Protection of Capacitor Bank

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 and the cost of the protection applying on it. There are
mainly 3 types of protection arrangement that 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 that unbalances 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 the capacitor bank.

As you already know, capacitor banks are normally used in medium voltage
networks to generate reactive power to industries etc.
Complete connection diagram for the capacitor bank protection relay SPAJ
160 C with all the relay matrix and blocking/control input programming
switches shown
Capacitor banks are, almost always, equipped with a series reactors to limit
the inrush current.

Harmonic filters, for thyristor controlled reactors, are also variations of

capacitor banks having the reactor inductance together with the capacitor
capacitance tuned for series resonance at a certain frequency.
 Figure 1 – Capacitor banks with series reactors

The tuning are purposely a little bit incorrect, in order not to get a too low
impedance for the harmonic, to which it is tuned. The capacitor banks
usually are connected in double Y-connection with the neutral of the
halves connected.

The current between the two neutrals are supervised by an overcurrent

(unbalance) relay.

Capacitor bank protection

1. Unbalance relay
This overcurrent relay detects an asymmetry in the capacitor bank caused by
blown internal fuses, short-circuits across bushings, or between capacitor
units and the racks in which they are mounted.

Each capacitor unit consist of a number of elements protected by internal

fuses. Faulty elements in a capacitor unit are disconnected by the internal
fuses. This causes overvoltages across the healthy capacitor units.
The capacitor units are designed to withstand 110% of the rated voltage
continuously. If this level is exceeded, or if the faulty units capacitance have
decreased below 5/6 of the nominal value, the capacitor bank must be taken
out of service.

In normal service when all capacitor units are healthy the unbalance current
is very small. With increasing number of blown internal fuses the unbalance
current increases and the unbalance relay will give an alarm. The alarm level
is normally set to 50% of the maximum permitted level.

The capacitor bank then should be taken out of service to replace the faulty
units. If not the capacitor bank will be tripped when the maximum allowed
unbalance current level is exceeded.

2. Capacitor bank overload relay

Capacitors of today have very small losses and are therefore not subject to
overload due to heating caused by overcurrent in the circuit.

Overload of capacitors are today mainly caused by overvoltages. It is the total peak

voltage, the fundamental and the harmonic voltages together, that can cause overload of
the capacitors.

The capacitor can withstand 110% of rated voltage continuously. The

capability curve then follows an inverse time characteristic where withstand
is approximately 1 second -180%, 10 cycles -210%.

The capacitor can withstand 110% of rated voltage continuously. The

capability curve then follows an inverse time characteristic where withstand
is approximately 1 second -180%, 10 cycles -210%.

Since the capacitors mostly are connected in series with a reactor it is not
possible to detect overload by measuring the busbar voltage. This is
because there is a voltage increase across the re- actor and the harmonic
currents causing overvoltages will not in- fluence the busbar voltage.

For example, ABB Transmit Oy have designed a relay that measures the
current in the capacitor bank and transforms this into a voltage that
corresponds to the voltage across the elements in the capacitor bank.
This relay is called SPAJ 160C and includes unbalance protection, overload
protection and undercurrent relay. The undercur- rent function is used to
prevent the charged capacitor bank to be reconnected when a short loss of
supply voltage occurs.

The connection of the relay is shown in figure 2.

Figure 2 – A SPAJ 160 
protection relay connected to a capacitor bank

3. Short circuit protection

In addition to the relay functions described above the capacitor banks
needs to be protected against short circuits and earth faults. This is
done with an ordinary two- or three-phase short circuit protection
combined with an earth overcurrent relay.