Bank stability is achieved when a single fuse operation does not result a single unit exceeding 110% of its rated value. If the 110% threshold is exceeded, the bank is considered at risk and should be removed from service.
The unbalance protection should coordinate with the individual capacitor unit fuses so that the fuses operate to isolate the faulty capacitor unit before the protection trips the whole bank. The alarm level is selected according to the first blown fuse giving an early warning of a potential bank failure.
What are the design requirements for a capacitor bank?
DESIGN REQUIREMENTS. Incoming disconnect. Capacitor. Control. Assembly shall contain switching and fuse protection functionality necessary for full operation of capacitor bank. Overall outside dimensions of length and width, as well as power cable entry location, shall be in accordance with dimensions given on Detail “A”.
Since internal fuses are hidden from view and most units contain at least 20 but can have as many as 100 elements, detecting one or two failed elements in a large internally fused capacitor bank requires very sensitive unbalance relaying equipment.
The bank would need to trip ofline if two elements in the same fuseless string short (i.e. 20/18=1.11 or 111%, which is higher than 110%). When designing a capacitor bank, many factors must be taken into consideration: rated voltage, kvar needs, system protection and communications, footprint and more.
Each phase consists of 12 units or 36 units for a three-phase bank. Each unit should be rated 9.96 kV and 667 kvar. For a fuseless bank, capacitor units are only connected in series (illustrated in Figure 10); they are never placed in parallel like an externally or internally fused capacitor bank.
While in remote, the capacitor bank stages shall be controlled by magnetically-held switches, such that one signal provides both “on” and “off” command. Thus, capacitor stage shall be “on” when incoming run signal is logical “0”, and “off” when incoming run signal is logical “1”. C37.66.