Installation capacitor units

This is a highly recommended method of capacitor switching for installations that are large and require very fine monitoring and correction of p.f. with the smallest number of banks. The entire reactive requirement is arranged in only a few steps yet a small correction up to the smallest capacitor unit is possible. The relay is sequenced so that through its binary counter the required switching is achieved in small steps, with just four or six sets of capacitor units or banks. The operation of the entire sequence can be illustrated as follows ... 

The following are suggestions for the suceessful operation of the capacitor units installed on an LT or an HT system ... 

Although the manufacture of PCB-filled capacitor units has been discontinued, for older installations some may still be used. For the benefit of their users we give below the precautions that they must take when handling these units ... 

Protection and safety requirements Installation and maintenance of capacitor units Test requirements... 

I Overheating shortens the life of a capacitor. Adequate ventilation and cooling facilities, through convection and radiation, must be made available at the place of installation. When housed inside a cubicle, as in a capacitor control panel and in a tier fonnation. sufficient space must be provided between each unit. Adequate... 

The second method of improving the power factor of an installation is to provide static capacitor banks. These can be installed as a single block at the point of supply busbar, as a set of switchable banks or as individual units connected to specific loads. For an installation where no synchronous machines are installed for other purposes (i.e. as prime movers or generators) then static capacitor banks are almost invariably the most cost-effective way of improving the power factor. 

Capacitors as bulk units can be connected to the supply busbar via a fuse switch, molded-case circuit breaker of air circuit breaker. In this type of installation control is purely manual, and in cases of a reasonably constant load and where the amount of power factor correction is limited such a manually controlled system is perfectly adequate. The supply authority may, however, require to be informed that a capacitor bank is permanently connected to the supply. Capacitors are more generally connected either in banks controlled from a VAR sensitive relay or across individual loads (e.g. motors). 

In the above example, by changing the capacitor bank to a 500-kVAR unit, the resonance frequency is increased to 490 Hz, or the 8.2 harmonic. This frequency is potentially less troublesome. (The reader is encouraged to work out the calculations.) In addition, the transformer and the capacitor bank may also form a series resonance circuit as viewed from the power source. This condition can cause a large voltage rise on the 480-V bus with unwanted results. Prior to installing a capacitor bank, it is important to perform a harmonic analysis to ensure that resonance frequencies do not coincide with any of the characteristic harmonic frequencies of the power system. 

Capacitors are fiexibie and additionai units may be instaiied as an installation or system is extended. 

---