POWER CAPACITORS TL T SELECTION AND PROTECTION OF CURRENT TRANSFORMERS FOR USE IN SHUNT CAPACITOR BANKS John E, Harder Advisory Engineer Wostinghouse Electric Corporation, Bloomington, Indiana Presented at the IEEE PES Summer Mesting Portland, Oregon July 18-23, 1976SELECTION & PROTECTION OF CURRENT TRANSFORMERS FOR USE IN SHUNT CAPACITOR BANKS ohn £. Harder Westinghouse Electric Corporation Bloomington, Indiana ABSTRACT The factors considered in selecting the voltage and current ratings of current transforners used in ‘shunt. eapacttor installations are discussed and ap- plication guidelines are suggested. The protection Of the prisary ané secondary are considered and pro~ fection recommendations are outlined, Backaround Arnurber of fattures of current transformers in shunt capacitor benks have occurred due to misappli- ation. Sone of the factors involved in the appli- ‘cation of CT's on shunt capacitor banks may not be Peadtly apparent. The purpose of this paper is to outing sone. of the prinetpal factors tnvolved and Suggest applteatton guidelines . Selection of Voltage and Current Rating Both normal line to ground voltage and BIL are considered in selecting the voltage rating. The CT thermal rating should be equal to or greater than the actual current, including harmonies, excected in the Cry. "A Sugges tad normal application guidel ine is fven in Figure | The voltage rating for CT's at the line end of ‘4 grounded wye bank and al] CT's on ungrounced banks js based on” the sane factors a5 cI's used elsenhere ‘on the system, fe, system operating voltage and iL. The voltage rating for cT's used at the neutral end of grounded we capacitor banks 1s based on n= pulse considerations. It is suggested that the CT Fating should be greater than or equal to about .2 ‘nas the system Tine to Tine voltage. This is not 2 precise value based on highly predictable voltages Gnd established margins. Tt is, rather, a hopefully Conservative application factor based on a nurber of Considerations. The voltage difference between the primary and secondary of the current transforner is not easy to predict for transient cong! tions. The secondary may be grounded ata point renate from the CT; the CT is usually mounted some distance above the ground mat, tnd even the ground sat will not have uniform poten tial under transfent conditions, Perhaps the iron fn the elevating structure will have an effect on the voltage drop in the ground wire. Differences in Substation construction would be expected to signif= feantly affect the primry-secondary voltage. Fateer Tesbos 9g Nonmenbors” $2.00 Reserved At Weeting: $1.00 by TEEE N76 305-0, _A paper Feoamended and approved by ‘the TEE Tensmission and Distribution Comittee of ‘the IEE Pover Engineering Society for precentaticn at the JEEZ FES Sumer leeting, Portland, OR, July: 16423, 1976, Manuscript submitted January 28, 1976; inade available for printing April 26, 1976, There are severa] factors which suggest using @ large factor of safety in applying this current tr~ ansformer: 1. The uncertainty tn predicting the prinary-secon- gary voltage. 2, The frequency of switching, which may result in 2 Targe number of transients over the Tife of the installation. 3, The failures which have been experienced. 4 The undesirability of putting overvoltage prot~ gctfon across the Tine to ground insulation of ‘the CT. A sinplified analysts would suggest that the rraxiqun Tine to ground voltage to be experienced by ‘the CI'might be as much as one-half of the system crest line t0 ground voltage, This might occur for a'bus to "ground fault near the capacitor bank, where perhaps one-half of tho applied voltage would appear between the CT and "ground". For 2.138 kV systam the crast Tine to-grotnd voltage ts 113 RV, onechal of this would be 57 kY. . .this would suggest that 2 5 KY, 110 KY BILL. CT ‘should operate satis factor~ ily, "On the other hand, sone users have experienced fatiures of 15 KV cr's in the neutral of 138 kV cap- acitor banks; perhaps thera are sources of “higher and Tower vot tages. The use of a higher voltage CT would improve pie factor of safety” for induced yoltace, surges. Since the lowest voltage at which 18 KV CT's have apparently had problens is about 138 KV, this suge gests that this 1s the first. voltage at which a CT ating higher than 15 kV may be required. The next available rating is 25 4, 26 KV diviced by 138 kV Suggests an apal ication factor of .2; an apal ication factor which can be used for extrapolating to higher and Tower voltages. There ave some other factors which suggest that this opal cation factor oF .2 may not be excessively conservat iv 1. A full system rated voltage CT would be required for a bus cr, in order to be able to withstand system transients. For very high frequency tra- nelents, the capocitor can be considered to be & short ‘circuit; the percent of systen trans ent voltage apfearing on the neutral CT is de- termined by the length of conductor from the bus to ground. Approximstely, this percent voltage would be the length of conductor’ from ground to the CT divided by the Tengtn of conductor froa ground to the bus, and multiplied by 100. For Bany installations this would suggest en appl i= ation factor of about .2 [or slightly higher). 2, What about an occasional switching acctdent on the capacitor bank? The voltage occurring at the CT for a restrike or closing on an already charged bank might damage 2 CT with too. low a voltage rating.CURRENT IN NEUTRAL (Per Unit of Nominal Phase Current in Each Ban! (ECE ESE r SI 10 Ty z PER UNIT VOLTAGE ON REMAINING UNITS Figure 2 Appltcation Guide for CT in Hye-liye Bank Neutral Secondary Protection The Nigh voltage generated on tha secondary of a CT by the high frequency high current trans~ ‘ents 1m the primary make secondary protection pr- dent. "A Tow voltage gas-filled protector tube (200-500 Rs breakdown, 50 anp 2 second disch- arge capability) Wi7l protect the CT, wiring and normal electromageetic. relays fron dimsging over~ voltages. Sensitive electronic relays will norn- ally have any additional Viniting required at the ‘input. Conctuston Recosmendations are provided for CT applicat~ ons in noreal utility and industrial power. factor correction capacitor installations. "Special ized filter, eneray storage, etc. installations deserve thorough consideration ‘of the duty inposed on the current ‘trans tormrs. Acknowledgements Thanks to Westinghouse District Engineers, John Hagberg and Larry Olah and Design Engineers ‘Joho O1fiver and charies Peterson for helpful dis fussions leading to te developat’ "of these aui- Figure 3. Gap for Protection of Current Trans former Primary GOHERTZ SPARKOVER (xv rus) 5 GAP SPACING (wones) Figure 4 Protective characteristics of Gap