Performance study of Various Circuit Breakers for Inductive and

Capacitive Current Switching

Rajaramamohanarao Chennu(1), S Sudhakara Reddy(2), V S Nanda Kumar(3),
M Chandra Sekahr(4), Maroti(5), and G Sen Gupta(6),
HPL, CPRI, Bangalore.

Synopsis
The shunt reactors and capacitors are used to control the reactive power compensation
in any electrical system. During the light load or no load the over voltages are produced by
line capacitance, the shunt reactors are switched in to the system to absorb the reactive power
in the system and to maintain the system voltage. Capacitor banks are designed for industrial,
utility and power systems to improve power factor, increase system capacity, reduce
harmonic distortion and improve voltage regulation. Since the load conditions fluctuate
frequently, the shunt reactors and the capacitor banks must be switched on and off many
times in a day according to the load cycle and system reactive power.
The switching operation of the shunt reactors and the capacitor banks, however,
introduce significant switching transients.
While switching in capacitor banks the circuit breakers must with stand the inrush current
transients of high frequencies. While switching off the capacitive circuits circuit breakers
have to withstand switching over voltages. When disconnecting the reactors from the system
the circuit breaker chops the current before the current zero, which in turns generates high
voltages known as the chopping over voltages. These over voltages can cause reignitions and
cumulative over voltages by multiple reignitions. These over voltages can be calculated by
energy balance in the switching circuits. In addition to the overvoltages caused by chopping,
Transient recovery Voltage (TRV) also appears across the circuit breakers after current
interruption. The TRV depends on the source side parameters like inductance and the line
capacitance etc. These over voltages some times cause the restriking which inturn generate
even higher transient voltages. This phenomenon might damage the Circuit Breaker,
corresponding capacitor or reactor banks. The Circuit breaker must be able to with stand
these TRV and the over voltages generated by various phenomenon.
This paper discusses the performance of different Circuit Breakers for interrupting
low inductive and capacitor current switching for a 400kV system. The simulations are
carried out using the software EMTDC/PSCAD, corresponding results of transient over
voltages for different types of capacitive and inductive current switching including low
inductive current switching, shunt reactor switching, single capacitor bank switching and
back to back capacitor switching etc. the details results are described in detail. Switching
behaviour of different circuit breakers of voltage rating 36kV and above, few failure cases
during the actual tests with reference to inductive and capacitive current switching conducted
at High Power Lab, CPRI, Bangalore are presented. In this paper the testing requirements for
different types of capacitive current switching and inductive current switching as per the
latest international standards are also discussed.
(1),(4)&(5)
– Engineering Officers
(2)&(3)
- Joint Directors
(6)
- Additional director