System Reliability

Fuseless Capacitor Bank Adds Reliability for CERJ in Brazil

by Albino Motta da Cruz, CERJ Nelson S. Falco F., Sales & Marketing Manager, Cooper Power Systems do Brazil Marcelo Neves Martins, Application Engineer, Cooper Power Systems do Brazil Hari Singh, Senior Power Systems Engineer, Systems Engineering ompanhia de Eletricidade do Rio de Janeiro (CERJ) is an electric power distribution utility in Brazil responsible for 23% of consumed energy in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Its area of service reaches 73.3% of the state, embracing 66 municipal districts, with population in the order of 4.3 million people. The service area is divided into four regions of operation characterized by geographic diversity, with mountains, lowlands and coasts. One of these regions serves 12 municipal districts in tourist regions along the Atlantic coast with seasonal load characteristics. This means that during summer and holidays a peak load condition occurs that can compromise the reliability of the power system. Recently privatized and under new regulation from ANEEL - the federal regulatory agency, CERJ implemented a program to improve its level of service, efficiency and system reliability. Since the problem during the summer season in tourist areas was critical, CERJ planned to have a shunt capacitor bank in its 69 kV transmission system at Porto do Carro Substation, in order to have steady state voltage support during peak load condition. According to CERJ studies, the reactive power needed to achieve this was 30 Mvar at 69 kV nominal voltage. The challenge was to define the project requirements for the shunt capacitor bank at Porto do Carro substation. Guidelines for this project were to reduce the cost of the project while still maintaining adequate reliability and availability. Major project issues include: The number of stages in which to divide the 30 Mvar reactive compensation. s Choice of the technology to be used: internally/externally fused or fuseless bank. s Study the impact of capacitor switching in the 69 kV system. s Limited area availability in Porto do Carro substation to install the capacitor bank.
s

The 30 Mvar shunt capacitor bank was divided in two stages of 15 Mvar to fit within the limited area available in the substation and also to reduce cost. The configuration used was ungrounded (floating neutral) double wye with unbalance detection scheme by neutral current since this configuration is not sensitive to system unbalance or triple harmonics. Choice of Fuseless Concept Several design factors influenced the decision to adopt the fuseless capacitor technology in this project: 1) Due to the elimination of fuses, the losses in a fuseless capacitor are typically 50% lower than a comparable internally fused capacitor and slightly lower than a comparable externally fused capacitor. 2) Fuseless capacitor banks have no problems associated with nearby lightning strike or transient currents, which may cause the operation of fuses in an internally or externally fused capacitor bank. 3) The fuseless capacitor bank is not prone to problems associated with transient overvoltage or stored energy, since it does not present a gap across an open internal fuse which may

flash over under severe transients. 4) All dielectric failures in the unit of a fuseless capacitor bank result in a stable, low loss short-circuit condition. Fuse operation in an internally fused capacitor bank produces a live arc inside the unit which generates much more gas than the actual element failure. The shorting of one or two internal series groups may not increase the current sufficiently to operate the fuse in an externally fused capacitor bank. 5) Besides the simplicity of design, the fuseless capacitor bank requires about one half of the space of a comparable externally fused capacitor and may be slightly smaller than a comparable internally fused bank using similar rated units. This is because the units of a fuseless bank will be smaller and lighter than identically rated internally fused capacitor units.

Each of the above advantages allow the fuseless capacitor technology to consistently meet the established project guideline: Reduce costs while still maintaining adequate reliability and availability. Technology When analyzing a fuseless capacitor bank, we think in increments of internal series groups. Instead of constructing each phase of the bank in one or more series groups of parallelconnected capacitors, the fuseless capacitor bank is constructed of one or more strings of series-connected capacitor units.

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When one of the internal series groups of a capacitor unit fails to a short circuit (jumping the parallelconnected elements), the voltage on the remaining internal series groups in the string increases. Similar to externally-fused capacitor banks, the fuseless capacitor bank supplied for CERJ was designed to notify personnel in the event of the first internal series group failure, and to remove the bank from service when voltage applied to the remaining internal series groups exceeds 110% of rated voltage. Each stage of 15 Mvar from the 30 Mvar, 69 kV, NBI 350 kV capacitor bank is composed of the following: Stage Bank Rating: Rated kV: 69/39,8 Rated kvar: 15012 Installed Units: 36 Grouping: 6 Series 1 parallel Connection: Ungrounded Double Wye Capacitor Units Rating: Rated kV: 6.640 Rated kvar: 417 Internal Grouping: 3 elements series 6 parallel

transient voltages and currents, it is very important to Rocha Leao investigate the Macae effects of capaciVila Dimac R. Ostras tor switching by Verde proper system modeling and Buzios Tamoio simulations. The objective is P. do Carro to verify the adequacy of 2 x 15 Mvar Cap Bank existing equipCabo Frio ment as well as new switching Iguaba S.P. and protection Aldeia A. do Cabo equipment for the E. Araruama capacitor bank, and, if necessary, recommend operation restrictions Figure 2 One-line diagram of CERJ 69 kV system model to mitigate resulting in transformer phasetransients. to-phase transient The engineering study for investigating the effects of 2 x15 Mvar Porto do Carro capacitor bank switching in the CERJ system consisted of simulating and analyzing the following phenomena: overvoltages greater than transformer insulation withstand capability. 5. Capacitor Bank De-energization a) Restrike in switching device (breaker) for one capacitor step. b) Restrike in switching device (main breaker) for entire capacitor bank. c) Check for surge arrester adequacy by verifying its energy duty. System Modeling and Simulations In switching transient studies, determining the extent of the system to be modeled in detail is very important to ensure accurate and realistic simulation results. The one-line diagram of CERJs 69 kV system modeled in this study is shown in Figure 2. This model is used for simulating the local and remote effects of isolated (single) capacitor bank energizing and deenergizing. These phenomena include the inrush current and transient overvoltages at Porto do Carro station, as well as the transformer phase-tophase transient overvoltages and voltage magnification at neighboring stations. The worst de-energization case is due to restrike in the main breaker when it interrupts the total capacitor bank current. The inrush currents due to back-to-back energizing, and outrush currents due to close-in faults are high
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1. Capacitor Bank Energization a) Energizing the first 15 Mvar capacitor step. 3 Phase 69kV b) Back-to-back energizing of second 15 Mvar capacitor step. c) Specify/check the capacitor step current-limiting Capacitor unit (damping) reactor 6,640V, 417 kvar ratings with 3 internal 2. Capacitor Bank series group and 6 elements in parallel Outrush Current Effects: Specify/check the Current main current-limitTransformer Protection ing (damping) Relay reactor ratings for 69 kV close-in faults. Figure 1 CERJs fuseless capacitor bank schematic diagram 3. Voltage Magnification: Check for resonant transient As shown in Figure 1, each string overvoltages at buses having contains 6 capacitors in series; each 13.8 kV shunt capacitor(s) when capacitor contains 3 internal series the 69 kV capacitor bank is group, each series group is composed energized. of 6 parallel elements forming a bank 4. Transformer Phase-to-Phase with 18 series group. Transient Overvoltages: Check for severe traveling wave Capacitor Switching Study overvoltages at far end of Since switching of shunt capacitor transformer-terminated lines banks can potentially create damaging
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Fuseless Capacitor Banks from page 6

frequency phenomena that are local to the Porto do Carro substation. For such simulations it is sufficient to represent only the 69 kV ungrounded capacitor bank by its high-frequency model, as shown in Figure 3.

The back-toback energization simulation and the close-in fault outrush simulation (using the high-frequency Impact of Simulation Results model of Figure The energization simulations 3) demonstrated showed that the phase-to-ground some results transient overvoltage peaks at Buzios typical to an and Arraial do Cabo stations are highungrounded er than at any other location in the capacitor bank. system. The corresponding phase-toIt was noted that phase transient overvoltage peaks at the breaker pole the 69/13.8 kV transformer primary are closing times as high as 3.5 pu in the worst-case (sequential or Figure 4 Phase-to-phase transient overvoltages at Buzios transformer energization (Figure 4). This is due to simultaneous) the traveling wave effect on the radial influence the peak restrike, the energy withstand lines from Porto do Carro to these magnitude but not the frequency of capability of MOV surge arresters adjoining stations (This effect is not the inrush current transient. Also, it will not be exceeded. seen at Cabo Frio due to the short was noted that the characteristic length of both transformer-terminated outrush current transient has high Engineering Solution peak magnitude and freCooper Power Systems designed quency only for the and installed a shunt capacitor bank three-phase-to-ground which was within the limited footprint close-in fault; the line-toarea available in Porto do Carro sub69 kV ground fault does not station, while maintaining all required produce severe outrush safety clearances. This was a challenge currents for ungrounded because this capacitor bank installa69 kV System Equivalent Lo = 500H capacitor banks. tion included several other pieces of equipment such as circuit breakers, Study Conclusions current-limiting reactors, grounding Due to the high Li = 90H and disconnecting switches, and phase-to-phase transient current transformers. The installation 2 x 15 Mvar overvoltages produced also included the control cabinet at buses with transwhich provided all protection, control former-terminated and interlocks within the capacitor radial lines, use of bank. Cooper was also responsible Figure 3 Ungrounded capacitor bank at Porto do Carro synchronous closing for the overall system design and (high frequency model) breakers is the most specifications as established by effective way to control CERJ specifications and system lines.) The level of system loading Porto do Carro capacitor switching study recommendations. (heavy or light) had negligible effect transients in the CERJ 69 kV system. on these overvoltage transients, but it Meanwhile, simulations show that The project was successfully was found that the 13.8 kV capacitors transient overvoltages at Buzios and managed locally by Cooper Power at Porto do Carro, Buzios and A. do A. do Cabo are minimized if the capacSystems do Brazil, which was responsiCabo stations were influential in reducitor bank is energized when the 13.8 ble for coordination between different ing the overvoltage magnitude and kV capacitors at Porto do Carro are operations Capacitors, in Greenwood, also providing increased damping. on-line, but those at Buzios and A. do South Carolina, USA, for fuseless This sensitivity analysis from several Cabo are not in service. This is the capacitor units and bank conception; simulation cases was crucial in recomrecommended energization practice. System Engineering, in Franksville, mending the preferred energization Simulation results also show that the Wisconsin, USA, for system reliability practice to CERJ in order to minimize main and step reactors in the capacistudy; local Brazilian suppliers of the risk of transformer insulation failtor bank are adequately rated to limit equipment, and its own engineering ure at Buzios and A. do Cabo stations. the back-to-back energization inrush department which provided the design, The energization simulations also currents and close-in fault outrush erection and start-up services. THE LINE indicated that there was no voltage currents within the substation breaker magnification problem at 13.8 kV capability limits. The de-energization capacitor buses around Porto do simulations show that in the unlikely Carro. case of any capacitor bank breaker

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