Inrush Current of Capacitor Bank Switching

Back to Back Arrangement

11kV Network

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Capacitor bank switching in power systems makes a high inrush current momentary and will
results in an immediate drop in systems voltage toward zero and followed by a fast recovery
that can reach up to two times of the peak voltage source. While these transients are not
typically harmful to utility equipment, they may be troublesome to some customers’ sensitive
equipment
Therefore, this peak overvoltage can cause nuisance tripping of adjustable speed drives,
computer network problems, as well as customer equipment damage or failure. It is generally
accepted that transients maintained below about 1.2 p.u. will not impact the customer. Some
form of control is necessary to achieve this performance.
as a workaround, a series reactor is connected to capacitor bank to limit the inrush current
when capacitor bank is switched. In this example for a 11kV voltage source a XL= 6%Xc is
assumed to be employed.
A back-to-back arrangement bank installation, the switching of the second bank looks like a
short circuit to the first bank. This causes the first capacitor bank to discharge into the second
capacitor bank resulting in high inrush currents. These inrush currents can reduce the life of
the capacitor switching device. If they are grounded, transient currents may flow in the ground
path causing potential problems with electronic equipment in the substation.

Fig 1: Simplified model

To validate this transient switching, a Matlab/Simulink model based on the distributed system
is developed and inrsuh currents and peak voltages are measured for both when there is not
any series reactor and when a series reactor is connected.

Fig 1 on page 3, illustrates how second bank energization acts like a short circuit and the first
bank is discharged into the second bank and inrush currents have increased up to 3.67kA
Fig 2 on page 4 illustrates voltage dip on the first bank and peak on the second bank
energization.
Fig 3 and Fig 4respectivly illustrate voltages and currents reduced when series reactors are
connected to the banks.

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Fig 1: Inrush Currents of capacitor Banks back to back without series reactors

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Fig 2: Three phase Voltages of capacitor Banks back to back without series reactors

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Fig 3: Three phase Voltages of capacitor Banks Back to Back with Series Reactors

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Fig 4: Inrush Currents of capacitor Banks Back to Back with series reactors

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