1174 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 37, NO.

4, JULY/AUGUST 2001

A Primer on Capacitor Bank Protection

Martin Bishop, Senior Member, IEEE, Tim Day, Senior Member, IEEE, and Arvind Chaudhary, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract—Capacitor banks are applied in power systems to pro- Generally, all unbalance detection schemes are set up to
vide reactive power. The reactive power results in lower current in signal an alarm upon an initial failure or failures in a bank.
lines upstream of the bank improving system voltage and power Upon subsequent critical failures where damaging overvoltages
factor and reducing line losses. Capacitor banks can be configured
as filters for harmonic reduction. The protection systems for capac- are produced, the bank would be removed from the line.
itor banks include fuses, surge arresters, and protective relays. This Typical detection schemes associated with grounded-wye
paper will focus on protective relaying philosophies of grounded and ungrounded-wye banks are discussed in this paper. Since
and ungrounded Y-connected shunt capacitor banks, which are delta-connected banks are so seldom used and ungrounded-wye
commonly applied on industrial and utility power systems. banks serve the same purpose, delta configurations will not be
Index Terms—Capacitor bank overcurrent protection schemes, evaluated.
capacitor bank protective relaying, capacitor bank unbalance pro-
tection. II. CAPACITOR BANK CONNECTION
There are certain advantages and disadvantages associated
I. INTRODUCTION with grounded- versus ungrounded-wye capacitor banks,
regardless of the unbalance detection scheme used.
C APACITOR banks are normally constructed using indi-
vidual capacitor units connected in series and parallel to
obtain the required voltage and Mvar ratings. Individual ca-
The advantages of the grounded-wye arrangement compared
to the ungrounded wye are as follows.
pacitor cans are constructed using series and parallel capacitor 1) The initial cost of the bank is lower, as the neutral does
units, called packs. not have to be insulated from ground at full system basic
The purpose of an unbalance protection scheme is the re- impulse insulation level (BIL), as in the case with floating
moval of a capacitor bank from the system in the event of a fuse neutral arrangements.
operation in a fused bank, or a pack failure in a fuseless bank. 2) Capacitor switch transient recovery voltages are reduced
This will prevent damaging overvoltages from being impressed since the neutral is grounded and the bank is switched as
across the remaining capacitor units in the group where the oper- three single-phase sections.
ation occurs, thereby protecting against a situation which can be The disadvantages of the grounded-wye arrangement are the
immediately harmful to the capacitor units or associated equip- following.
ment. 1) The grounded neutral may cause telephone interference.
There are many methods available for detecting unbalances in 2) It provides a low-impedance fault path to ground. For
capacitor banks; however, there is no practical method that will this reason, grounded-wye banks are not applied to un-
provide protection under all possible conditions. The cost of a grounded systems.
foolproof detection scheme would be economically prohibitive 3) System fault current flows through a failed unit (single
and physically complicated. For example, all unbalance detec- series group).
tion schemes assume that unbalanced phase impedances will re- 4) There are high-frequency inrush currents into substation
sult from the outage of one or more capacitor units. It is possible, ground grid.
of course, to lose units in such a manner that balanced phase
impedances result while overvoltage conditions exist within the III. DETECTING BANK PROBLEMS USING UNBALANCE
bank. Experience and the small probability that such a condition
would occur have indicated that designing a protection scheme To help sensitize the reader to the problem of responding
for such a condition is typically not required. to unbalances in capacitor banks, a numerical example is pre-
sented. Consider an externally fused, grounded-wye bank con-
sisting of the series/parallel arrangement of capacitor units as
shown in Fig. 1.
Paper PID 01–22, presented at the 2000 IEEE Petroleum and Chemical The bank manufacturer will determine the particular se-
Industry Technical Conference, San Antonio, TX, September 10–14, and ap-
proved for publication in the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS ries/parallel arrangement based upon tradeoffs between voltage
by the Petroleum and Chemical Industry Committee of the IEEE Industry rating, var requirements, and overall economics. The example
Applications Society. Manuscript submitted for review September 15, 2000 for this discussion shows four series groups per phase and eight
and released for publication May 17, 2001.
M. Bishop and T. Day are with the Systems Engineering Group, Cooper capacitors per group. Assume that a single unit in the lower
Power Systems, Franksville, WI 53126 USA (e-mail: Mbishop@Cooper- group of B Phase fails followed by operation of its associated
power.com). fuse. Fig. 2 shows an equivalent circuit of the faulted phase
A. Chaudhary is with the Relay and Integrated Systems Group, Cooper Power
Systems, Franksville, WI 53126 USA. after fuse operation has removed the failed capacitor from
Publisher Item Identifier S 0093-9994(01)06307-1. service.
0093–9994/01$10.00 ©2001 IEEE
BISHOP et al.: A PRIMER ON CAPACITOR BANK PROTECTION 1175

TABLE I
EXPECTED NEUTRAL UNBALANCE FOR 110% INTERNAL VOLTAGE

Fig. 1. Example capacitor bank configuration.

where
number of series groups;
number of units in each group;
number of units removed.
Substitution into the expression with the values for this ex-
ample yields the expected neutral current

of nominal phase current

Fig. 2. Equivalent circuit after single-fuse operation.
A neutral CT and definite-time overcurrent relay would suf-
The problem at hand is to quantify the voltage stress seen by the fice to generate a trip signal for the bank’s breaker. Table I
remaining capacitors in the bank. The lower group of Phase B shows the value of the neutral quantity (percent of nominal bank
will now have greater reactance than a healthy group resulting in voltage appearing at the neutral for ungrounded banks) for dif-
an altered voltage divider. Since the remaining capacitors will be ferent numbers of series groups. Values in the table are calcu-
exposed to different electrical stresses, it is of value to calculate lated under the assumption that an unbalance sufficient to result
the highest steady-state capacitor voltage following the fuse op- in an internal 110% overvoltage has occurred.
eration. If the phase-ground voltage is assumed as 1.0 per unit, Note that for banks with more series groups—to accom-
the prefault capacitor voltage anywhere in the bank will be 0.25 modate higher system voltages—the external neutral signal
per unit for this example. becomes smaller, and more difficult to detect, for like values
However, after operation of the fuse, may be found using of internal voltage stress.
straightforward circuit analysis techniques Correct application of an unbalance protection scheme de-
pends upon proper understanding of system conditions that con-
per unit found reliable measurement of the indicating quantity, in this
case the neutral current. This neutral current (or voltage if un-
grounded) is influenced by unbalances in the system bus volt-
This voltage increase of 10.3% is developed across
ages as well as can failures. Even though the bank may be per-
the other remaining seven capacitors in the series group
fectly healthy, a system voltage unbalance may result in a false
where the failure occurred. [1] provides the mathematical
trip by causing sufficient neutral current flow, or , if a bona fide
relationship to determine the percent voltage increase for
bank problem does exist, it may be masked by the phasor re-
different bank configurations and number of failed units.
lationship of the unbalanced bus voltages combining to reduce
The voltage increase calculated for this example is above
the magnitude of neutral current calculated above. A robust pro-
the 110% steady-state voltage rating for capacitor units [2].
tection scheme should provide means for compensating for the
Therefore, a protection scheme must be applied to detect
effects of system voltage unbalance.
the overvoltage that now exists and trip off the bank before
Assuming a healthy bank (no blown fuses) and balanced bus
other capacitors are stressed to the damage point.
voltages, a neutral current may still be present due to manu-
A commonly measured signal to reveal the state of unbal-
facturing tolerances of the individual capacitors. That is, not
ance is found at the bank’s neutral. In this grounded-wye ex-
all phases have the same capacitive reactance. This is usually
ample, the unbalance caused by the fuse operation will result in
a secondary concern in modern banks but is more problematic
neutral current flow: the greater the bank imbalance—and in-
in banks with many series groups where the measured signal
ternal voltage stress—the greater the neutral current. (Note that
is small. A robust protection scheme should provide means for
fusing issues are not covered here; see [3] for discussions.) In
compensating for this inherent imbalance due to manufacturing
ungrounded banks, the neutral-ground voltage provides a sim-
tolerances.
ilar indication. Reference [1] details the expressions for pre-
The neutral current detection scheme mentioned above has
dicting this quantity
an additional shortcoming: although unlikely, if one unit fails in
each of the three phases, overvoltages will exist within the bank.
percent of nominal
However, since all phases have the same reactance, there is no
1176 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 37, NO. 4, JULY/AUGUST 2001

bank unbalance and, hence, no neutral current. The protection

schemes presented in the next section will address such limita-
tions.

IV. SINGLE-SIGNAL UNBALANCE DETECTION

The following discussions refer to both single and split-wye
banks. Assuming a given system voltage and bank size, the Fig. 3. Unbalance protection scheme using neutral-to-ground current sensing.
single-wye bank affords the following advantages over split
wye: each series group contains more units which yields a
reduced voltage stress when any unit fails, and the bank may
require less substation area and connection material. Con-
versely, the split-wye bank has fewer parallel units per series
group thus reducing the parallel stored energy that can reduce
fuse interrupting duty and capacitor rupture probabilities.

A. Grounded-Wye-Connected Capacitor Banks

For a grounded-wye bank or each wye of a split Fig. 4. Neutral-to-ground current sensing in a double-wye-connected bank.
grounded-wye bank, the allowable number of units that
can be removed from one series group, given a maximum
1) sensitive to system unbalance (unless compensated with
on the remaining units, can be calculated using the following
real-time input of zero sequence system voltage) which
formula:
may prevent application on large banks;
2) sensitive to triple harmonics and will generally require a
filter circuit or a special relay;
3) no indication of involved phase;
If is fractional, use the next lower whole number. The relay 4) masks balanced failures.
is then set to signal the alarm upon failure of units. To deter- In the scheme shown in Fig. 4, a split-wye-connected bank
mine the neutral-to-ground current flow and relay setting upon uses two current transformers and one overcurrent relay. Unbal-
loss of units for the protection schemes shown in Figs. 3 and ance current flowing in the ground connections due to system
4, use the following formula: voltage unbalance will circulate in the CT secondary circuit
and will not flow through the relay; internal unbalances will
result in relay operating current. The advantages of the protec-
Amperes
tion scheme for double-wye-connected capacitor banks shown
in Fig. 4 are as follows:
The relay would further be set to trip the bank upon loss of 1) scheme not sensitive to system unbalance; and thus, it is
units. The neutral-to-ground current flow and relay setting sensitive in detecting capacitor unit outages even on very
can be determined using in place of . large multiseries group capacitor banks;
The percentage of overvoltage for any number of units re- 2) not affected by harmonic currents;
moved from a series group can be determined by the following 3) relatively inexpensive protection scheme;
formula: 4) possible to compensate for inherent capacitor tolerances.
The disadvantages of the Fig. 4 scheme are as follows:
1) no indication of involved phase;
2) masks balanced failures (although relatively unlikely).
where A voltage unbalance sensing relay scheme can be applied on a
applied line-to-neutral voltage; grounded-wye-connected bank using three voltage transformers
rated voltage of capacitor units; (VTs) as shown in Fig. 5. (In place of the VTs, it may be eco-
voltage on remaining units in group with units re- nomical to use capacitive coupled potential devices, resistive di-
maining; viders, or a combination of these.) This can be created using a
neutral-to-ground current flow; large-capacitance unit in the series group at the ground poten-
rated current of one phase; tial and low-voltage VTs. The zero-sequence voltage is present
number of series groups per phase; during unbalance conditions in the bank. The advantage of the
number of parallel units in one series group; scheme shown in Fig. 5 is that the scheme can be adjusted to
number of units removed from one series group. account for constant system unbalances.
The advantage of the unbalance protection scheme shown in The disadvantages of the scheme shown in Fig. 5 are as fol-
Fig. 3 using the neutral-to-ground current sensing is its relative lows:
low cost. 1) if system unbalance changes, the detection circuit setting
The disadvantages of this scheme are as follows: will also have to be adjusted;
BISHOP et al.: A PRIMER ON CAPACITOR BANK PROTECTION 1177

Fig. 7. Unbalance protection scheme for an ungrounded-wye-connected

capacitor bank using neutral voltage sensing.

Fig. 5. Zero-sequence voltage-sensing method for a single

grounded-wye-connected bank. one series group, given a maximum on the remaining units
can be calculated using the following formula:

If is fractional, use the next lower whole number. The relay

is then set to signal the alarm upon failure of units. To deter-
mine the neutral shift voltage and relay setting upon loss of units
for the protection scheme shown in Fig. 7, use the following for-
mulas:

Fig. 6. Differential voltage sensing for a single grounded-wye-connected bank V

method.

The relay would further be set to trip the bank upon loss of
2) sensitive to triplen harmonics and will generally require units. The neutral shift voltage and relay setting can be
a filter circuit or a special relay; determined by the same formulas using in place of .
3) relatively expensive protection scheme; Similar equations can be derived to determine the relay settings
4) No indication of involved phase; of for the protection scheme shown in Fig. 9.
5) masks balanced failures (although relatively unlikely). For the protection schemes shown in Fig. 7 and each wye
The protection scheme shown in Fig. 6 uses voltage inputs of the protection scheme shown in Fig. 9, the percentage over-
from VTs connected to the bus and also connected into the voltage for any number of units removed from a series group
bank. This allows the protective device to develop a differential can be determined by using the following formula:
voltage signal. The scheme self-compensates for system voltage
unbalances. The advantages of the protection scheme shown in
Fig. 6 are as follows:
1) scheme not sensitive to system unbalance and, thus, it is
extremely sensitive in accurately detecting capacitor unit where
outages even on very large multiseries group capacitor neutral shift voltage;
bank; applied line-to-neutral voltage;
2) indicates involved phase and possibly which portion of rated voltage of capacitor units;
the phase; volts on remaining units units removed;
3) possible to compensate for inherent capacitor tolerances. number of series groups per phase;
The disadvantages of the scheme shown in Fig. 6 are as fol- number of parallel units in one series group;
lows: number of units removes from one series group.
1) relatively expensive protection scheme due to the quantity For the split-wye arrangement of Fig. 8, the allowable number
and ratings of the VTs; of units that can be removed from one series group, given a
2) masks balanced failures; maximum on the remaining units, can be calculated with
3) subject to blocking in case of loss of potential from the the following formula:
bus VTs.

B. Ungrounded-Wye-Connected Capacitor Banks

For the single-wye arrangement of Fig. 7, and each wye of If is fractional, use the next lower whole number. The relay
Fig. 9, the allowable number of units that can be removed from is then set to signal the alarm upon failure of units. To deter-
1178 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 37, NO. 4, JULY/AUGUST 2001

mine the neutral current flow and relay setting upon loss of
units, the following formula may be used:

Amperes

The relay would further be set to trip the bank upon loss of
units. The neutral current flow and relay setting can be
determined by this same formula using in place of .
The percentage of overvoltage for any number of units re-
Fig. 8. Unbalance scheme for an ungrounded-split-wye-connected capacitor
moved from a series group can be determined using the fol- bank using neutral CT.
lowing formula:

where
applied line-to-neutral voltage;
rated voltage of capacitor units;
volts on remaining units units removed;
current between neutrals of two banks;
rated current of one unit;
number of series groups per phase; Fig. 9. Neutral voltage unbalance scheme for an ungrounded-split-wye
number of parallel units in one series group; capacitor bank.
number of units removed from one series group.
Fig. 7 shows a connection diagram for a neutral
voltage sensing unbalance protection scheme for an un-
grounded-wye-connected capacitor bank. This scheme may
be used to protect banks of relatively modest size. A VT is
connected between the center point of the wye connection and
the substation ground. Another type of voltage transducer,
e.g., coupling capacitor voltage transformer (CCVT), might
be a more economical application in some high-voltage ap-
plications. If all capacitor units are in service and the system
voltage is balanced, then the center of the wye should be very
close to ground potential. An overvoltage relay senses voltage
that appears between the center point of the wye connection
and ground indicating an unbalance in the bank due to a Fig. 10. Impedance-based operation characteristic.
capacitor that is out of service, or due to system unbalance. The
advantages and disadvantages of the scheme shown in Fig. 7 V. IMPEDANCE-BASED UNBALANCE DETECTION
are the same as those for the scheme shown in Fig. 3.
An impedance-based unbalance method was developed in
Fig. 8 shows the connections for a neutral current sensing
which the bus voltage and capacitor bank phase currents are
unbalance protection scheme for an ungrounded-split-wye con-
used to determine the actual impedance of each phase of the
nected capacitor bank. This is a common and simple connection
capacitor bank. An offset mho characteristic is used. In the
to negate the effects of system voltage unbalance. A CT is con-
case of an ungrounded-wye bank, a fourth voltage, that of the
nected between the center point of the wye connection of each of
capacitor bank neutral to ground is also required to properly
the two wye-connected banks. If all capacitor units are in service
determine the impedance [4].
only small values of current flows in the connection. An over-
The capacitor bank’s nominal impedance is calculated from
current relay senses current that flows between the center point
its nameplate ratings. This establishes a normal operating point
of the wye connection of each bank indicating an unbalance in
on the axis, given by :center. See Fig. 10. This calcu-
the bank due to a capacitor that is out of service. The advantages
lation is accomplished using the following formula:
and disadvantages of the scheme shown in Fig. 8 are the same
as those for the scheme shown in Fig. 4. (Ohms, secondary)
Fig. 9 shows a variation of the split-wye scheme of Fig. 8 ex-
cept voltage versus current sensing is employed. The operation At time of relay commissioning, provisions are made to ad-
principles of the two schemes are similar as are the advantages just these ideal values to null out any influences of manufacturer
and disadvantages. Since the VT measures small signals rela- tolerances in the capacitors and the voltage and current trans-
tive to its rating, the CT scheme generally displays greater sen- ducers. Typically, an alarm level is computed whereby the relay
sitivity. indicates that some initial capacitor failure has occurred, but the
BISHOP et al.: A PRIMER ON CAPACITOR BANK PROTECTION 1179

be applied to detect unbalances due to failure of individual ca-

pacitor units in the bank. The problem of measuring external
quantities to determine the internal voltage distribution within
the bank was described. Equations were presented to determine
the resulting unbalance as cans are removed from service for
both grounded banks and ungrounded banks.
Protection technologies have been developed by the industry
to overcome some of the difficulties in sensing problems within
capacitor banks. The capabilities of microprocessor based re-
lays allow the protection engineer to implement sophisticated
Fig. 11. Per-string impedance unbalance method for fuseless capacitor banks. protection logic at a reasonable cost. A new technique using
impedance monitoring devices was also presented.
steady-state overvoltages in the capacitor bank are within the
capacitor withstand capabilities on a continuous basis. A trip REFERENCES
level corresponds to the number of capacitor failures that result [1] IEEE Guide for the Protection of Shunt Capacitor Banks, IEEE C37.99-
in a steady-state overvoltage in excess of the continuous rating 2000.
[2] IEEE Standard for Shunt Power Capacitors, IEEE Standard 18-1992.
of the capacitors, typically 110% of rated. [3] M. T. Bishop, S. R. Mendis, J. C. McCall, and W. M. Hurst, “Capacitor
Advantages: The advantages of the impedance method com- overcurrent protection for industrial distribution systems,” presented at
pared to the methods previously discussed are as follows. the IEEE Petroleum and Chemical Industry Tech. Conf., Vancouver, BC,
Canada, September 11–14, 1994, Paper PCIC-94-33.
1) It is inherently immune to the masking caused by “bal- [4] J. McCall, T. R. Day, S. Wu, and T. Newton, “New techniques for ca-
anced” failures. pacitor bank protection and control,” presented at the Western Protective
Relay Conference, Spokane, WA, Oct. 1999.
2) It is inherently immune to effects of system voltage un-
balance.
3) Faulted phase discrimination is inherent to the scheme. Martin Bishop (S’79–M’79–SM’92) received the
4) For grounded banks where phase CTs will be applied for B.S.E.P.E. and M.S.E.P.E. degrees from Rensselaer
overcurrent protection, the use of impedance methods en- Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY.
He is the Supervisor of the Reliability Improve-
sures that no other sensing devices are required, reducing ment Studies Section, Systems Engineering Group,
the cost of the capacitor bank. Cooper Power Systems, Franksville, WI. The
Disadvantages: section is responsible for studies related to power
systems reliability, including overcurrent protection
1) Since impedance is a mathematical combination of system applications and the impact on power quality.
voltage and current, the error associated with the mea- The section is also responsible for applications of
surement of each is compounded. In the implemented the V-PRO II program, and the Distrely program
for distribution reliability analysis. He is also an instructor in the Cooper
system, an overall uncertainty less than 0.5% was real- Power Systems’ Overcurrent Protection Workshop, the Distribution Analysis
ized; this is suitable accuracy for a very large population Workshop, and the Transformer Application and Protection Workshop.
of banks. Grounded banks permit much less expen-
sive/higher accuracy CTs to be utilized if located in the
neutral end of the bank. Tim Day (M’88–SM’00) received the M.S.E.E. de-
gree from Washington State University, Pullman, in
2) Phase CTs are required if not being used for phase over- 1991.
current protection. He is a Senior Power Systems Engineer in
3) It is subject to blocking in case of loss of potential from the Systems Engineering Group, Cooper Power
Systems, Franksville, WI. His present professional
the bus VT’s. endeavors include modeling and analysis of elec-
4) It may require special provisions to account for trical power systems in order to assess and optimize
impedance changes over temperature. protection schemes. He enhances existing protective
algorithms and develops customized schemes for the
Advantage with Fuseless Capacitor Banks: The impedance EdisonPro line of relays and incorporates Cooper
method is very appealing for fuseless capacitor bank applica- Power Systems’ simulator to verify all scheme modifications.
tions. In the event of a protective relay alarm or trip in a fuse-
less bank, it is difficult to determine which capacitor unit or
units contain failed elements as there is no external indication Arvind Chaudhary (S’85–M’85–SM’94) received
the B.S.E.E. degree from the Indian Institute of
of failure. Because each phase of a fuseless bank is divided into Science, Bangalore, India, the M.S.E.E. degree from
parallel strings of capacitors Fig. 11, it is possible to place a CT North Carolina State University, Raleigh, and the
in each string of each phase. This provides the ability to discrim- Ph.D. degree with a concentration in electric power
engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
inate not only which phase is faulted, but which string or strings State University, Blacksburg.
contain faulted units. He is a Staff Engineer with the Protective Relays
and Integrated Systems Group, Cooper Power Sys-
tems, Franksville, WI. He is responsible for relay ap-
VI. CONCLUSIONS plications for the Cooper lines of relays and relay set-
tings for power system equipment, including capacitor banks. His previous ex-
This paper has presented an overview of capacitor bank pro- perience has included Sargent & Lundy consulting engineers (1991–1998) and
tection schemes, discussing the variety of techniques that can Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, India (1979–1983).