1. INTRODUCTION
The constant demand of rational use of electric energy requires its economic
generation, transmission, distribution and usage with minimum losses. That implies
a full control over the factors that may determine these potential losses. The
lagging reactive power flow, which can occur in both industrial and public power
grids, is one of the main causes of energy losses [14]. In order to overcome this
problem, power factor correction systems (PFC) are used, destined to compensate
the generated lagging reactive power by supplying leading reactive power at
specific nodes in the network. The required leading reactive power is usually
provided by capacitors connected in parallel and closer to the inductive load. Very
often the grid conditions change due to load variation and thus the required leading
reactive power should be accordingly adapted. That is commonly done by using an
automatic power factor correction system (automatic PFC). This installations,
thanks to a monitoring device and a power factor controller, allow the automatic
switching of multiple capacitor banks and manage to follow the absorbed reactive
power variations and finally to keep a constant power factor at the load [5]. The
paper mainly focuses on a better evaluation of the inrush current absorbed by the
*
Politehnica University of Bucharest, 313 Splaiul Independenei, 060042 Bucharest, Romania,
emil.cazacu@upb.ro.
Rev. Roum. Sci. Techn. lectrotechn. et nerg., 57, 4, p. 341350, Bucarest, 2012
342
Fig. 1 Architecture of an automatic power factor correction system (PFC) with three steps.
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Fig. 2 Inrush current and voltage variation for the last switched capacitor bank in a multiple step
automatic PFC whose parameters are presented in Chapter 3.
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capacitor bank electric characteristics, the Standards IEC 62271-100 [11] and
IEC 60831-1[8] suggest the relations for determining the inrush current amplitude
in a single and multiple (different or identical) reactive power steps switching
cases:
ip_single_step = U n
ip_multiple_steps = U n
2 S sc
Q
2 C
2C
; I nc = C ;
Un
= I nc
3 L0 + L
3 L0
QC
3U n
2 ( C1 + C2 + " Cn 1 ) Cn
3 ( C1 + C2 + " Cn ) L +
n
ip_multiple_equal_steps = U n
1
1
(1)
1 1
1
+ +"
L1 L2
Ln 1
2C
n
, n > 1,
n +1 3 L
where L0 is the network inductance. Also, for the bank step of index k, relations (1)
use the following notations: Lk the connection inductance; Qk the reactive
power; Ck the capacity of the respective bank step; Inc the rated bank current;
Un the network rated voltage; Ssc the short-circuit power at the point where the
capacitor are installed. Switching capacitor banks in automatic PFC is not only
related to high inrush currents, but also to high voltage transients, causing
degradation of power quality by generation of disturbance waves which propagates
throughout the network [5]. In order to evaluate the overvoltage level, one must
also consider the grid parameter alone with the reactive power QC supplied by the
capacitor bank. Often, the automatic PFC system is connected in the proximity of a
distribution transformer of rated apparent power Sn, percentage short-circuits
voltage usc[%] and a per-phase impedance ZT. Thus, the voltage variation is given
by [1, 2]:
X
=
.
T
Un
Un
U n2
Sn
(2)
Relations (2) use the fact that in a power transformer the winding resistance
is negligible compared with the leakage reactance and the reactive power values
seen by the transformer, denoted by Q. In practice, the last may be considered as
the reactive power of the capacitor bank QC during the switching phenomenon.
These expressions are only to be used for a single step capacitor bank. Expressions
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(1) and even (2) are mostly experimentally obtained and cover almost all the
practical cases, for both single and multiple steps PFC systems. In the case of
automatic multiple steps capacitor banks, where the maximal values of the inrush
current could reach important values, an accurate determination of transient
phenomena becomes very important for the PFC systems optimal design. Beside,
as we already underlined in the previous sections, the selection of all the
commutation and protection devices are based on this values.
3. MODELATING THE COMUTATION PROCESS IN AUTOMATIC PFC.
NUMERICAL RESULTS
For a better estimation of the peak inrush current in multiple step capacitor
banks of an automatic PFC systems, we started from the schematic circuit depicted
in Fig. 1 and modeled each component of the installation with a specific lumped
circuit parameter [13].
The important elements that are involved in the transient process are the
capacities of the capacitor banks, inductance and resistance of the connection
cables between the stages and, for the first bank only, the inductance of the nearby
power transformer. Figure 3 presents the per-phase equivalent circuit diagram of a
three stages capacitor banks automatic PFC system. One can easily indentify the
above-mentioned circuit parameters and then use them to establish the
corresponding time differential transient equations.
The worst case regarding the capacitor banks peak inrush current value
occurs when the last capacitor bank switches on, while the others are already
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d i1 (t ) 1
= [u (t ) R1i1 (t ) u C1 (t )]
L1
dt
d i 2 (t ) 1
[u C1 (t ) u C 2 (t ) R2 i 2 (t )]
=
L2
dt
d i3 (t ) 1
[u C 2 (t ) u C 3 (t ) R3 i3 (t )]
=
d t
L3
d u C1 (t ) 1
[i1 (t ) i2 (t )]
=
C1
dt
d u C 2 (t ) 1
[i2 (t ) i3 (t )]
=
C2
dt
d u C (t ) 1
3
i3 (t )
=
d t
C3
(3)
u (t ) = U 2 sin (t + ).
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frequency of more than 5.2 kHz, while the bank rated current is of only 37 A at 50
Hz. The highest overvoltage exerted on the first capacitor bank terminals does not
exceed more than two times its rated value.
Fig. 4 Inrush current variation through capacitors banks immediately after commutation.
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The initial values of the capacitor voltages for the both on-duty capacitor
banks (already connected) at the very switching moment were considered maximal,
namely the amplitude of network voltage. That forces the computation to analyze
even a worse model case. Studying the inrush current variation absorbed by the last
capacitor bank, one can notice that its peak values reach more than 1700 A, at a
frequency of more than 5.2 kHz, while the bank rated current is of only 37 A at 50
Hz. The highest overvoltage exerted on the first capacitor bank terminals does not
exceed more than two times its rated value.
Applying the second relation from (1) to this particular case, one will get a
value of only 1288 A for the peak inrush current, which does not cover the worst
possible situation and may be misleading especially for the optimal design of the
switching and protective devices. Moreover, the formulas presented in (1) did not
consider all the network parameters and the initial voltage values on the already
connected capacitor banks before commutation takes place. It indicates only an
absolute value that could be reached after a half-period time of network supply
while the transient phenomena occur much faster.
Such extreme high values of the peak inrush currents determine important
electric stresses on the capacitor banks and reduce significantly their lifetime span.
It could also cause welding or fast wearing out of the main contacts of contactors
and also have negative effects on power quality network by generating transit
overvoltage into the grid. Consequently, the necessity of damping these currents
arises.
One of the simplest and costless methods of achieving this goal is to connect
inductances in the circuit made by winding the cables designed to be connected to
the capacitor banks, onto a cylinder shape. Only a few turns determines an
additional inductance of 510 H that could reduce with at least 3050 % the
inrush current amplitude. On the other hand, longer or additional cables could
cause higher Joule losses within the PFC system.
Another solution is offered by the usage of special design contactors
equipped with pre-switching auxiliary contacts that close before the main contacts
do and insert, for a very short time (210 ms), damping resistors into circuit [14].
Thus pre-load the capacitors and avoid the current peak values effects. This
procedure decreases with more the 40 % the inrush current amplitude having also
positive influence on the capacitor bank life expectancy and increases power
quality by limiting transients and voltage sags to propagate through the network.
When also a harmonic polluted environment is involved, and voltage and
current total harmonic distortion (THD) are less than 10 % and 5 %, respectively,
the common solution of damping the inrush current and also suppressing the 5th
harmonic and above is to use anti-resonance inductances in the circuit. These so
called detuned-reactors [15, 16] are iron base inductances of several mH connected
in series with the capacitor banks and sized so that a resonance frequency is below
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the lowest frequency of the harmonic voltage in the network. Thus, a detuned
automatic PFC manage to significantly reduce the inrush current amplitude (with
more than 60 %) and also to filter the network from superior harmonics.
We have to notice that other methods and procedures were also developed in
order to suppress the capacitor bank switch-on transients consequences [17, 18].
Even with the above mention damping solution the importance of knowing
an accurate value of the peak inrush current does not diminish. Only a precise
value all the components of the PFC systems and damping devices could be
designed in an optimal way anticipating and avoiding important electrodynamic
stresses or poor power quality effects.
4. CONCLUSIONS
The problem of determining an accurate evaluation for the peak inrush
current and overvoltages (at switching) that occur in multiple stages LV automatic
PFC systems was treated. The circuit model of the main PFC installation
components allowed, by numerically solving the associated differential equations
system, to extract the exact solutions for both the peak inrush currents and the
overvoltages of all the involved capacitor banks during the switching phenomena.
Moreover, the time-variations just after the commutation process of the capacitor
banks electric parameters are also investigated. The proposed approach could be
easily adapted to any multiple step PFC system, considering also the network
parameters such as the nearby power transformers characteristics or connecting
cables inductances and resistances. For a particular case, where only three steps
were used, the numerical value for the peak inrush current of the last switched
capacitor was compared with the one obtained according a known formula
provided by IEC standards. The difference between the two values is quite
considerable and appears as a consequence of different parameters considered by
the analytical approach and also by the various initial value assumed by the already
connected (on duty) capacitors. Inserting all the differential equations into a
general purpose software environment, could be a very useful tool in designing
different components of the PFC systems.
The entire study requires further investigations in at least the following
directions: developing and improving the circuit model for the PFC installation,
suggesting an optimal procedure of selection the commutation and protection
devices correlated to the switched capacitor banks and most important, a detailed
study over the of commutation phenomena in automatic PFC systems that work in
installations with intermediate level of harmonic distortion.
Received on July 13, 2012
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