Protection of Capacitor Bank

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Like other electrical equipments, shunt capacitor may also be

subjected to internal and external electrical faults. Hence this
equipment is also to be protected from internal and external
faults. There are numbers of schemes available for protection of
capacitor bank, but during applying any of the schemes, we
should remember the initial investment on that capacitor for
economical point of view. We should compare the initial
investment in the capacitor and the cost of the protection
applying on it. There are mainly 3 types of protection
arrangement are applied to a capacitor bank.

1. Element Fuse. 2. Unit. Fuse. 3. Bank Protection.

Element Fuses

Manufacturers of capacitor unit commonly provide inbuilt fuse in

each element of the unit. In this case, if any fault occurs in any
element itself, it is automatically disconnected from rest of the
unit. In this case, the unit still serves its purpose, but with
smaller output. In smaller rated capacitor bank only these inbuilt
protection scheme is applied to avoid the expenditure of other
special protective equipments.
Unit Fuse

The unit fuse protection is generally provided to limit the duration

of arc inside a faulty capacitor unit. As the arc duration is limited,
there is less chance of major mechanical deformation and huge
production of gas in the faulty unit, and hence the neighborhood
units of the bank are saved. If each unit of a capacitor bank is
individually protected against fuse, then in case of failure of one

unit, the capacitor bank can still be running without interruption

before removing and replacing the faulty unit. Another major
advantage of providing fuse protection to each unit of the bank is
that, it indicates the exact location of the faulty unit. But during
choosing the size of the fuse for this purpose, it should be taken
into consideration that the fuse element must withstand the
excessive loading due to harmonics in the system. In the view of
that the current rating of the fuse element for this purpose is
taken as 65% above the full load current. Whenever the
individual unit of capacitor bank is protected by fuse, it is necessary
to provide discharge resistance in each of the units.

Bank Protection

Although in general fuse protection is provided with each of the

capacitor units, but when a capacitor unit is under fault and the
associated fuse element is blown out, the voltage stress increases
to the other capacitor units connected in series in same row.
Generally, each capacitor unit is designed for withstanding 110%
of its normal rated voltage. If any other capacitor unit further
becomes out of service, in the same row where previously one
unit is damaged, the voltage stress upon other healthy units of
that row will increase further and easily crosses the limit of
maximum allowable, voltage of these units. Hence it is always
desirable to replace damaged capacitor unit from the bank as
soon as possible to avoid excess voltage stress on the other
healthy units. Hence, there must be some indicating arrangement
to identify the exact faulty unit. As soon as the faulty unit is
identified in a bank, the bank should be removed from the service
for replacing the faulty unit. There are several methods of sensing
unbalance voltage caused by failure of capacitor unit. The figure
below is showing the most common arrangement of capacitor
bank protection. Here, the capacitor bank is connected in star
formation. Primary of a potential transformer is connected across
each phase. The secondary of all three potential transformers are
connected in series to form an open delta and a voltage sensitive
relay is connected across this open delta. In exact balanced

condition there must not be any voltage appears across the

voltage sensitive relay because summation of balanced 3 phase
voltages is zero. But when there would be any voltage
unbalancing due to failure of capacitor unit, the resultant voltage
will appear across the relay and the relay will be actuated for
providing an alarm and trip signals.
The voltage sensitive relay can be so adjusted that up to a certain
voltage unbalancing only alarm contacts would be closed and for
certain higher voltage level the trip contacts along with alarm
contacts would be closed. The potential transformer connected
across the capacitors of each phase also serves for discharging of
the
bank
after
being
switched
off.

In another scheme,
the capacitors in each phase are divided into two equal parts
connected in series. Discharge coil is connected across each of

the parts as shown in the figure. In between the secondary of

discharge coil and the sensitive voltage unbalance the relay an
auxiliary transformer is connected which serves to regulate the
voltage difference between secondary voltages of discharge coil
under

normal

conditions.

Here the capacitor

bank is connected in star and the neutral point is connected to the
ground through a potential transformer. A voltage sensitive relay
is connected across the secondary of the potential transformer. As
soon as there is any unbalance between the phases, the resultant
voltage will appear across the potential transformer and hence
the voltage sensitive relay will be actuated beyond a preset value.

Here,

the

capacitor

bank of each phase is divided into two equal parts connected in

parallel and the star points of both parts are interconnected

through a current transformer. The secondary of the current
transformer are connected across a current sensitive relay. In
case any misbalancing occurs between the two parts of the bank,
there would be a unbalance current flowing through the current
transformer and hence the current sensitive relay will actuate. In
this scheme for discharging the bank after switching off,
discharge coil may be connected across the capacitors in each

phase.
In
another
scheme of protection of capacitor bank, the star point of a three
phase capacitor bank is connected to the ground through a current
transformer and a current sensitive relay is connected across the
secondary of the current transformer. As soon as there is any
unbalancing between the phases of capacitor bank, there must be
a current flowing to the ground through the current transformer
and hence the current sensitive relay will be actuated to trip the

circuit

breaker

associated

with

Previous
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Protection System in Power System
Trip Circuit Supervision
Annunciation System Alarm Annunciator
Overvoltage Protection
Differential Protection of Generator or Alternator

the

capacitor

bank.

Rotor Earth Fault Protection of Alternator or Generator

Stator Earth Fault Protection of Alternator
Loss of Field or Excitation Protection of Alternator or Gener