2017 International Conference on High Voltage Engineering and Power System October 2-5, 2017, Bali, Indonesia Inrush Current Investigation of Capacitor Bank Switching for 150kV Electrical System in Indonesia Putu Agus Aditya Pramana, Aristo Adi Kusuma, Buyung Sofiarto Munir Transmission and Distribution Department PLN Research Institute Jakarta, Indonesia [email protected] switching and the second one is for back to back switching. According to [2], the maximum amplitude of inrush current and inrush current frequency are 20kA peak and 4.25kHz, respectively. These formulas are given in Table I. Abstract—Circuit breaker (CB) installed for capacitor bank is the CB which commonly experiences the switching process due to the capacitor bank function as a voltage regulator. In closing switching process, CB encounter transient condition due to inrush current. In this paper, the simulation for studying the inrush current characteristic of capacitor bank switching in Indonesia has been performed. Simulation results show that the inrush current for isolated switching complies with the IEC standard. However, for the back to back switching, the inrush current exceeds the standard’s allowable limit. By the measurement data, the contact resistance value for the CB with the back to back switching condition has a highly different value for each phase, and it tend to broke the CB. To mitigate the inrush current, damping reactor utilization has been studied and the results showed that the damping reactor can minimize the inrush current value by tuning the right value of damping reactor inductance related to reactive power of capacitor bank. Keywords—switching; circuit damping reactor I. TABLE I. EQUATION FOR INRUSH CURRENT CALCULATION breaker; inrush current; Condition Parameter Isolated capacitor switching Inrush current (A) Inrush current frequency (Hz) Back to back capacitor switching INTRODUCTION In the power system, capacitor bank is used to maintain the operational voltage value always on the acceptable range. Therefore, the circuit breaker for capacitor bank (CB) will perform switching process frequently, which consists of isolated switching and back to back switching. Isolated switching is CB switching when there is only one capacitor bank mounted on the busbar. Whereas, back to back switching is CB switching when there are more than one capacitor mounted on the same busbar[1]. When a closing switching process is performed, CB will encounter transient condition which called as inrush current. The inrush current has a higher order of frequency (commonly on kHz order) which called as inrush current frequency. The inrush current value is affected by the capacitance, inductance, and resistance value of the electrical system [1][2]. In this paper, the inrush current characteristic of 150kV system in Indonesia has been evaluated, including the impact of inrush current to the CB and the solution to mitigate the inrush current. Information The standard reference for calculating the inrush current that caused by the capacitor bank switching is given in [1]. The inrush current calculation in this standard is divided into two conditions. The first condition is calculation for isolated Eq. Number ܫ ൌ ξʹඥܫ௦ ܫଵ (1.a) ܫ௦ ݂ ൌ ݂௦ ඨ ܫଵ (1.b) ܫ Inrush current (A) ܷ ݅ଵ ݅ଶ ൌ ͳ͵ͷͲͲඨ ݂௦ ܮ ሺ݅ଵ ݅ଶ ሻ (2.a) Inrush ݂௦ ܷ ሺ݅ଵ ݅ଶ ሻ current ݂ ൌ ͻǤͷඨ (2.b) frequency ܮ ሺ݅ଵ ݅ଶ ሻ (kHz) ݂௦ is system frequency (Hz) ܮ is equivalent inductance (uH) ݅ଵ ǡ ݅ଶ are current in capacitor 1 and capacitor 2 respectively (A) ܫ is the peak value for inrush current (A) ܷ is rated voltage (kV, rms) ܫ௦ is short circuit current (A, rms) The Eq. (1.a) and Eq. (1.b) are used to calculate the inrush current and the inrush current frequency for isolated switching, respectively. Eq. (2.a) and Eq. (2.b) are used to calculate the inrush current and inrush current frequency for back to back switching. The value of ݅ଵ and ݅ଶ are calculated by the Eq. (3) where ܥ is the capacitance value of i-th capacitor bank in Farad (F), ߱௦ ൌ ʹߨ݂௦ is the system angular frequency in rad/s, and ܮ௦ is source inductance in Henry (H). ఠ ௨ ݅ ൌ ଵିఠೞ మ ೞ II. STANDARD CALCULATION FOR INRUSH CURRENT Equation ೞ (3) Leq in Table I is the total summation value of the capacitor 1’s inductance (ܮଵ ሻ, capacitor 2’s inductance (ܮଶ ), line inductance between capacitor 1 and CB capacitor 1 (ܮଵ ), line inductance between capacitor 2 and CB capacitor 2 (ܮଶ ), and 978-1-5386-0945-3/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE 259 Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO DE JANEIRO. Downloaded on November 05,2020 at 14:19:47 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply. line inductance between CB capacitor 1 and CB capacitor 2 (ܮ௨௦ ). The typical values for Leq are given in Table II. TABLE II. TYPICAL VALUE FOR Leq Rated Voltage (kV) Typical inductance value between capacitor bank, Leq (uH) ч 17.5 36 52 72.5 123 145 170 245 10 s/d 20 15 s/d 30 20 s/d 40 25 s/d 50 35 s/d 70 40 s/d 80 60 s/d 120 85 s/d 170 Fig. 2. Source impedance distribution III. MODEL AND SIMULATION A. Source Impedance From the Table I, to calculate the inrush current and inrush current frequency, it needs to know the source impedance value of the capacitor bank. The source impedance represents the equivalent impedance of the system in front of the CB capacitor’s busbar and its value can be derived from the short circuit study on that busbar. Fig. 1 shows the illustration to find the source impedance. The vertical axis on Fig. 2 represents the number of CB busbar which has source impedance value given in horizontal axis. Based on Fig. 2, it can be seen that the source impedance ranges from 2ȍ to 50ȍ. Most of the source impedance values are distributed from 2ȍ to 22ȍ. Then, this source impedance will be used to calculate the inrush current. B. Inrush Current for Isolated Switching Based on Eq. (1.a) and Eq. (1.b) in Table I, the inrush current and inrush current frequency for isolated switching are given in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4, respectively. Fig. 1. Illustration in finding source impedance value Fig. 1 (a) depicts a complex electrical system which consists of Bus A that is connected to four bay. Each of bay is connected to System A, System B, System C, and Capacitor Bank. To get the simplification of this complex electrical system, we perform short circuit study in Bus A. Once the short circuit study is done, we can get the source impedance and equivalent source as depicted in Fig. 1(b). In the next calculation of inrush current value, we will use the simplified model of the electrical system as given in Fig. 1(b). By this short circuit study we can get the distribution of source impedance of 150kV electrical system in Indonesia as given in Fig. 2. Fig. 3. Inrush current for isolated switching Fig. 4. Inrush current frequency for isolated switching Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 show the inrush current and inrush current frequency for three different source impedance values which are Z=4.6ȍ, Z=25ȍ, and Z=50ȍ. According to the Fig. 2, 260 Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO DE JANEIRO. Downloaded on November 05,2020 at 14:19:47 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply. these source impedance values are chosen to represent the source impedance values of 150kV electrical system in Indonesia. Based on Fig. 3 and Fig. 4, it can be seen that the effect of source impedance differences to inrush current will be more visible if the reactive power of capacitor bank is larger. The maximum difference of inrush current value for source impedance Z=4.6ȍ and Z=25ȍ is about 12% for the 100MVAR capacitor bank. In the case of isolated switching, it can be seen that the maximum inrush current is 4.5kA for capacitor bank with capacity from 10MVAR to 100MVAR. This value is still complies with the maximum value set by reference [2], which is 20 kA. Likewise, the maximum value of inrush current frequency is 1.1 kHz and this value is still lower than the maximum value set by reference [2], which is 4.25 kHz. C. Inrush Current for Back To Back Switching In the back to back switching condition, the capacitor bank is switched close on a bus when there are already one or more capacitor banks that have been connected to the bus. Equation used to calculate inrush current and inrush current frequency for back to back switching are given by Eq. (2.a) and Eq. (2.b) in Table I. The relationship between inrush current and the ratio of capacitors bank reactive power (which is switched back to back) is given in Fig.5. axis is "2" and blue line is being reviewed, so the magnitude of capacitor bank reactive power is 20MVAR and 10MVAR. Thus, the magnitude of inrush current frequency will be 22kHz. It can be observed that the magnitude of the inrush current frequency for back to back switching will decrease with an increase in the value of the capacitor bank ratio. In addition, the inrush current frequency is also reduced for back to back switching of capacitor bank with larger reactive power value. Fig. 6. Inrush current frequency for back to back switching From Fig. 5 and Fig. 6, it can be seen that the inrush current magnitude for back to back switching of capacitors bank with reactive power higher than 25MVAR will produce inrush current higher than 20kA (maximum inrush current limit according to [2] is 20kA). On the other hand, back to back switching of capacitor bank with reactive power higher than 10MVAR will produce inrush current frequency higher than 4.25kHz (maximum inrush current frequency limit according to [2] is 4.25kHz). D. Effect of Inrush Current Inrush currents magnitude which higher than the standard value may cause degradation in the CB [3][4][5]. CB degradation can be indicated by the significant difference of the contact resistance at each phase of CB, as given in Table III. TABLE III. Fig. 5. Inrush current for back to back switching CONTACT RESISTANCE VALUE OF BACK TO BACK CB Fig. 5 shows the magnitude of inrush current due to back to back switching. The horizontal axis represents the reactive power magnitude ratio of the capacitor bank being switched to the capacitor listed in the legend. For example, if the horizontal axis is "2" and blue line is being reviewed, so the magnitude of capacitor bank reactive power is 20MVAR and 10MVAR. Thus, the magnitude of inrush current will be 15kA. It can be observed that the inrush current for back to back switching increases with an increase of the capacitor bank ratio. In addition, the inrush current is also increased for back to back switching with an increased the capacitor bank reactive power. Fig. 6 shows the inrush current frequency due to back to back switching. The horizontal axis represents the reactive power magnitude ratio of the capacitor bank being switched to the capacitor listed in the legend. For example, if the horizontal 261 Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO DE JANEIRO. Downloaded on November 05,2020 at 14:19:47 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply. Table III shows the contact resistance of the CB that encounter back to back switching during operation. These values are collected from the CB routine maintenance data, and showed an indication of the non uniformity of the contact resistance (on R, S, and T phase of CBs). For comparison, the contact resistance of CB for isolated switching is given in Table IV. TABLE IV. CONTACT RESISTANCE VALUE OF ISOLATED CB The CB contact resistance for each phase in Table IV tends to be more uniform when compared to the contact resistance in Table III. The non uniformity of the contact resistance in Table III can be used as an early indication that inrush current for back to back switching will potentially degrade the CBs [3][4][5]. Therefore, a tool for reducing inrush current is required. E. Mitigation of Inrush Current Using Damping Reactor Currently, there are several methods that can be used to reduce inrush current value such as pre insertion resistor addition, controlled switching, or damping reactor addition [6][7][8]. This study focused on inrush current mitigation using damping reactor due to the other methods limitation. Controlled switching requires good coordination between the equipment that control the switching process, therefore the success of reducing inrush current is depends on the condition of the switching controller which commonly is an electronic device [8]. On the other hand, utilization of pre insertion resistor only reduce the magnitude of inrush current without reducing the magnitude of inrush current frequency due to back to back switching [7]. It is important to use a proper reactor specification to reduce the magnitude of inrush current. Selection of reactor specification is based on the result of transient simulation. The effects of damping reactor addition to the inrush current of CBs are given Fig. 7, Fig.8, Fig.9, and Fig.10. Fig. 7. Inrush current with damping reactor for 25MVAR capacitor bank based Fig. 8. Inrush current frequency with damping reactor for 25MVAR capacitor bank based Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 show the magnitude of inrush current and inrush current frequency for back to back switching with damping reactor addition. The horizontal axis represents the reactive power magnitude ratio of the capacitor bank being switched to 25MVAR capacitor bank. For example, if we perform a back to back switching with a ratio of “2” (meaning back to back between 25MVAR and 50MVAR capacitors bank), then when 330uH of damping reactor is used on each capacitor (graph with blue line), it will be obtained the inrush current value is about 9kA and inrush current frequency about 5kHz. Similarly, when a reactor with an inductance value of 660uH is used, it will be obtained an inrush current and inrush current frequency about 7kA and 4kHz, respectively. Then, if 880uH damping reactor is used, it will be obtained an inrush current and inrush current frequency about 6kA and 3kHz, respectively. On the other hand, for capacitor bank based value of 50MVAR, the effects of adding the damping reactor to the inrush current on the CBs are given Fig.9 and Fig.10. 262 Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO DE JANEIRO. Downloaded on November 05,2020 at 14:19:47 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply. back switching occurs for capacitors with reactive power higher than 25MVAR, the inrush current will exceed the limits permitted by [2]. Thus, the effect of inrush current may be indicated by the significant difference of contact resistance in all CBs phases. Therefore, mitigation can be performed by installing damping reactor in series on each capacitor bank with the specifications given in Table V. TABLE V. DAMPING REACTOR SPECIFICATION FOR BACK TO BACK SWITCHING Fig. 9. Inrush current with damping reactor for 50MVAR capacitor bank based V. CONCLUSION An investigation of inrush current characteristic for 150kV electrical system in Indonesia has been performed. The results show that the inrush values comply with the IEC Standard for isolated switching. However, for back to back switching, the inrush values may exceed the limit of CBs withstand capability which designed using IEC Standard. Inrush current and inrush current frequency for back to back switching can be reduced by using damping reactor on each capacitor bank. REFERENCES Fig. 10. Inrush current frequency with damping reactor for 50MVAR capacitor bank based [1] Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 show the value of the inrush current and inrush frequency in the back to back switching using damping reactor. The horizontal axis represents the reactive power ratio of the capacitor bank being switched to 50MVAR capacitor bank. For example, if we perform a back to back switching with a ratio of “2” (meaning back to back between 50MVAR and 100MVAR capacitors bank), then when 330uH of damping reactor is used on each capacitor (graph with blue line), it will be obtained the inrush current value is about 14kA and inrush current frequency about 3.5kHz. Similarly, when a reactor with an inductance value of 660uH is used, it will be obtained an inrush current and inrush current frequency about 10kA and 2.5kHz, respectively. 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