HARMONIC RESONANCE AND OVER-VOLTAGE ASSESSMENT DURING SWITCHING OF HIGH VOLTAGE SHUNT CAPACITORS IN E.R.E.C.

NETWORK
A. Khodabakhshian R. Hooshmand

G. Isazadeh

Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Isfahan, Iran (Tel: +98-311-793-4043; E-mail:aminkh@eng.ui.ac.ir) ABSTRACT
Shunt capacitors are extensively used in power system for reactive power compensation. Due to the existence of harmonic sources such as arc furnaces, harmonic-producing loads the possibility of harmonic resonance significantly increases. Switching shunt high voltage capacitors may cause over- voltages and this may damage the equipment considerably. In this paper the voltage profile and power losses in the sub-transmission network under study before and after installation of two high voltage shunt capacitors are compared. The harmonic analysis is employed to determine harmonic indexes such as HD in the network buses and to compare the capacitor loading limits with IEEE standard. The effect of the capacitor size on the resonance frequency is determined by using scan frequency analysis. Results show that the resonance frequency may occur in the lower frequency range with respect to the size of shunt capacitors. By considering the exact electromagnetic transient modeling of the network equipment, over-voltages during back to back switching of capacitor banks are also compared with the equipment characteristic. In this case, a fast transient occurs at the bus in which two capacitors share their charge and come to the same voltage. The current magnitude will be then limited by the inductance between the banks, defined by the sum of the series reactors. This inductance is much smaller than the source inductance. Therefore, the magnitude and the frequency of the inrush current will be higher. In this paper by using exact Harmonic and electromagnetic transient (EMT) modeling of network components such as transmission lines, transformers, generators, loads and capacitor banks the followings are being investigated in Kashan subtransmission network as a case study. It is to be noted that in this network harmonic loads are significant and reactive power demand is also high. - Determining the voltage magnitude, losses and power factor correction in the network under study before and after capacitor bank installation using load flow. - Using unbalanced harmonic load flow the HD index in the network substation before and after installation is determined. - The results from harmonic load flow including rms values of reactive power, voltage and current of the capacitor banks will be compared with the IEEE standard limits. - By using unbalanced scan frequency analysis in the network, harmonic resonance frequency in the substation that capacitors are installed is determined. - Electromagnetic transient (EMT) simulation is used to assess the back to back switching over-voltages during energizing the capacitor banks.

Index Terms Shunt Capacitors, Switching Overvoltages, harmonic Resonance, Harmonic Load Flow 1. INTRODUCTION
Application of shunt capacitors for reactive power compensation by regulating the voltage profile is a common practice in power systems due to their lower price and also easy maintenance [1]. Although the reactive power generations of fixed capacitors are dependent on the bus voltage magnitude in which the capacitor is installed, they increase the stability limits and security margin in power systems [2]. However, high voltage shunt capacitor banks could cause some disturbances in the network. In the networks with significant harmonic loads, shunt capacitor installation reduces the system natural frequency. Harmonic resonance occurs when the natural frequency of the system becomes equal to the harmonic frequencies which exist in the network. The capacitors can be severely overloaded due to harmonics, especially under resonant conditions, and can be damaged. The severity of these disturbances is dependent on the size and location of capacitor banks [3-4]. A well-known and commonly practicing method to verify if a capacitor resonates with its supply system is to determine the ratio of the system fault level to the capacitor size [5]. However, this method is not practical for multiple resonance frequency assessment. Harmonic power flow and frequency scan study could be another alternative to solve this drawback. Moreover, transient over-voltages during back to back switching (switching of a second capacitor bank on the same bus in the presence of an already energized one) must be investigated [6-7].

2. SUB-TRANSMISSION NETWORK UNDER STUDY

Figure 1 shows the single line diagram of the sub-transmission network under study. As shown in this figure there is only one transmission substation (230/63 kV) feeding the heavy loaded region under study. Since the generation units were far away, the voltage profile at the high voltage side of the transmission substation became under 0.95 pu during the peak load condition in summer 2007. Because of heavy loading condition and large amount of reactive power demand at kashan region the voltage magnitude at the secondary side of power transformers was 0.97 pu although the upper limit of the tap changer steps was reached. Therefore, under-voltage load shedding system was activated and large amount of loads were disconnected. In order to solve this problem for the next summer at peak load condition, installation of two 20 MVAR shunt capacitors at the secondary side of the transmission substation was approved at Kashan region. The capacity of banks was determined according to the reactive power flowing through the transformers in the substation.

978-1-4244-3508-1/09/$25.00 2009 IEEE

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Figure 2: High frequency model for power transformer Power flow IEEE load model is used for static potion of system loads as shown in Equation (3) [8]. Synchronous and asynchronous motors which are larger than 500 kW are simulated identically for power flow study. V f P = P0( ) pv ( ) pf V0 f0
Figure 1: Sub-transmission network under study with KASHAN transmission substation

3. SYSTEM MODELING
In this section, proper modeling of network equipment that is essential for accurate system analysis is investigated. A- Transmission Lines All transmission and sub-transmission lines are modeled using a distributed parameter line model. The skin effect for lines resistance is also considered according to Equation (1). R (h) = R.g (h)

V f Q = Q0( ) qv ( ) qf V0 f0 P0 and Q0 in Equation (3) are the nominal active power and reactive power of connected load respectively. V0 and f0 are nominal bus voltage and nominal frequency respectively. Harmonic power flow To evaluate harmonic indexes in different buses, unbalanced current source model (ratio between harmonic current to the fundamental one) is used to analyze the unbalanced harmonic power flow. Frequency scan Since the natural resonance frequency is dependent on the impedances of the network equipment the CIGRE type-C model as shown in Figure 3 is used for representing static loads. The parameters of this model are given in Equation (4).
RS = V2 P , XS = 0.073. h. RS

(3)

> 2.4 for g (h) = 0.938 + 0.0352 < 2.4 for g (h) = 0.3 + 0.35
(1) B- Generators Because of switching transient the sub-transient impedances of generators are considered. The skin effect of resistances is considered according to Equation (2).
R ( f ) = R.[1 + A( f / fnom) exp( B )]

(4)

h. RS XP = [(6.7. Q / P) 0.74]

(2)

where A and B are selected to be 1 and 1.5 respectively. C- Transformers The high frequency model given in Figure 2 provides an accurate frequency response with respect to voltages and currents at the transformer terminals. The capacitor values of transformer model are in nF and are selected according to their rating [8]. D- Loads Modeling of network loads has a considerable effect on power system analysis such as power flow; harmonic power flow and frequency scan analysis. Therefore, for each case the following models are being considered.

Figure 3: CIGRE type-C model for load representation Dynamic model of motors is also shown in Figure 4 and the parameters are given in Equation (5).

Rs (h) = Rs h

Rr (h) = Rs h

X (h) = h. X S h = (h 1) / h S h = (h + 1) / h

(5)

for positive sequence harmonics for negative sequence harmonics

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that the resonance frequency is near to the 5th harmonic after capacitor banks are being installed. Table II Active, reactive power and power factor in power transformers before and after capacitor banks installation Active Power Reactive Power Power Transformer (MW) (MVAR) Factor Before banks 67.13 35.74 0.88 installation After banks 70.96 24 0.947 installation Table III Standard capacitor loading indices and limits Index Description Limits Apparent power of the capacitor 135% S (Irms*Vrms) Vrms RMS voltage of the capacitor 110% Vpeak Peak voltage of the capacitor 120% Irms RMS current of the capacitor 180% Table IV THDTot and HDMax values for different capacitor sizes Capacitor size at Kashan bus THDTot% HDMax% (Mvar) 13.921 at 7th harmonic No capacitor 23.5 order 20 33.4 26.9 at 5th harmonic order 13.921 at 5th harmonic 40 17.24 order Based on the harmonic power flow analysis the rms values of apparent power, voltage and current for shunt capacitor banks are shown in Table V. Results show that all capacitor parameters at different loading conditions are at standard limits.
Table V Capacitor loading indices at three different loading conditions Loading KVAR( pu ) I rms ( pu ) Vrms ( pu ) condition Heavy 1.25 1.3 0.97 Medium 1.19 1.16 1.03 Light 1.15 1.12 1.05

Figure 4: Dynamic model for motor loads E- Capacitor banks Table I shows the capacitor banks technical specification. To restrict inrush current and also switching frequency due to back-toback switching, the specified limiter reactors are installed in series with each shunt capacitor. Reactor values are calculated based on IEC-60871-1 as shown in Appendix A.
Table I Capacitor Bank technical specifications Capacitor bank Single Unit Complete Bank Reactive Power 417 KVAr 20 MVAr Nominal Voltage 18.19 kV 63 kV Nominal Capacitance 4.0116 F 16.03 F Nominal Current 22.9 A 183.17 A Shunt capacitor bank arrangement: Between phases: ungrounded single wye Series per phase: 2 Parallels per phase: 8 Total of capacitors of each bank: 120

4. LOAD FLOW STUDY

Figure 5 shows the magnitudes of the bus voltages in the network before and after two 20 Mvar capacitor banks are installed in the summer 2008 for peak load condition. As can be seen from Figure 5 the voltage profile improvement is significant and the magnitude voltage of all buses is in an acceptable range. Power factor correction in the power transformers is shown in Table II according to active and reactive power flowing from power transformers before and after capacitor banks are installed.

6. FREQUENCY SCAN ANALYSIS

Figure 6 shows the equivalent model of shunt capacitor in the network at the resonant condition. In this figure the rest of the system is seen from the point of harmonic current source. When excited at resonant frequency a harmonic current magnification occurs in the parallel tuned circuit although the excited input current is small. This magnification of harmonic current may be much larger than the excited current and may even exceed the normal fundamental frequency current. It overloads the capacitors and results in severe harmonic currents and distortion in the power system with their consequent deleterious effects on the power system components. The lower harmonics are more troublesome from a resonance point of view [9-10]. As the order of harmonics increases (i.e., the frequency increases) their magnitudes will be reduced. Frequency scan analysis calculates the frequency response of a system observed from a particular bus. A frequency scan is merely

Figure 5: Voltage magnitude in the network buses before and after installation two 20 Mvar capacitor banks

5. HARMONIC POWER FLOW

Current source model (ratio between the harmonic current to the fundamental one) is used to model the network harmonic loads. Table III shows the standard capacitor loading indices and limits according to IEEE standard for shunt power capacitor application in power systems. Table IV also shows the THD% and maximum HD% in capacitor bus for three different capacitor sizes. As can be seen from Table IV, the maximum HD index changes from 7th to 5th harmonic after capacitor banks are used. This is due to the fact

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a repeated application in certain incremental steps from initial value of frequency to the final value. By solving Equations (6)-(8) obtained from Figure 6 parallel resonance frequency is given in Equation (9).

Figure 6: Equivalent model of shunt capacitor in the network.

2 L + L1 ( 1 L2 C ) Z eq = j X eq = j 2 2 1 L C 2

(6) (7) (8) (9)

Figure 8: Resonance frequencies after installing cap. banks(20 MVAR)

L2 + L1 ( 1 2 L2C ) = 0
1 L2 C = 0
f par = 1 2 L2 C
2

Thus, according to Equation (8), resonance frequency will be decreased if the capacitor size increases. By using the high frequency modeling of the network components the unbalanced frequency scan is performed. Resonance frequencies before banks installation are shown in Figure 7. Figures 8 and 9 show that as the capacitor size is increasing the resonance frequency is getting smaller when 20 MVAR and 40 MVAR banks are installed respectively. As can be also seen from Figures 8 and 9 the resonance frequencies are reduced. Since frequency scan results are dependent on the impedances of the network components, any change in the network topology will change the resonance frequencies. For this reason the same analysis is performed when two of the sub-transmission lines (line 1 and line 7) and one of the transmission transformers are out of service in the network study. Resonance frequencies in this situation are shown in Figure 10. These results confirm that the resonance frequency boundary is near to the 5th harmonic.

Figure 9: Resonance frequencies after installing cap. banks (40MVAR)

Figure 10: Resonance frequencies after installation capacitor banks when some elements in network are out of service

7. BACK TO BACK SWITCHING

When a capacitor is connected to a power source acts as a sudden short circuit because the voltage across the capacitor cannot change suddenly. Therefore, the voltage of the bus in which the capacitor is connected will dip severely. This voltage dip and the transient step change are function of the source impedance behind the bus. The voltage will be then recovered after a high-frequency oscillation occurs. In the initial oscillation the transient voltage can be increased up to 2 per unit. In this regard, the initial step change and the subsequent oscillation of the bus voltage are important [11]. Surge arresters and surge capacitors can limit these transferred over-voltages and also reduce their frequency [12]. Back to back switching of shunt high voltage capacitor banks in the EMT domain is investigated to assess the over-voltages in the network. By using the proper EMT models of the components such as HV-LV high frequency capacitors in transformers, surge arresters, current and voltage transforms, transient voltage behavior in microsecond steps is investigated. It is to be noted that to

Figure 7: Resonance frequencies before installation of capacitor banks.

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restrict the inrush current and switching frequency during the capacitor banks design, series reactor for each phase is determined and installed (Appendix. A). Figures 11 and 12 show the transient behavior of the bus voltage that the capacitor is installed in the first and second switching time zones during peak load condition. Transient current in the capacitor banks during light load condition switching is also shown in Figure 13.

capacitor banks are not troublesome when inrush current limiter reactor is used.

9. REFERENCES
[1] IEEE Guide for Application of Shunt Power Capacitors, IEEE Std 1036-1992 [2] C. W. Taylor, Power System Voltage Stability, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994 [3] IEEE Recommended Practice and Requirements for Harmonic Control in Electric Power Systems, IEEE Std. 519-1992, 1992. [4] J. C. Das, Analysis and control of Large Shunt Capacitor Bank Switching Transients, IEEE Trans. on Industry Applications, Vol. 41, No.6, pp. 1444-1451. Nov-Dec .2005. [5] IEEE Harmonics Model and Simulation Task Force, Test systems for harmonics modeling and simulation, IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 579587, Apr. 1999. [6] Wu. Dugui, Xu. Zheng, Harmonic Model of Power Transformer, IEEE International Conference on Power System Technology, POWERCON, 1998. [7] Y.Tang and A.Y.Wu, Harmcmics and System Nalural Frequencies, presented at the Cement Industry Technical Conference, EEE-IAS/PCA2001.,pp.51-58,29 April-3 May2001. [8] Zhenyu Huang, Wilsun Xu, "A Practical Harmonic Resonance Guideline for Shun Capacitor Applications", IEEE Trans. on Power Delivery, Vol. 18, No. 4, OCT. 2003. [9] C. D. Vournas, N. G. Sakellaridis, Investigation of Capacitor Switching Strategies in HV/MV Substations, IEEE Power Engineering Society General Meeting, pp. 1-7, June. 2006. [10] Simulation of the propagation of harmonics in electric power networks part. I, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 466474, Jan. 1996. [11] J. C. Das, Surge transference through transformers, IEEE Industry Applications Magazine, Vol. 9, No. 5, pp. 2433, Oct. 2003. [12] J. C. Das, Analysis and Control of Large-Shunt-CapacitorBank Switching Transients, IEEE Trans. on Industry Applications, Vol. 41, No. 6, November/December 2005

Figure 11: Bus-voltage transient on energizing a step 1 of shunt-capacitor banks (20Mvar) in the peak load.

Figure 12: Bus-voltage transient on energizing a step 2 of shunt-capacitor bank (20Mvar) in the peak load.

Appendix A: Characteristics of IEC-60871-1

Inrush current limiting reactor

XL =

2U 2
2 IS XC

L = 331 .741H , X L = L.
(n 1) n

LS = 166 H N=2 LS =

I1 = 183 .28, I 2 = 65.98, N = 2, LEQ =

Figure 13: Current transient in the capacitor banks during energizing a step 1 of shunt-capacitor bank (20 MVAR) in the light load condition.

8. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper the effectiveness of two 20 MVAR capacitor banks installation for reactive power compensation is shown. The rms values of capacitor loading indices and limits are compared with IEEE standard. Harmonic power flow results show that the maximum HD index is at 5th harmonic, while 7th harmonic has the maximum HD index before capacitor installation. Scan frequency analysis demonstrated that when capacitor banks sizes increase, the resonance frequency will be decreased. Simulation results show that transient over-voltages during back to back switching of

N L N 1 Table A. Reactor technical specifications Reactor Value Nominal Inductance 166 mH Nominal Impedance 0.052 Nominal Current 183.286 A Nominal Voltage 72 kV Reactive Power 1.74 kVAr

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