Rjeas

Research Journal in Engineering and Applied Sciences 2(4) 343-348

Emerging Academy Resources (2013) (ISSN: 2276-8467)
www.emergingresource.org

Rjeas

INVESTIGATING HARMONIC RESONANCE AND CAPACITOR BANK

SWITCHING AT A POWER DISTRIBUTION SUBSTATION USING A FIXED
CAPACITOR BANK
J. C. Attachie and C. K. Amuzuvi
University of Mines and Technology,
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Tarkwa, Ghana.
Correspondence Author: J. C. Attachie
__________________________________________________________________________________________
ABSTRACT
Power systems are designed to operate at nominal frequencies of 50 Hz or 60 Hz. However, certain types of
loads produce currents and voltages with frequencies that are higher than the nominal, resulting in the following:
voltage and current distortion, low voltage notching, communication systems interference and high voltages and
currents in case of resonance. Harmonics can also cause relay malfunction, programmable logic controller
(PLC) interference, capacitor fuse interruptions and high overall system losses. Moreover, the interruption of a
capacitive current causes dielectric problems for the switching device. The major concern arising from the use
of capacitors is the possibility of system resonance which is one of the main consequences of harmonics in
power systems. This paper investigates the frequent capacitor bank tripping and damages in a distribution
substation of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) with the aid of a fixed capacitor bank. The study was
conducted using the Electromagnetic Transient Program (EMTP) software for the simulation. The results
showed that, the damages and failures had a direct bearing with harmonic resonance. Carefully selected seriesconnected inductors were recommended to move the resonant frequencies of the network below characteristics
harmonic frequencies. The significance of the study is to investigate the effect of harmonic resonance on
capacitor banks in distribution systems.
Emerging Academy Resources
KEYWORDS: Harmonic Resonance, Natural Frequency, Harmonic Distortion, Capacitance Switching,
Resonant Frequency, Capacitor Banks.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION
network or resized, system planners are interested to
The objective of the electric utility is to deliver
know if the proposed capacitor installation would
sinusoidal voltage at fairly constant magnitude
resonate with the system and if there is a resonance,
throughout their system. This objective is
then the problem is much severe.
complicated by the fact that there are loads on the
system that produce harmonic currents. These
Furthermore, one cannot determine the severity of the
currents result in distorted voltages and currents that
resonance as not all resonance conditions will cause
adversely impact the system performance in different
setbacks. However, engineering judgment must be
ways including overheating and malfunction of
used when applying capacitors in power systems with
equipment, communications interference, fuse and
high harmonic currents. Capacitors might not survive
breaker mis-operation and overheating of conductor
long enough in such environments if they are
inappropriately applied (Ronald, 2005).
Since the number of harmonic producing loads has
increased over the years, it has become increasingly
The objective of this paper is to investigate the
necessary to address their influences when making
frequent tripping and occasional failure of fixed and
any additions or changes to an installation.
automatically switched capacitor banks in the ECGs
distribution network. The network has a number of
The application of shunt capacitors for voltage
33/11 kV power distribution substations with shunt
support and power factor correction is a common
capacitor banks installed. The main purpose of
practice in the power industry. With the proliferation
installing the capacitors was to minimize system
of harmonic-producing loads (such as adjustable
losses, improve the system power factor and release
speed drives and uninterruptible power supply) and
the capacity to enable transfer of maximum power.
the increasing awareness of harmonic effects, the
However, upon commissioning, some of the capacitor
possibility of system-capacitor resonance has become
banks were reported to have tripped persistently on
a routine concern for shunt capacitor applications.
over voltages and in some cases capacitor failure had
Whenever a shunt capacitor is to be added to a
occurred.
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Research Journal in Engineering and Applied Sciences (ISSN: 2276-8467) 2(4):343-348

Investigating Harmonic Resonance And Capacitor Bank Switching At A Power Distribution Substation Using A Fixed Capacitor Bank

In this paper, a distribution substation was used as a

case study to aid in the investigation of the problem.
Power disturbance analyzer was installed at the
stations to monitor and measure power quality
parameters. Harmonic currents measured were
observed to be significant. Consequently, the network
was modeled and examined using the EMTP software
to help identify the exact disturbing electrical
phenomenon. It was found that the failures were
strongly related to harmonic resonance.

inductive and capacitive components (Zheng, 2010).

In an extreme case, a relatively small harmonic
current can cause destructively high voltage peaks at
resonance frequency (Aro et al., 2003)
Parallel resonance is common when there are
capacitor banks or long AC lines connected with
large transformers. In this case, large capacitances
and inductances start to resonate with each other
(Lukasz et al., 2009). Fig. 1 shows an example of a
parallel harmonic resonance circuit.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Concept of Harmonic Resonance Phenomena
The reactance of an electrical network is dependent
on the frequency. At certain frequencies, the
inductive and capacitive components of the network
begin to resonate with each other at the resonance
frequency. That frequency is the natural resonance
frequency that is determined by the combination of
the inductances and capacitances of the components.
The resonant frequency for a particular
inductance/capacitance combination can be computed
from a variety of different formulae depending on
what data are available. The basic resonant frequency
equation is:

where L is the inductance and C is the capacitance of

the network (Lukasz et al., 2009).

Fig. 1: Example of parallel resonant circuit

Fig. 2 shows a plot of the equivalent system
impedance and frequency scan as seen from BUS1
(Fig. 1). In Fig. 1, the circuit has a high impedance at
its resonant frequency: impedance of the circuit as
seen from BUS1 is 147 at 630 Hz using EMTP.
Under normal condition, this should not pose any
threat to the system at all and therefore a clean sinewave voltage was recorded, using the measuring
device M, at BUS1. However, it becomes a problem
only if a harmonic source exists at or near this
frequency.

At high voltages, the resistance of a network is

usually small compared to the capacitance and
inductance and therefore, the impedance can change
considerably. The situation becomes severe when the
resonance frequency coincides with a frequency of
any harmonic current or voltage. If this occurs, the
harmonic current or voltage will be amplified, which
can lead to damage of some network components.
Most often, resonance frequencies occurs between
harmonic frequencies (inter-harmonic resonance)
(Gunther, 2001). One system can have several
resonance frequencies depending on the grid
configuration (Patel, 2010). A relatively small
distortion at resonance frequency can lead to serious
consequences, which emphasizes the importance of
the advance analysis of harmonics (Arana et al.,
2009). Two different types of resonance can be
identified; parallel resonance and series resonance
(Wakileh, 2001).

Impedance in ohms as seen from Bus-1

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

Parallel Resonance
In parallel resonance, the impedance of the circuit is
high. In an ideal resonance (circuit without
resistance), impedance becomes infinitely high,
which leads to extremely high overvoltage. At
parallel resonance frequency, the voltage obtains its
highest possible value at a given current. (Young and
Freedman, 2011).

0
1000

2000

3000

4000
5000
Frequency (Hertz)

6000

7000

8000

9000

10000

Fig. 2: Frequency scan and impedance as seen from

BUS1
Parallel Resonant Equation
The parallel resonant frequency of a system involving
a transformer can be estimated. At a secondary side
of a transformer, resonant frequency of a network can
be determined using the following relation (Thomas
and Carnovale, 2013).

Parallel resonance can occur when a source of a

harmonic current is connected to the electrical circuit
that can be simplified as a parallel connection of
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Research Journal in Engineering and Applied Sciences (ISSN: 2276-8467) 2(4):343-348

Investigating Harmonic Resonance And Capacitor Bank Switching At A Power Distribution Substation Using A Fixed Capacitor Bank

circuit produces a high impedance of 147-ohms at the

13th harmonic current, the series circuit, tuned to 13th
harmonic order, produces a low impedance path to
the 13th harmonic current and changes the resonant
frequency point. The resonant frequency is now
moved to the 8th harmonic order which is considered
not detrimental.

where, h is the harmonic frequency in per unit, Z is

impedance of the transformer in percent, kVA the
power rating and kVAR the reactive power rating of
the capacitor bank.

50

Series Resonance
Series resonance differs from the parallel resonance
in its low impedance at a resonance frequency. At the
resonance frequency, the inductive and the capacitive
reactance at a certain point becomes equal (Sankaran,
2002). In this case, the capacitive reactance annuls
the inductive reactance and the network impedance
only consists of the resistance of the network. As the
cable resistances are normally very low, the reduction
of impedance can be seen as noticeably high currents
(Aro et al., 2003). The case is analogous to the
parallel resonance but instead of high voltages, high
currents flow through a low impedance circuit.

Impedanc e in ohms as seen from the Bus

45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0

200

400

600

800
1000
Frequency (Hz)

1200

1400

1600

1800

2000

Fig. 4: Frequency scan and impedance as seen from

BUS1 (reference Fig. 3).

To prevent the resonance from becoming dangerous,

the system natural frequency point is forced below
any of the frequencies where significant current
harmonic distortion occurs. To do this, the series
resonant circuit is used. In a series resonance circuit,
the inductive reactance components are in series to a
source of harmonic current. Essentially, series
resonant is a harmonic filter tuned at a fixed
frequency to attract harmonic currents and
consequently reduce harmonic distortion. An
example of the series resonant circuit is shown in Fig.
3.

Fig. 5 depicts the effect of the series inductor on the

bus voltage and current amplification in the
capacitive circuit. At the instant the harmonic source
was energised, a voltage spike was observed. This
can be destructive but can be managed with a surge
arrestor. Compared with the case of the parallel
resonance, the series inductor has significantly
reduced the current to a tolerable range. It is
important to note that, the primary purpose of the
series resonant is not essentially to reduce the
harmonic distortion but to ensure that the capacitor
does not resonate with the impedance of the circuit
(IEEE 519-1992, 1994).
Bus voltage

V oltage (P er unit)

-5

20

40

60

20

40

60

80
100
t (ms)
Current in capacitor

120

140

160

120

140

160

Current (A )

2
0
-2

80
t (ms)

100

Fig. 5: Bus voltage and current amplification

Series Resonant Equation
The value of the inductance required to tune or move
a circuits natural frequency away from a
characteristic harmonic frequency, can be determined
using the following relation:
Fig. 3: Example of series resonant circuit
where, XC is the capacitive impedance of all the
capacitors connected to the secondary bus of the
transformer and XL is the inductive impedance of the
transformer.

A plot of the impedance as a function of frequency in

the series resonance circuit is illustrated in Fig. 4 (for
the circuit of Fig. 3). The effect of the series
inductance can be seen as: while the parallel resonant
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Research Journal in Engineering and Applied Sciences (ISSN: 2276-8467) 2(4):343-348

Investigating Harmonic Resonance And Capacitor Bank Switching At A Power Distribution Substation Using A Fixed Capacitor Bank

frequency of 450 Hz (9th harmonic order) which is in

agreement with the calculated natural frequency.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

At the power distribution substation, the cause of
frequent tripping and occasional failure of a 2400
kVAR, fixed capacitor bank is investigated. An
equivalent circuit representation of the network of the
substation is shown in Fig. 6. The transformers were
independently operated as the 11 kV bus sectionalizer
was kept normally open. Although the study
considered two sections of the 11 kV bus (BUS1 and
BUS2), to avoid repetition of procedures and ensure
clarity, report of the analysis is limited to BUS1.

Impedance in ohms as seen from Bus-1

16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1000

2000

3000

4000
5000
Frequency (Hz)

6000

7000

8000

9000

Fig. 7: Frequency scan and impedance as seen from

BUS1
SIMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
A harmonic current source of 34 A of the 9th
harmonic order (value taken from the measured
harmonic content of the station) was injected into
BUS1 so as to determine the harmonic resonant effect
on the system voltage. The resulting overvoltage
which is about 30% of the nominal value is illustrated
in Fig. 8.
1

Voltage (Per unit)

0.5

-0.5

-1

-1.5
20

40

60

80

100
t (ms)

120

140

160

180

200

Fig. 8: Harmonic effect on BUS1 voltage

The limit on steady-state voltage is generally taken to
be 110% of the rated voltage. If the voltage is
allowed to rise above this point, transformers will
saturate and overheat. According to IEEE standard
18-1992 and IEEE standard 1036-1992, capacitor
bank short time overvoltage of about 130% should be
limited to one minute. From this standpoint, we
conclude that the existence of the 9th harmonic of
such magnitude in the system explains why persistent
tripping of the capacitors was experienced.

Fig. 6 A single line diagram of the power distribution

substation
The Circuit Data
The source was represented as Thevenin equivalent
with an X/R value of 5.3. The short circuit power is
1800 MVA at a voltage of 33 kV as base. The 10
MVA, 33/11 kV transformer at the station was
represented with 9.9 % impedance. The true and
reactive (PQ) load of the station are 7200 kW and
4081 kVAR with a lagging power factor of 0.87. The
calculated resonance frequency of the network using
equation (1) yielded 8.5. This means the system
exhibits a resonant frequency that is close to a
problematic frequency of the 9th harmonic order.

200
150
100

Current (A)

50
0
-50
-100
-150

The calculated resonant frequency was confirmed

using the EMTP RV software. Fig. 7 depicts the
frequency scan and impedance as seen from BUS1.
The network present a high impedance at a resonant

-200
-250
20

40

60

80

100
t (ms)

120

140

160

180

200

Fig. 9: Current drawn by the capacitors under

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Research Journal in Engineering and Applied Sciences (ISSN: 2276-8467) 2(4):343-348

Investigating Harmonic Resonance And Capacitor Bank Switching At A Power Distribution Substation Using A Fixed Capacitor Bank

harmonic resonant condition

100

The current drawn by the capacitors under the

harmonic resonant condition was also examined. The
result showed that, peak current of about 270% of the
normal current was drawn by the capacitors. This is
shown in Fig. 9. Capacitor standards by IEC 60871
and AS 2897 indicate that capacitors should be able
to withstand inrush currents up to 100 times the
nominal current. Large and high frequency steadystate current of about 270% is enough to damage the
capacitors.

Current (A )

50

-50

-100

-150

20

40

60

80

100
t (ms)

120

140

160

180

200

Fig. 12: Current in the capacitor as a result of the

series inductor

After investigating the possible cause of the frequent

tripping and the damage of the capacitor bank, our
secondary aim was to find the solution to the
problem. The network at this stage exhibited the 9th
harmonic resonant frequency. The problem was then
solved by the introduction of an inductance of 0.0059
H connected in series with the capacitor bank to drain
all the 9th harmonic current.

The effect of the series inductor in relation to the

current drawn by the capacitors is illustrated in Fig.
12. The harmonic induced peak current amplification
is now reduced significantly from 270% to about
20%. According to the IEEE standard 18-2002, shunt
capacitors should be able to tolerate 135% continuous
current overload. Hence, the 20% current
amplification is considered safe for the capacitors.

The network now gives a very low impedance path to

the 9th harmonic current as shown in Fig. 10. The
resonant frequency of the network is now shifted to
the 8th harmonic order which is a harmless frequency.

CONCLUSION
Harmonic current can have a significant impact on
electrical distribution systems and the facilities that
they feed. It is important to consider their impact
when contemplating additions or changes to a system.
In addition, identifying the size and location of nonlinear loads should be an important part of any
maintenance and troubleshooting. Accordingly,
mitigation of these harmonics is important especially
for industrial applications where any small downtime
period may lead to great economic losses.

16
14
Im pedanc e as s een f rom th e 11k v bus

12
10
8
6
4
2

We have investigated the frequent capacitor bank

tripping and damages in two distribution substations
of the ECG using a fixed capacitor bank. The study
was conducted using the EMTP software for the
simulations. The results showed that, the damages
and failures were related to harmonic resonance.
Harmonic content of the substation was measured
and the resonant frequency point of the network
forced below the characteristic harmonic frequencies.
The limitation of this study is that the capacitor bank
sizes and locations where not considered in the
analysis. Further research will be conducted to
consider this effect in future work.

0
500

1000

1500
2000
Frequency (Hz)

2500

3000

3500

4000

Fig. 10: Frequency scan and impedance as seen from

BUS1
The effect of the series inductor on BUS1 voltage is
shown in Fig. 11. It is evident that the 30%
overvoltage effect occasioned by the parallel
harmonic resonance condition in Fig. 8 has been
removed by the series inductor.
1

Voltage (P er unit)

0.5

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors wish to acknowledge Geroge Eduful of
the Electricity Company of Ghana for his assistance
and efforts during the data collection and analysis.

-0.5

REFERENCE
Aro, M., J. Elovaara, M. Karttunen, K. Nousiainen,
V. Palva, 2003. Suurjnnitetekniikka, ISBN:
9789516723207, Helsinki: Otatieto.

-1

20

40

60

80

100
t (ms)

120

140

160

180

200

Fig. 11: Bus voltage as a result of series inductor

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Research Journal in Engineering and Applied Sciences (ISSN: 2276-8467) 2(4):343-348

Investigating Harmonic Resonance And Capacitor Bank Switching At A Power Distribution Substation Using A Fixed Capacitor Bank

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