Breaking News

Up tp 93% Off - Launching Official Electrical Technology Store - Shop Now!




 OFFICIAL STORE
 WRITE FOR ET
 ADVERTISE
 PRIVACY POLICY
 CONTACT US

ELECTRICAL TECHNOLOGY
 Home
 TUTORIALS
 ELECTRICAL WIRING
 EE ESSENTIALS
 BASIC
 MACHINES
 POWER
 CONTROL
 ELECTRONICS
 More
 Search for
 Home>Capacitors>CAPACITOR BANKS – CHARACTERISTICS AND APPLICATIONS
CapacitorsElectrical DesignPower factorPower System

CAPACITOR BANKS –
CHARACTERISTICS AND APPLICATIONS
Electrical Technology

4 6 minutes read

INTRODUCTION TO CAPACITOR BANKS, ITS CHARACTERISTICS
AND APPLICATIONS
By: Manuel Bolotinha
Table of Contents
 DEFINITION OF AND CHARACTERISTICS OF CAPACITORS
 USE OF CAPACITORS AND CAPACITOR BANKS
 TRANSIENT DISTURBANCES AND HARMONICS
 POWER FACTOR CORRECTION
o About the Author: Manuel Bolotinha

DEFINITION OF AND CHARACTERISTICS OF CAPACITORS

A capacitor, also known as “condenser” is an electrical element with two
electrical conductors separated by an insulator material (dielectric), as
shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 – Simplified scheme of a capacitor

The electric parameter that defines a capacitor is the “capacitance”

(symbol: C) and the unit, according to International System of Units (SI), is
“farad” (symbol: F).
The most common used dielectrics are:
 Ceramics
 Plastic films
 Oxide layer on metal (Aluminum; Tantalum; Niobium)
 Mica, glass, paper, air and other similar natural materials
 Vacuum
USE OF CAPACITORS AND CAPACITOR BANKS
 In power electric systems capacitors and capacitors banks, which must be
in accordance with IEC[1] Standards 60143 and 60871 or IEEE[2] Standard 824,
are used to:
 Compensate reactive energy (power factor correction) due to
consumers (MV and LV) and the inductive effect of long overhead
lines and underground cables (MV and MV).
 Provide voltage regulation (HV[3]).
 Start of single phase squirrel cage motors (LV).
A shunt capacitor bank (or simply capacitor bank) is a set of capacitor units,
arranged in parallel/series association within a steel enclosure.
Usually fuses are used to protect capacitor units and they may be
located inside the capacitor unit, on each element, or outside the unit.
Capacitor banks may be star or delta connected. Delta-connected banks are
generally used only in MV distribution networks and in LV installations.
Figure 2 shows what was explained above.
 Figure 2 – Schematic diagram of a capacitor bank

Capacitors may retain a charge long after power is removed from a

circuit; this charge can cause dangerous or even potentially fatal
shocks or damage connected equipment.
Capacitors banks may have built-in discharge resistors to dissipate stored
energy to a safe level within a few seconds after power is removed.
Capacitors banks shall be stored with the terminals shorted,
as protection from potentially dangerous voltages due to dielectric
absorption[4].
HV capacitor banks are installed outdoors, surrounded by a fence, and LV
capacitor banks are installed indoors, in metallic enclosures (switchboards).
In MV installations capacitor banks may be installed
either outdoors, surrounded by a fence or in the pole of a MV overhead line,
or indoors, in metallic enclosures (switchgears).
The fence must have a lock with a delayed opening to assure the time
requested for the complete discharge of the capacitors.

Examples of capacitor banks are shown in figures 3 and 4.

Figure 3 – HV Capacitor bank

 Figure 4 – LV Capacitor bank

TRANSIENT DISTURBANCES AND HARMONICS

During electrical switching of capacitor banks, transient
disturbances (during a short time) occur in power systems that may damage
key equipment, potentially having a great impact on system reliability.
An oscillation of the power system and electromagnetic pulses (EMP) can be
provoked by that sudden change of a circuit.
One of those transient disturbances is overvoltage (known as “switching
overvoltages”) that influences the required insulation level of the network
and of the equipments.
During the switching of capacitor banks, high magnitude and high
frequency transients can occur.
The impedance of a circuit dictates the current flow in that circuit.
As the supply impedance is generally considered to be inductive, the network
impedance increases with frequency while the impedance of a
capacitor decreases. This encourages a greater proportion of the currents
circulating at frequencies above the fundamental supply frequency (50Hz or
 60 Hz) to be absorbed by the capacitor, and all equipment associated with the
capacitor.
In certain circumstances such currents can exceed the value of
the fundamental (50Hz or 60 Hz) capacitor current. These currents in turn
cause increased voltage to be applied across the dielectric of the capacitor.
The harmonic voltage due to each harmonic current added arithmetically to
the fundamental voltage dictates the voltage stress to be sustained by
the capacitor dielectric and for which the capacitor must be designed, to
avoid additional heating and higher dielectric stress.
Capacitors may catastrophically fail when subjected to voltages or
currents beyond their rating, or as they reach their normal end of
life. Dielectric or metal interconnection failures may
create arcing that vaporizes the dielectric fluid, resulting in that case bulging,
rupture, or even an explosion.
Capacitors units are intended to be operated at or below their rated
voltage and frequency.
IEEE Std. 18-1992 and Std 1036-1992 specifies the standard ratings of the
capacitors designed for shunt connection to ac systems and also provide
application guidelines. These standards stipulate that:
 Capacitor units should be capable of continuous operation up
to 110% of rated terminal rms[5] voltage and a crest (peak) voltage not
exceeding 2 x √2 of rated rms voltage, including harmonics but excluding
transients. The capacitor should also be able to carry 135% of nominal
current.
 Capacitors units should not
give less than 100% and more than 115% of rated reactive power at rated
sinusoidal voltage and frequency.
 Capacitor units should be suitable for continuous operation at up
to 135% of rated reactive power caused by the combined effects of:
 Voltage in excess of the nameplate rating at fundamental frequency, but
not over 110% of rated rms voltage.
 Harmonic voltages superimposed on the fundamental
frequency: reactive power manufacturing tolerance of up to 115% of rated
reactive power.

If harmonic problems
exist, they most often manifest themselves first at shunt capacitor banks in the
form of audible noise, blown fuses or capacitor unit failures.
As frequency varies, so reactance varies and a point can be reached when
the capacitor reactance and the supply reactance are equal. This point is
known as the circuit resonant frequency.
Whenever power factor correction is applied to a distribution network, bringing
together capacitance and inductance, there will always be a frequency at
which the capacitors are in parallel resonance with the supply.
If this condition occurs at, or close to, one of the harmonics generated by
any solid state control equipment, then large harmonic
currents can circulate between the supply network and the capacitor
equipment, limited only by the damping resistance in the circuit.
Such currents will add to the harmonic voltage disturbance in the network
causing an increased voltage distortion.
This result in an unacceptably high voltage across the capacitor
dielectric coupled with an excessive current through all the capacitor ancillary
components. The most common order of harmonics is 5th, 7th, 11th and
13th but resonance can occur at any frequency.
Capacitors can be effectively applied in these types of environments by
selecting compensation levels that do not tune the circuit or by the use of
a filter.
POWER FACTOR CORRECTION
In electrical installations, namely in industry, exists several consumers, such
as motors, that have an important inductive load that provokes a phase
shift between voltage and current, as show on the figure below.

Figure 5 – Phase shift

Phase shift is represented as an angle (Ф) and current may be

in advance or delayed of voltage.
If capacitance of the circuit prevails current is advanced; if inductance
prevails current is delayed.
This phase shift provokes that “useful power” (active power – unit: W or kW)
is lower than the power supplied (apparent power – unit: VA or kVA),
the difference being the reactive power – unit: VAr or kVAr.
Representing those powers by vectors, the “power triangle” may be as
shown on the figure below.
 Figure 6 – Power triangle

The cosine of Ф (cos Ф) is the power factor, its value varies from 0 to 1 and

the relations between the powers in the above triangle are:
P = S x cos Φ
Q = S x sen Φ
The consequences of a low power factor are:
 Higher currents in cables.
 Higher losses by Joule effect in the conductors.
 Higher voltage drops
In most countries electricity distribution companies do not allow power
factor to be lower than a defined value (in Europe it must be cos Ф ≥ 0.93
<> tg Ф ≤ 0.4) and impose penalties to clients that do not comply with this
requirement.
When correcting power factor, clients avoid those penalties and in addition the
reduction of losses can provide the utility with the additional benefit of
reducing the apparent substation demand during peak loading conditions and
the released system capacity can then be used to deliver more real power
from the existing system, resulting in a more efficiently run power system.
 Also the cross-section of the conductors can be reduced as advantage by
improving the power factor.
When installing capacitor banks it is necessary to:

 Calculate the bank size (the size of a capacitor bank is defined kVAr)

 Determine the location for connection.
 Select a control method.
To calculate the size of the capacitor bank (Q), the following equation must be
used: You may also convert the capacitor bank kVAr and Farads as well.
Q [kVAr] = P [kW] x (tan Ф1 – tan Ф2)
P is the active power of the installation; Ф1 is the voltage and current phase
shift of the installation; Ф2 is the desired voltage and current phase shift.
To define the location of the capacitor bank it must be taken into account that
three methods are used for power factor correction, which depends of
the location of the inductive loads and their requested reactive power:
 Centralized correction: one capacitor bank is installed near the main
incoming switchboard (see Figure 7).
 De-centralized correction: capacitor banks are installed near distribution
switchboards that supply energy to the main consumers responsible for the
low power factor (see Figure 8).
 Local correction: capacitor banks are installed near individual
consumers (see Figure 9).
 Centralized Power Factor (P.f) correction

De-centralized P.f
correction
 Figure 9 – Local
correction

For MV installations capacitor banks may be divided in steps and controlled

by a VAr relay or an electronic controller, that monitors and switches
steps or the whole capacitor bank based on real time network
conditions what is shown in Figure 10, to avoid the supply of reactive power
to the network, situation that is also subjected to penalties applied by
the electricity distribution companies.

Figure 10 – VAr relay

[1]
 IEC: International Electrotechnical Commission.
[2]
 IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (USA).
[3]
 HV: High Voltage (V ≥ 60 kV); MV: Medium Voltage (1 kV < V < 60
kV); LV: Low Voltage (V ≤ 1 kV).
[4] 
Dielectric absorption is the phenomenon by which a capacitor that has
been charged for a long time does not discharges completely when
submitted to a short discharge.
[5]
 rms: root mean square.
 About the Author: Manuel Bolotinha
-Licentiate Degree in Electrical Engineering – Energy and Power Systems
(1974 – Instituto Superior Técnico/University of Lisbon)
– Master Degree in Electrical and Computers Engineering (2017 – Faculdade
de Ciências e Tecnologia/Nova University of Lisbon)
– Senior Consultant in Substations and Power Systems; Professional
Instructor
You may also read:

 How to Test a Capacitor? 6 Ways to Check a Capacitor

 Capacitors MCQs with Explanatory Answers
 What is the Role of Capacitor in AC and DC Circuit?
 Tags
CapacitorCapacitor BankP.fPower FactorPower Factor Correction
FacebookTwitterLinkedInTumblrPinterestRedditVKontakteShare via EmailPrint
Electrical Technology
All about Electrical & Electronics Engineering & Technology. Follow Electrical Technology on
Facebook, Twitter , Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, & Linkedin to get the latest updates or
subscribe Here to get latest Engineering Articles in your mailbox.

 Website
 Facebook
 Twitter
 LinkedIn
 Flickr
 YouTube
 Pinterest
 Instagram

What is MEMS - Microelectromechanical Systems Technology ?

 What is GSM and How does it Work?

Related Articles

A Complete Guide About Solar Panel Installation. Step by Step Procedure with
Calculation & Diagrams

Automatic UPS / Inverter Wiring & Connection Diagram to the Home

How to Connect Automatic UPS / Inverter to the Home Supply System?

 Why Transformer Rated In kVA, Not in KW?

Electrical Earthing – Methods and Types of Earthing & Grounding

How to Calculate the Suitable Capacitor Size in Farads & kVAR for Power factor
Improvement

4 Comments

1.
2. Naveensays:

Sir in solar plant 1 MW plat inverter takes return supply from grid(117 KVA).after open the ac
beaker also it records the data due to capacitor banks.why it is happening.please solve my
problem.
Reply

3. edsays:

If I have a connected load of 250 kw, but peaks momentarily to 360 kw, say, if a motor would
restart after a failure thus inducing a high starting current, which one should I follow to calculate
the KVAR?
Reply

1. Shaukat Daudisays:
You consider only rated power of motor i.e. 250kw . to calculate Kvar
Reply
4. Sajad Ahmadsays:

I have question regarding a 1700kw motor. I don’t understand if this motor has 181 full load
current but during running it actually runs on 161 amperes which are almost 1800kw. So my
question is how it could run beyond its capacity as we have proper capacitor bank installed
voltage is 6.56-6.6kv and 0.95pf. Please help me. Thanks in advance
Reply

5.
Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Name *
 Email *
Post Comment

Check Also
Close

 EE Questions / Answers

Why Power Transmission Cables & Lines are Loose on Electric

Poles & Transmission Towers?

Follow Us
 155k+Subscribers
 2.3MFans
 3,376Followers
 1,700Subscribers
 181kFollowers
Categories

Categories 
 Subscribe to our mailing list to get the
new updates!
Subscribe
Enter your Email address  

© Copyright 2020, All Rights Reserved 2012-2020 by Electrical Technology

 Facebook

 Twitter

 Pinterest

 LinkedIn

 YouTube

 Reddit

 Tumblr

 Instagram

 Google Play

 RSS

 Shop Now (Electrical Technology Store)

Back to top button