RELAY AND © westincHouse TELECOMMUNICATIONS DIVISION a ai New Information INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL POWER SYSTEM APPLICATIONS SERIES CAPACITOR PROTECTION GUIDE The Industrial and Commercial Power System Applications Series contains a summary of information. {for the protection of various types of electrical equipment. Neither Westinghouse nor anyone acting ‘on its behalf makes any warranty or representation, express or implied, as to the accuracy or com- pleteness of the information contained herein, nor assumes any responsibility or lability for the use or consequences of use of any of this information.The Industrial and Commercial Power System Applications Series offers Westinghouse suggested procedures for the protection of various types of electrical equipment. The pro- tection shown will be applicable to the majority of cases. PROTECTIVE RELAY SYSTEMS COMMITTEE J. Alacchi sees Projects & Systems Jed. Bonk... ‘Advanced Systems Technology W, A. Elmore ......+.... Relay & Telecommunications Div. ©. H. Furfar ey Retired M., Kunsman Power Equipment Div. A.A. Regotti oo Retired D. D. Shipp. Engr. & Instrumentation Services Dv. RC. Wanex. Engr. & Instrumentation Services Dv. ROD. Whit - - Components Div. R.A, Wilson... Electric Utility District Engr. R. Yannielto +++ Construction Equipment Div. The Committee acknowledges the substantial contributions, to this publication by J. E. Harder Westinghouse, Bloomington. ( ( REPRODUCTIONS ANY REPRODUCTION OR FURTHER PUBLICATION OF THIS MATERIAL IS PERMITTED PROVIDED PROPER ACKNOWLEDGMENT IS GIVEN TO WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CORPORATION INDUSTRIAL & COMMERCIAL POWER SYSTEM APPLICATION SERIES capacitor Protection Guide 1.0 Introduction This guide discusses the selection of fuses and the setting of relays for fault and unbalance protection of shunt capacitor banks. Capacitor Bank Grounding The protection selected for a capacitor bank will usually depend on the system grounding and on whether or not the capacitor bank is grounded. There are three common connections for capacitors on three-phase systems: grounded neutral wye, ungrounded neutral wye and delta. Ungrounded capacitor banks may be used on any system. Grounded neutral wye capacitor banks are an option only on effectively grounded wye systems. GROUNDED WYE CAPACITOR BANKS ARE NOT RECOMMENDED FOR UNGROUNDED, RESISTANCE GROUNDED, OR INDUCTANCE GROUNDED SYSTEMS (See ANSI/IEEE Standard 142-Green Book). ‘The use of grounded wye capacitors on any of these systems may result in overvoltages or difficulty in coordination of capacitor protection with system protection. Capacitor Bank Protection The protection of a capacitor bank usually involves several protective devices in a coordinated scheme: individual fuses, "unbalance" relays to provide alarm/trip for problems within the capacitor bank and overcurrent relays for bank fault protection. Individual fuses isolate faulted capacitor units or individual bushing flashovers. Overcurrent relays provide bank fault protection in the event of a line-to-line or line-to-ground short circuit. "Unbalance" relays provide alarm/trip for problems within the bank which may not be detected by the overcurrent relays. 4.0 Individual Capacitor Protection 4.1 Individual capacitor fuses are specifically designed to accommodate the transient currents and recovery voltages. Current limiting fuses are available for either indoor or outdoor use. Expulsion fuses are available for outdoor equipment. 4.2 A “fusing factor" is the ratio of the rated current of the fuse to the capacitor nominal current. The usual fusing factors for individual unit fuses are in the range of 1.35 to 1.65.5.0 Unbalance Protection 5.1 Unbalance protection has two functions: 5.1.1 "Group arc-over" protection detects a fault which is not cleared by an individual unit fuse, i.e., an arcing bus fault in one series group of a capacitor bank. 5.1.2 Unbalance protection detects conditions following normal fuse operations, which may exceed the capability of the remaining capacitor units. 5.1.3 Most delta-connected banks do not use capacitor units in series, and therefore do not require unbalance protection. Typical Unbalance Protection Schemes 5.2.1 Many schemes are used to determine capacitor bank unbalance. Some of the more useful schemes are described in Figures 1 through 7. The most commonly used schemes are those shown in Figures 1 through 4. The diagrams show separate relays for alarm (59/74) and trip (59). For smaller banks the alarm relay may not be justified. 5.2.2 Single-series-group, grounded-neutral-wye capacitor banks require no unbalance protection. Any fault can be detected by the overcurrent relays, and no overvoltage is applied to remaining units when an individual fuse operates. 5.2.3 Figures 3 and 5 show two schemes for unbalance protection for ungrounded neutral banks. Figure 5 has the advantage of responding only to capacitor bank unbalance and is insensitive to system ground faults. 5.2.4 If fuses are used in the primary winding leads of the voltage transformers (as may be required to comply with the National Electric Code (NEC) in some applications), care should be exercised in the choice of the fuse rating. Capacitor discharge current may saturate the vt core and be limited only by the primary winding resistance. Care should be exercised to insure that the vt thermal capability is adequate. When primary fuses are used, suitable resistors must be connected across each vt secondary winding. This allows detection of a blown high voltage fuse by the device 59 by providing a path for current flow other than the very high magnetizing impedance of the transformer having the blown fuse. 6.0 Bank Fuse Protection 6.1 Group fusing is sometimes used to provide fault protection for substation banks. Sometimes, for instance, a set of power fuses is used to provide major fault protection, with unbalance relaying used to operate a load break switch between the fuses and the bank. Fuses with continuous current capability in the range of 1.25 (for ungrounded banks) or 1.35 (for grounded banks) to 1.65 x nominal phase current are usually appropriate.