Capacitor Banks Switching Transients in Power Systems

This study provides an introduction to capacitor bank switching transients, illustrates the effects of the capacitor banks switching in the utility primary distribution system at different places of the power system, but specially at the customer’s plant. Study covers different operational cases to find the suitable method or techniques can be used to limit the effect of capacitor switching transients.Transient disturbances in power systems may damage key equipment, potentially having a great impact on system reliability. These transients may be introduced during normal switching operations, lightning strikes, or because the equipment failure. Therefore, time-domain computer simulations are developed to study dangers cases due to transient occurrences. The simulations are performed using the simulation software Electromagnetic Transient Program (EMTP). In this study, the Alternative Transients Program (ATP) version 5.7p2 was applied on a simple industry network.Key words: Capacitor banks; Transient overvoltage and current; Energization inrush; Back-to-back switching; Preinsertion resistor and inducto