NEUTRAL GROUNDING OF CAPACITOR BANKS – AN INTRODUCTION


The application of large shunt capacitor banks with switched parallel banks in high-voltage transmission systems involves a number of considerations, one of which is grounding. It is generally recommended that the neutral of capacitor banks be grounded only to systems that are effectively grounded.

In the event of a phase-to-ground fault, a grounded capacitor bank neutral in an otherwise ungrounded system may lead to high transient overvoltages in the system and capacitor bank as a result of restriking of the arcing fault to ground.

One of the main advantages associated with neutral grounding concerns the severity of the recovery voltage across the first pole of the switch to clear, interrupting the charging current of the capacitor bank.

The recovery voltage across the first pole to open consists of trapped charges on the capacitors and the variation in the 60 Hz voltage of the system. Due to system parameters and capacitor bank size, the recovery voltage can be approximately two times normal peak voltage when the bank is grounded.

On an ungrounded bank, the magnitude of the first peak of the recovery voltage can be as high as three times the peak system line-to-ground voltage when the bank is switched. Because recovery voltage is a critical factor in determining the capability of a switching device to switch capacitive reactive power, it may be desirable (in terms of switch performance) to ground the neutral of shunt capacitor banks.

IEEE Std C37.04-1979 and ANSI C37.06-1997 recommend that both the shunt capacitor bank and the system be grounded at voltage levels of 121 kV and above. Many capacitor banks of higher voltage are installed ungrounded, but the circuit breaker manufacturer should be consulted for the application of a breaker if these conditions are not met.

While many shunt capacitor banks are directly connected to a high-voltage substation bus, switched capacitor banks may be applied to tertiaries of power transformers that are connected to the line or possibly to the bus. Grounding the neutral of the wye-connected capacitor bank should be done only on an effectively grounded system.

For instance, the delta tertiary of the auto transformer represents an isolated source; grounding the capacitor bank neutral makes this side of the transformer capacitively grounded. Overvoltages may be experienced during line-to-ground faults for certain ratios of X0/X1, depending on system, transformer, and capacitor bank parameters.

If the neutral is to be grounded on a system that is not effectively grounded, the application should be thoroughly analyzed for proper application of surge arresters, bank configuration, bank switching devices, etc.

Related post



No comments:

free counters