See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/261197797

Design of capacitor bank in parallel to photovoltaic power plant

Conference Paper · July 2013

DOI: 10.1109/EUROCON.2013.6625156

CITATIONS READS

3 10,449

6 authors, including:

Aaron Kalyuzhny Barak Reshef

Israel Electric Corporation PQ
14 PUBLICATIONS   305 CITATIONS    4 PUBLICATIONS   16 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Tolly Day
South Florida Community College
19 PUBLICATIONS   692 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

A pivotal signalling molecule in neurodegeneration View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Aaron Kalyuzhny on 11 December 2014.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Design of capacitor bank in parallel to photovoltaic
power plant
A. Kalyuzhny1, B. Reshef1, G.Yehuda1, G.David1, P. Koulbekov1, T. Day2
1
Planning, Development & Technology Division, The Israel Electric, Haifa, Israel
1
aharon.kalyuzhny@iec.co.il
2
Cooper Power Systems, South Milwaukee, WI, USA

Abstract—In order to ensure a large-scale application of PV company distribution system at the voltage levels of 22 kV
generators in MV distribution system without unacceptable and 33 kV should lie in the range of 1-11 MW.
voltage changes due to drops of PV power output a simple, low- According to the analysis performed in [5] PV integration
cost solution is developed. in distribution systems is twofold. On the one hand, PV
The solution includes operation of PV with predetermined
leading power factor and addition of a capacitor bank in parallel
systems, when properly sized and placed, can reduce feeder
to PV plant in order to compensate the reactive power absorbed losses, improve feeder voltage profile, and diminish lifetime
by the PV inverters. operation and maintenance costs of transformer load tap
Application of the developed negative-sequence current changers. One the other hand, randomness in the output power
difference method for the unbalance protection of the capacitor of PV systems due to irregular solar radiation is considered to
banks enables to achieve a compact and cost-reduced design of be one of the main drawbacks of the large-scale application of
the banks connected in parallel to PV power plants. PV in distribution networks. Moving clouds can produce fast
irradiance fluctuations, which can cause rapid voltage changes
Keywords: photovoltaic power plant, power quality, voltage change at the point of common coupling (PCC) of the PV plant and
capacitor bank design, capacitor bank unbalance protection the distribution system. This effect is the most important in
weak distribution systems with high series resistance.
I. INTRODUCTION The above rapid voltage changes at the point of PV plant
Nowadays, the traditional, conventional power system is connection may have adverse effects on the nearby customers.
facing the problems of gradual depletion of fossil fuel The inability to maintain power quality at PCC may impose
resources, poor energy efficiency and environmental pollution. limitations on power capacity of PV plants.
These problems have led to Distributed Generation - a new The work objective is to develop a simple, low-cost
trend of generating power locally at distribution voltage level solution for large scale application of PV plants in real-world
by using renewable energy sources like wind power and solar distribution system that enables to limit voltage changes due
photovoltaic cells [1]-[4]. to sudden reduction of power output of PV as well as to
Distributed Generation (DG) is now being promoted maintain the voltage and reactive power control in the system
worldwide as a means of solving a number of technical, with DG. The proposed solution should be technically and
environmental, political and social problems [2]-[3]: economically feasible for private PV plants.
 Cut down greenhouse gas emissions
 Decrease dependence on fossil fuel resources II. SOLUTION FORMULATION
 Create high-technology jobs Utility transformer
 Rely on market forces and consumer choice
 Reduce transmission and distribution losses.
~
HV Transmission
In order to encourage application of the renewable energy Feeder
sources more than 50 countries all over the world have system
35km
introduced a feed-in -tariff [4].
On 28 December 2009, the Israeli Public Utility Authority
Point of common coupling
approved a feed-in tariff for photovoltaic (PV) power plants.
Up till now the Israel Electric Corporation (IECo) has
received 330 proposals for connection of private PV to the P
company medium voltage (MV) distribution system. The total
power of the future PV plants is 1580 MW. PL+jQL
According to the Israeli government goal, about 10% of the
Customer
total kWh production in Israel will be generated by renewable load
PV plant
energy power plants in 2020.
In compliance with the system study performed in IECo, Fig. 1. Typical circuit for analysis of the voltage variations at the PCC
the installed power of a distributed generator connected to the
 The voltage changes at the point of PV plant connection to
Voltage change due to PV power drop
a distribution system due to sudden drop of PV power output, 10
when the PV operates with unity power factor, are usually

Voltage change due to PV power drop [%]

analyzed in the circuit shown in Fig.1 [5].
The voltage change can be analytically studied using the 8
circuit shown in Fig.2.
VS V 6

~ 4
R X
V max
P 2

0
2 4 6 8 10 12

Installed power of PV plant [MW]

Fig.2 Circuit for analytical study of the voltage change at the PCC
The voltage source VS is the voltage at the PCC, when PV
plant is in no-load state. The resistance R and reactance X
represent the short –circuit impedance of the distribution
system at the PCC that includes the impedances of high
voltage (HV) transmission system, the utility transformer and
the feeder (see Fig.1).
The sudden drop of power output of PV plant P results in
voltage drop at the PCC from V to VS. The pu voltage drop
∆V is proportional to the product of the PV power output P
and the equivalent system resistance R:
V  VS PR
V   2
V V
One can see that the voltage drop at PCC point of PV plant
with high power capacity connected to a weak distribution
system may exceed the permissible voltage change. Illustrate
the problem using a real-world case of PV plant connection to
IECo 33 kV distribution system (see Fig.1). The utility is
represented by a 161/36 kV step-down transformer fed from
an infinite HV busbar. The equivalent parameters of the
transformer are: MVA rating-45 MVA; short–circuit
impedance -18%; pu copper losses - 0.00375. The System
Source Strength at the MV utility busbars is 250 MVA.
The distance between the substation 33 kV busbars and the
PCC is 35 km. The PV is connected to a typical distribution
feeder with specific impedance of 0.24+j0.35 /km.
According to IECo requirements, the maximum voltage
change ∆Vmax due to sudden load change/disconnection of
private power plant shall not exceed 2.5%.
Assume a fast irradiance decrease due to a moving cloud
results in power drop of the PV plant from its installed power
capacity to zero. The voltage change at the PCC versus
installed power of the PV plant is shown in Fig.3.
The curve in Fig.3 shows that if installed power of the PV
plant exceeds 3.17 MW, the 100% power drop may lead to
unacceptable voltage change at PCC.
Fig.3 Voltage change at the PCC versus installed power of the PV plant
In order to limit the voltage change due to PV power drop
the PV power plant should work with leading power factor [5].
The reactive power Q absorbed by the PV plant invertors can
be presented as a product of power output P and tan of PV
plant (see Fig.4):
~ V
VS
R X
(1)
inverters
Q  P tan 
P
PV array
Fig.4 Operation of PV plant with leading power factor
(2) Q  P tan 
Operation of PV with predetermined negative tan should
reduce the voltage drop ∆V at the PCC in the case of sudden
reduction of PV power output P due to reactive power flow:
V  VS PR  QX
V   (3)
V V2
The component of voltage drop caused by the reactive
power flow QX/V2 is in antiphase to the component caused by
sudden reduction of active power PR/V2. Absorption of the
reactive power Q proportional to the generated power P may
reduce the voltage drop ∆V to zero. On the other hand,
absorption of considerable amount of the reactive power may
significantly increase kva rating of the PV plant invertors. It
may be prudent to select the value of tan from the condition
that the voltage drop ∆V does not exceed its permissible pf goes down with P increase. It arrives at 0.944, if the
value ∆Vmax: installed power of PV plant reaches 11 MW. The reactive
PR Vmax power Q consumed by PV invertors increases proportionally
 0 if to its installed power. It may reach 3.8 MVAr, if the installed
V2 100 power is close to 11 MW.
tan   V 2 V (4) It is obvious that operation of PV plant with leading
 max  R power factor will increase the reactive power flow from the
P 100 otherwise substation busbars to the feeder with PV power plant (see
X Fig.1). Transmission of those additional kvars along the feeder
The above expression enables to calculate the value of tan will increase the power and energy losses and reduce the
corresponding to the minimal amount of the absorbed reactive voltage across the loads. Keeping in mind the large scale
power Q that is needed to produce power P without application of PV plants to the Israeli distribution system in
unacceptable voltage changes due to 100% power drop. the near future one can anticipate that operation of PV plants
The required leading power factor pf and the absorbed with leading power factor may result in reduction of the load
reactive power Q can be determined on the base of tan . The voltages as well as in growth of the power and energy losses
power factor pf and reactive power Q versus active power P in the distribution system.
for the considered case of a PV connection to the 33 kV In order to enable operation of PV power plants with
distribution network are shown in Fig.5 - Fig.6. leading power factor without increase of the reactive power
flow in the distribution system it is proposed to connect a
Leading power factor of PV plant versus P capacitor bank to PCC in parallel to PV plant (see Fig.7).
1 Switched by power utility
Leading power factor of PV [pu]

jQ C
0.98

Capacitor bank
breakers

0.96 P PCC

transformer
PV array inverter
0.94 P-jQ
2 4 6 8 10 12 Q
Switched by PV plant
Installed power of PV plant [MW]

Fig.5 Leading power factor of PV plant versus its installed power Fig. 7 Connection of a capacitor bank in parallel to PV plant

A capacitor bank is connected by an individual circuit

Minimum leading Q versus P
breaker to PCC in parallel to the PV installation. Its reactive
5
power QC is selected to compensate the reactive power Q
Minimum leading MVAr of PV

absorbed by the PV inverters. As a result, the PV plant

4 together with its capacitor bank is seen by the distribution
system as a generator with controllable reactive power. If the
3 PV plant produces its rated active power P, the reactive power
flow to the PCC is QC-Q i.e. is close to zero. In the case of a
sudden drop of the PV power output due to rapid irradiance
2
change of the sun or because of some failure, the sudden
power variation seen at the PCC is P-jQ. If the PV plant
1 operates with predetermined tan calculated in compliance
with (4), 100% power drop of the PV will result in the
0 permissible voltage change at the PCC.
2 4 6 8 10 12

Active power of PV power station [MW] III. DESIGN OF CAPACITOR BANK IN PARALLEL TO PV POWER
PLANT
Fig.6 Reactive power absorbed by PV invertors versus PV installed power
The capacitor banks with their circuit breakers will be
One can see that if the installed power of PV plant exceeds supplied by private PV plants, operating with leading power
3.17 MW, it should operate with non-unity power factor. The factor in order to reduce the maximum voltage change to its
permissible value. Switching of the banks will be performed
by the power utility in order to perform voltage control at
PCC. The rated power of the banks should be close to the
maximum reactive power absorbed by the PV invertors under
the following limitations [8]:
0.5 P tan   QC  0.02S SC
In (5) P tan is a maximum reactive power absorbed by
PV inverters; SSC is a short-circuit power at PCC.
IECo distribution networks usually use low-impedance
grounded neutral or resonant grounded neutral. This is why
capacitor units of the capacitor banks should be connected
into ungrounded wye or ungrounded double-wye [9].
In order to minimize a number of restrikes during switching
the capacitor banks on daily basis, the circuit breakers of
capacitor banks should be selected in compliance to the
definitions of class M2 of Mechanical operation duty and
class C2 of Capacitive current switching operations [6], [7].
In densely populated countries the lion share of the area
allocated for PV plant is used by PV arrays. Designers of PV
plants make every effort to install the rest of electrical
equipment i.e. inverters, transformers, circuit breakers on a
very limited space, for example, inside some substation
building.
According to our experience, adding a capacitor bank in
parallel to PV plant may pose a difficult problem because of
very limited space available for its installation. In some cases
the capacitor banks built in compliance with standard
capacitor bank designs [8]-[9] could not be installed because
of the space limitations. This is why it is very important to
develop a compact capacitor bank design for capacitor banks
applied in parallel to PV power installations.
A footprint area required for a capacitor bank depends on
number of capacitor units and type of protection against
internal faults. According to [8]-[9], rated power of MV
capacitor units varies from 50 kvar to 1000 kvar. Thus, it is
possible to design a capacitor bank with rated power up to 3
MVArs using 3 capacitor units only.
ABC
Capacitor bank CTs
Busbar VTs I I I
C BA
VA VB VC
General protection
functions: 51N, 50P,
32N, 59, 27
Fig. 8 Traditional protection schemes of an ungrounded MV capacitor bank
Using the neutral current for the unbalance detection
requires connection of the capacitor units unto a double-wye
with current transformer (CT) connected between the wye
neutrals [9]. In this case the capacitor bank should include at
least six capacitor units (see Fig.8). The increased number of
(5) capacitor units and the neutral CT enlarge the footprint area of
the capacitor bank.
Utilizing the neutral voltage for the unbalance protection
allows connection of the capacitor units into a single-wye with
a voltage transformer (VT) between the bank neutral and the
ground. A separate surge arrester may also be necessary to
protect the VT (see Fig.8). The VT and surge arrester increase
the footprint area of the capacitor bank as well as its cost.
The typical protection of a capacitor bank connected to MV
network through a separate circuit breaker also includes other
functions such as an overcurrent protection, a protection
against ground faults, overvoltage and undervoltage protection
(see Fig.8) [9].
The above functions are based on measurement of the
capacitor bank phase currents IA, IB and IC as well as on
measurement of phase to ground voltages VA, VB and VC.
IECo in cooperation with Cooper Power Systems has
developed a patented, cost-reduced approach to detecting
unbalances within ungrounded capacitor banks [10]-[11]. The
new technique is based on an algorithm that uses the negative-
sequence current difference (NSCD) to provide unbalance
detection WITHOUT any voltage or current transducer in the
bank neutral (see Fig.9).
The idea of the new protection algorithm is based on the
fact that any failure of capacitor elements or capacitor units
inside the capacitor bank results in appearance of the
negative-sequence current, which magnitude is proportional to
the asymmetry of the capacitor bank phase capacitances
caused by the failure.
Circuit
breaker
1 2 3
1 2 3
or
1 2 3
IN (50) Neutral CT
Unbalance
or
protection
VN (59N)
Neutral VT
 ABC Capacitor bank CTs
Circuit
brea ker
Busbar VTs IC IB IA
VA VB V C
General protection
functions: 51N, 50P,
32N, 59, 27
+NSCD function
Fig. 9 Protection scheme of an ungrounded MV capacitor bank based on
NSCD algorithm
On the other hand it is necessary to distinguish between the
negative-sequence current caused by internal failures inside
the capacitor bank and between the negative-sequence current
that may appear due to other causes. The negative-sequence
current of the capacitor banks may be caused by the system
voltage unbalance at the capacitor bank terminals as well as
due the unequal phase capacitances because of the
manufacturing tolerance. Since the capacitance of capacitor
units varies with ambient temperature change, the negative-
sequence current also depends on the ambient temperature.
The technique is based on comparison of the measured
negative-sequence current I2 with a predetermined negative-
sequence current of the undamaged capacitor bank I2un. The
negative-sequence current I2un is calculated as if asymmetry
exists only because of an external (system) voltage unbalance
and/or because of the inherent phase unbalance due to
manufacturing tolerance (i.e., not all phases of the bank have
identical capacitance).
The predetermined negative-sequence current I2un is
calculated on the basis of positive-sequence and negative-
sequence voltages at the capacitor bank terminals V1 and V2,
as well as on the basis of positive-sequence capacitor bank
current I1:
I1
I 2un  [(Y21C )V1  (Y11C )V2 ]  (6)
V1Y11C
In (6) Y11C=G11C + jB11C and Y21C=G21C + jB21C are elements
of the sequence admittance matrix of the shunt bank existing
when the bank was being commissioned. These values are
kept in non-volatile memory of the protective device
implementing the techniques.
The positive-sequence and negative-sequence currents I1, I2
and the positive-sequence and negative-sequence voltages V1,
V2 are calculated on the basis of the measured capacitor bank
phase currents IA, IB, IC and voltages VA, VB and VC (see
Fig.9).
The algorithm for calculation of the above matrix elements
Y11C and Y21C is detailed in [11].
The predetermined negative-sequence current I2un takes
into account the following factors (see (6)): the term Y11CV2
represents the negative-sequence current due to unbalance of
the system voltages; the term Y21CV1 reflects the negative-
sequence current existing because of the inherent unbalance in
the bank due to manufacturing tolerances; the term
I1 / V1Y1C takes into account change of vector I2un with
temperature variations.
The vector difference IUN between the signals I2 and I2un
does not depend on the system voltage unbalance, the inherent
unbalance of the capacitor bank or on changes of the bank
capacitance with ambient temperature
I UN  I 2  I 2 un
(7)
The negative-sequence current difference (NSCD) IUN is
proportional to the internal asymmetry of a protected bank due
to internal faults (capacitor elements failures requiring a
protective response from the protection).
An internal fault that requires action such as de-energizing
the entire bank exists when IUN exceeds a predetermined
threshold.
The proposed NSCD method was implemented in iCP-630
Idea Relay developed by the Cooper Power Systems [12].
Application of the protection method for capacitor banks in
parallel to PV plants enables to achieve a compact and cost-
reduced design of the banks.
IV. APPLICATION EXAMPLE
Show an example of a capacitor bank design in parallel to
PV plant connected to a 33 kV distribution system (see Fig.1).
The parameters of the 161/36 kV step-down transformer and
the distribution feeder are given above. The installed power
capacity of the PV plant is 5 MW. Operation of the PV with
unity power factor may cause unacceptable voltage changes at
the PCC due to 100% power drops (see Fig.3).
The minimum values of tan of the PV plant and the
reactive power Q absorbed by the PV invertors calculated to
limit the voltage change ∆V at the PCC to 2.5% (see (2) and
(4)) as well as the selected values of tan and Q are given in
Table I.
TABLE I
REACTIVE POWER ABSORBED BY PV PLANT TO LIMIT THE VOLTAGE CHANGE
∆V
Minimum values Selected values
tan -0.179 -0.2
Q [absorbed kvars] 896 1000
∆V [%] 2.5 2.3
To compensate the reactive power Q absorbed by the PV
invertors a capacitor bank with output of 1000 kvar at 33 kV
should be applied. Taking into account that the rated voltage
of the capacitor bank must not be less than the maximum
system voltage (36 kV) the capacitor bank of 36 kV, 1200
kvar was selected [8].
A capacitor bank that was proposed for the PV power plant
was based on standard capacitor bank design (see Fig.10).
 The bank included 12 unfused capacitor units of 10.39 kV,
100 kvar connected into double-wye. Each phase in one wye
was comprised of two double-bushing capacitors connected in
series. The CT for unbalance protection was connected
between the wye neutrals.
The dimensions of the proposed capacitor bank (see Fig.10)
exceeded the space available for capacitor bank installation in
the PV plant.
3100
Fig.10 Design of the capacitor bank using a traditional unbalance protection
The alternative design proposed by IECo included the
Cooper iCP-630 Idea Relay used as a relay for overall
capacitor bank protection and a compact capacitor bank,
composed of three capacitor units. The proposed capacitor
bank design is shown in Fig.11
Fig.11 Design of the capacitor bank using NSCD protection
The capacitor bank includes 3 single-bushing 400 kvar,
20.78 kV capacitors connected into a single-wye with floating
neutral. The dimensions and cost of the bank in comparison to
the dimensions and cost of the bank using the traditional
protection method are shown in Table II.
TABLE II
DIMENSIONS AND COST OF 1200 KVAR, 36 KV CAPACITOR BANK
Unbalance protection Width ×Depth Budget price
[mm] [$]
Double-Y current 3100×1200 14,600
unbalance
NSCD protection 1100×350 6,700
The data in Table II illustrate that application of the NSCD
protection method enables to reduce significantly the
capacitor bank footprint as well as its cost.
The proposed compact capacitor bank was installed in the
substation building of the PV plant. The capacitor bank with
its circuit breaker and the protection relay using the NSCD
technique were commissioned and put into operation together
with the PV plant.
V. SUMMARY
Wide application of a distributed generation using solar
photovoltaic cells requires taking into consideration rapid
changes in the power output due to irregular solar radiation.
The above power changes can cause rapid voltage changes at
the point of common coupling of the PV plant and the
distribution system. The inability to maintain power quality at
PCC may impose limitations on power capacity of PV plants.
In order to ensure a large-scale application of PV
generators in MV distribution systems without limiting power
capacity of PV plants a simple, low-cost solution is developed.
The solution includes operation of PV with predetermined
leading power factor and addition of a capacitor bank in
parallel to PV plant in order to compensate the reactive power
absorbed by the PV inverters.
Using capacitor banks in parallel to PV power plants
requires necessitates building compact and economical MV
capacitor banks. The existing schemes of the capacitor bank
unbalance protection do not allow reducing the footprints of
small MV capacitor banks.
IECo in cooperation with Cooper Power Systems has
developed a patented, cost-reduced approach to detecting
unbalances within ungrounded capacitor banks. The new
NSCD technique enables to provide the unbalance protection
WITHOUT any voltage or current transducer in the bank
neutral.
The method is based on comparison of the measured
negative-sequence current with a predetermined negative-
sequence current of the undamaged capacitor bank, which is
calculated as if asymmetry exists only because of an external
(system) voltage unbalance and/or because of the inherent
phase unbalance due to manufacturing tolerance (i.e., not all
phases of the bank have identical capacitance).
 Application of the NSCD unbalance protection method for
capacitor banks in parallel to PV plants enables to achieve a
compact and cost-reduced design of the banks.

REFERENCES
[1] EU Energy Policy to 2050, the European Wind Energy Association, pp.
21-22, Mar, 2011.
[2] Microgrids and Active Distribution Networks, S. Chowdhury, S.P.
Chowdhury and P. Crossley, published by the Institution of
Engineering and Technology, London, United Kingdom, 2009.
[3] Photovoltaic Systems Engineering , Roger Messenger, Jerry Ventre,
2004 by CRC Press
[4] Couture, T., Cory, K., Kreycik, C., Williams, E., "Policymaker's Guide
to Feed-in Tariff Policy Design," National Renewable Energy
Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy, 2010, available at
www.nrel.gov/docs/fy10osti/44849.pdf.
[5] STATE-OF-THE-ART ON DISPERSED PV POWER GENERATION:
Publications review on the impacts of PV Distributed Generation and
Electricity networks, available at
http://www.pvupscale.org/IMG/pdf/D41_annexes_final.pdf.
[6] Standard IEC 62271-100, High-voltage switchgear and controlgear-
Part 100: Alternating – current circuit breakers, 2008.
[7] Guide for Application of IEC 62271-100 and IEC 62271-1 Part 1:
General Subjects, CIGRE Brochure 304, October 2006.
[8] IEEE Guide for Application of Shunt Power Capacitors, IEEE
Standard 1036™-2010
[9] IEEE Guide for the Protection of Shunt Capacitor Banks, IEEE
Standard C37.99-2000.
[10] A. Kalyuzhny, T. Day, "Cooper Introduces Cost-Reduced Unbalance
Detection in Ungrounded Capacitor Banks", The Line, May 2006.
[11] A. Kalyuzhny, J. McCall, T. Day "Corrective Device Protection"
Unites States Patent No. US 7,616,005 B2, Date of Patent: Nov.10,
2009.
[12] iCP-630 Capacitor Bank Protection Relay, Brochure of Cooper Power
Systems, 2011, Available at :
www.cooperpowercentral.com/Repository/EpicDocs/165630900

View publication stats