 Mvar.
96 WM 014-1 PWRI) A paper recommended and approved by the IEEE
Surge Protective Devices Committee of the lEEE Power Engineering Society As more capacitor banks are added to the power system there
for presentation at the 1996 IEEE/PES Winter Meeting, January 21-25, 1996,
will likely be installations with more than one bank on the
Baltimore, MD. Manuscript submitted August 8, 1995; made available for
printing November 13, 1995.
The type of switchgear used to switch high voltage shunt When a capacitor bank is energized or de-energized, the
capacitor banks can have a significant effect on the nature and fundamental system voltage level will change according to the
magnitude of the transient overvoltages produced [9,10,11,12]. bank size and the available short circuit impedance at the bus
location. Although the steady state voltage change is usually
For many years oil circuit breakers were commonly used to limited to 2-4 %, it is not uncommon for the operating voltage
switch shunt capacitor banks. Capacitive switching poses a level to change 10% or more for shoirt periods, while
particularly difficult problem for most oil circuit breakers. adjustments are being made to the new operating conditions.
The interrupters in these circuit breakers require several cycles Since the maximum continuous operating voltage is an
of arcing prior to successful interruption of fault current. important consideration in the application of metal oxide surge
However, these same interrupters can easily interrupt the low arresters, these system operating conditions ,and voltage 1eve:ls
level of capacitive current at the first zero crossing. This should be recognized in the selection of surge arrester voltage
usually occurs before the contacts have achieved sufficient ratings.
separation distance to establish the high dielectric strength
required to withstand the peak recovery voltages associated The switching duty imposed on existing circuit breakers that
with capacitor switching. In this situation the oil circuit may become involved 'in capacitor switching operations ( e.;!.,
breaker can restrike resulting in high transient overvoltages. local breaker backup) can be severe. Since: the magnitude of
the capacitor current being interrupted and the initial recovery
Although oil breakers are still being used by some utilities for voltages are low, the current is usually interrupted at the first
capacitor switching, these circuit breakers can lead to severe current zero crossing after contact parting. However, the
overvoltage problems and arrester energy dissipation. transient recovery voltage (TRV) on the first pole to clear
reaches 2 per unit @U) on grounded banks and 2.5 pu on
Fortunately, gas circuit breakers (e.g., air blast and SFJ, which ungrounded banks, one-half cycle after current interruption.
have become much more common throughout the industry, If the breaker fails to withstand this TR'V, current will be
have a much better capability for capacitor switching and are reestablished due to a dielectric breakdown across the contact
now used almost exclusively to switch capacitor banks at the gap, (termed a reignition or a restrike depending on the delay
higher voltage levels. Since gas breakers can easily cope with between initial interruption and the subsequent breakdown).
high recovery voltages without restrikes, the de-energization
of a capacitor bank usually results in harmless switching The steep-fronted surges associated with all energizing
transients. On the other hand, it becomes expensive to install operations and restrikes will be impressed not only on all local
closing resistors in gas breakers at the higher voltage levels - equipment but will propagate outwardly on all lines
so closing transients may still present problems. terminating on the station bus. This can cause severe
overvoltage stresses on low voltage equipment in the
Although vacuum switchgear is commonly used to switch substation and to power transformers, particularly if connected
capacitors in the lower voltage ranges, they have been known to the end of radially fed lines. Excessive phase-to-phase
to produce significant transient overvoltages when switching transient voltages and transformer part-winding resonance ,are
1800
two of the well-known problems that have occurred. capacitor banks (C) are being planned, the possibility of
resonance conditions must be considered. This is true for linear
The oscillatory portion of the capacitor switching transient can resonance as well as ferroresonance. The occurrence o f either
have a significant impact on low voltage equipment. Large condition can impose severe duties on surge arresters if the
voltage transients may be impressed across primary and overvoltages under such conditions are high enough to cause
secondary current transformer windings as well as on low surge arresters to operate.
voltage power supply and metering circuits. Ferroresonance conditions have been reported on some
ungrounded-wye capacitor banks. One such condition involves
The presence of series reactors introduces several additional two phases of the capacitor bank in series with one phase of a
considerations during the study of surge protection for shunt grounded neutral transformer bank. It can occur due to
capacitor banks. First, some provision must be made to protect significant differences in pole interruption times of the
the reactor from transient overvoltage stresses that will be switching device [9].
impressed since it will appear as a high impedance.
Additionally, depending on the size of the reactor and the 3.5 Existing Surge Arresters
capacitor bank, the arrester may have to discharge a large
amount of energy during faults near the capacitor bank. It is not uncommon for shunt capacitor banks to be installed at
a substation that contains equipment already protected by
The switching of shunt capacitor banks on a station bus will surge arresters. The rating of all existing surge arresters must
generate voltage and current transients that can create be taken into consideration to ensure that the duty imposed
problems for nearby equipment and other parts of the during capacitor switching operations will not exceed their
interconnected system [14]. While these transients are capabilities. This applies particularly to gapped silicon carbide
generally comparable to those encountered with other (Sic) surge arresters that can be severely damaged if a
switching operations, the transients will occur more often since sparkover occurs during capacitor switching. Sometimes they
capacitor banks are likely to be switched on a daily basis. In may have to be replaced with metal oxide arresters while in
addition, if the breaker is not restrike-free, the magnitude of other cases it may be possible to coordinate the ratings so the
the transient overvoltages will be significantly higher, duty from capacitor switching will be placed only on metal
typically by a factor of two. oxide arresters.
nearby, additional arresters may not be needed. If the existing protection of shunt capacitor banks. The median impulse
station arresters are rated for lightning surge discharge duty, charge for the fast rising negative impulse component (ai) is
then they will adequately protect the capacitor bank for approximately 5 coulombs for the first stroke and 1 couloinb
lightning surges providing shielding is in place. If the bank is for each subsequent stroke [ 161.
not self-protecting or if the nearby arrester locations and/or
duties are not adequate, additional arresters must be installed. 3.6.2 Shielding Failure - Shielding failures tend to be caused
by low current first-stroke events. Some shielding failures will
In most cases, determining capacitor bank protection will cause a flashover of line insulation to ground, and cannot be
require a simulation study that rakes into consideration details treated in the same manner as backflashoverai. The main danger
of the complete station layout, including equipment bus to capacitor banks would be caused by a shielding failure that
connections, and surge arrester locations as well as the type of does not result in a line flashover. Some 10% of lightning
bank, its size, configuration and exposure to lightning surges. strokes have current durations that exceed1 100 ms, resultilng
The frequency and magnitude of the acceptable overvoltages from low-amplitude (100 A) long duratioln (200 ms) events
also must be determined. The lines entering the station must be between retum strokes. The continuing current component can
evaluated for the number of lightning strokes to the line, the inject a charge (Qc) of typically 25 couloimbs into the phase
origin of the surge (shielding failure or backflash), the line conductor. The distribution of this charge into the power
critical flashover voltage, and the waveshape and attenuation system should be computed to establish the portion of ithe
of the surge entering the station. A detailed analysis can be charge that will lead to a voltage rise on the capacitor bank
done using the Electromagnetic Transients Program (EMTF'). [161*
The range of overcurrents and overvoltages that a capacitor 4.OVERVOLTAGES ASSOCIATED WITH CAPACITOR
may be expected to withstand during its lifetime depends on BANK SWITCHING
the magnitude, duration and frequency of occurrence. The
tables in Section 8.3.2 of the IEEE Standard for Shunt Power The switching of any capacitor bank produces overvoltages.
Capacitors [4] are intended to provide some guidelines for this Transient overvoltages will always occur dluring energization
evaluation. and will only occur during de-energization if restrikes occur
in the switching device [17]. Arresters located in the substat ion
An analysis of the charge content of the stroke is necessary to to protect transformers and other equipment from overvoltages
detemiine whether a capacitor bank is self-protecting and to can be severely stressed from an energy dissipation standpalint
calcu1,ate the required arrester discharge duty. The capacitor during capacitor switching because of the large amount of
voltage will depend on the charge absorbed. In general, the energy stored in a capacitor bank. The ability of all nearby
voltage rise in the capacitor bank is determined by the arresters to withstand the energy dissipated during capacitor
following equation: switching is therefore an important consideration.
when the arrester sparks over. The current magnitude and These differences may be the result of arc duration or timing.
duration are of primary concem for S i c arresters. It may be An example of this circuit condition is shown in Fig. 5.This
possible to apply metal-oxide arresters in a station to protect ferroresonance condition can impose significant duty on surge
existing Sic arresters from the surges associated with arresters [ 9 ] .
restriking during the de-energization of a capacitor bank.
I- 1.1 c (**I VOLTAGES:
Simplified methods can be used to make a preliminary *XWRCE
assessment of the energy dissipation duty that an arrester may
experience during the de-energbation of a capacitor bank.
R + SOURCE
However, a detailed computer simulation is usually needed to VOLTAGE
determine the arrester energy rating. 8 + VOLTAGES
CAPACITOR
On a 230 kV system, with an installed shunt capacitor bank [l] IEEE, PES Surge Protective Devices Committee, WG
of 200 Mvar, the energy dissipated in the arrester would be 3.4.17, "Surge Protection of High Voltage Shunt Capacitor
about 400 kJ. For a selected arrester with an MCOV rating of Banks on AC Power Systems - Survey Results and
144 kV this would represent 2.2 kJ per kV of duty cycle rating. Application Considerations," IEEE Trans. Power Delivery,
Vol. 6, no. 3, July 1991, pp. 1065-1072.
As indicated previously stuck pole conditions on a circuit
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adequate but in some cases using arresters with additional Metal-Oxide Surge Arresters for Alternating-Current
parallel columns to handle the energy involved may be Systems. I'
necessary. If so a routine test should be used to ensure current
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[27] L. Stenstrom, "Application Guidelines for Shunt
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[29]J. H. Brunke, and G. G. Schockeit, "Synchronous
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