Technical Collection

Technical paper N° HS080712

Capacitor Bank Switching with Vacuum

Circuit Breakers

Hans Schellekens, Schneider Electric – France

Abstract
After interruption of a capacitive current sometimes Non Sustained
Disruptive Discharges (NSDD’s) are observed when using vacuum
circuit breakers.
According to network calculations, NSDD’s generate significant
over-voltage on the terminal of the capacitor bank to earth and
across the circuit breaker (CB) terminals. In a full scale experiment
at 12kV on an 8MVAr capacitor bank artificial NSDD’s are produced
using a TVG. The over-voltage depends on the momentary voltage
difference across the breaker and, hence, varies with the phase
angle. The over-voltage on the terminal of the capacitor bank to
earth varies from 1.5 to 4.2 pu, and to maximum 5.2 pu. across the
CB terminals. The effectiveness of surge arresters on the limitation
of the over-voltages is measured. The over-voltages are limited to
2.2 pu. on the terminals of the capacitor bank to earth and
3.2 pu. across the CB terminals. A single surge arrester on
the neutral point of the capacitor bank yields the same level of
protection and, therefore, is a cost effective alternative. An
application guide for switchgear and arresters is presented.

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Introduction The capacitive current switching duty is characterised by frequent, day to day or hour by
hour, switching of low to moderate currents in industrial or public networks, and by a low
rate of rise of recovery voltage.
Modern circuit breakers (CB’s) which claim a long mechanical but also electrical life
without maintenance seem to be best adapted to this switching duty [1,2,3].
Yet the behaviour of vacuum CB’s is rather different from that of gas CB’s.
Today, the circuit breaker envisioned for capacitor bank switching is either a vacuum or
SF6 circuit breaker or a vacuum or SF6 contactor. All these devices are known for their
long service life. The circuit breaker offers a protection against short circuit currents with
an electrical life between 10.000 and 30.000 operations at nominal current. Contactors
offer an electrical life up to 1 million operations depending on load conditions. SF6
CB’s, in the past referred to as “restrike free” breakers, are according to the new
IEC62271-100 class C2 breakers with proven “very low restrike probability” [4].
Field experience indicates that the restrike probability even for the electrically very
stressed 36 kV networks is lower than 1/50.000.
For vacuum CB’s, the physical processes during the capacitive switching duty have been
studied by [5].
They found that the pre-ignition at contact closing and the subsequent inrush current
heavily eroded the contacts leading to detached particles. These particles cause late
breakdowns which appear as NSDD’s 1 .
Breakdown frequencies of typically 3/1000 where found under the experimental
conditions studied.
The probability of breakdown depends on the dielectric conception or contact stroke of
the vacuum interrupter. So for the same voltage rating different designs lead to different
NSDD probabilities. Fig. 1 shows the experimental relation between dielectric conception
or contact gap and NSDD frequency. It shows that a minimum gap distance (or contact
opening stroke) is necessary to avoid frequent NSDD’s. The overvoltage produced by a
NSDD differs notably from the overvoltage produced by a restrike. A restrike can
generate an overvoltage of 3 pu. between the terminals of the capacitor bank, whereas a
NSDD causes a sudden voltage shift of the neutral capacitor bank voltage, which leaves
the voltage across the capacitor unchanged, but creates an overvoltage between 1.5 and
5 pu. on the terminal of capacitor bank to earth and between 2.5 and 6 pu. across the CB
terminals. Due to this high overvoltage a second NSDD in the adjacent phases becomes
more likely. When two NSDD’s occur.

Figure 1
Experimentally found
dependence between
NSDD frequency and
nominal contact gap of
vacuum interrupter.

1
NSDD or non-sustained disruptive discharge [7] is a disruptive discharge associated with
current interruption that does not result in the resumption of power frequency current or, in
the case of capacitive current interruption does not result in current in the main load circuit.
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simultaneously, the phenomenon turns into a restrike.

Typically, a vacuum CB with a contact gap of about 16 mm has a probability of about
1/500 for producing a NSDD and belongs to the class C2 with proven “very
low restrike probability”.
Due to the rare occurrence and the random nature of the phenomenon, the relation
between NSDD and overvoltage is not evident. Therefore in this paper this question is
addressed in section II using a numerical network simulation. By this the worst case
overvoltage for different voltage levels is determined. Then in section III an experiment
designed to verify the simulation results is shown. Here the NSDD is created artificially,
which permits to measure the influence of phase angle and network parameters. A good
understanding of the origin of the overvoltage enables the definition of protective
measures adapted to the switchgear and capacitor bank. In section IV protection
schemes based on surge arresters are tested and compared on their effectiveness.
Finally in section V the results are discussed and an application guideline is presented for
the choice of switchgear and arrester.

Origin of overvoltages

Numerical simulation
The simplified electrical circuit, fig. 2, will be used here to simulate the phenomena
associated with a NSDD; the NSDD is simulated as a temporary loss of dielectric
strength in the vacuum interrupter of a vacuum CB.

Figure 1
Electric circuit used to
calculate overvoltage on
capacitor bank during a
NSDD.

Three ways to know the position of an earthing switch

The source side of the network is represented by:
- a generator with a driving voltage of U
- a short circuit impedance of value Ls
- a TRV network as defined by IEC for short circuit conditions
- a capacitor to account for parallel feeders
The load side of the network is represented by:
- a 8MVAr capacitor bank with floating neutral
- single phase cables between CB and the bank.
The load and the source side of the network are connected to each other by the CB. The
CB is treated as an ideal breaker with a NSDD some time after current interruption. The
moment of NSDD has been chosen in order to create the worst possible case. The CB is
allowed to recover immediately at the first occurring current zero. At a NSDD, on the
middle phase for the case illustrated by fig. 2, the voltage across the breaker moves as a
travelling wave through the line impedance towards the capacitor bank. The capacitor
bank being a high frequency short circuit allows the wave to pass on to the neutral point
of the bank. At the neutral point the wave splits itself and continues its propagation in the
neighbouring phases towards the healthy CB poles.

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Figure 1
The voltage on all 3
capacitor bank terminals
during current
interruption (at 0.1s)
followed by a NSDD (at
0.13s) in a 12kV network.

These healthy poles are in fact open terminals for the incoming wave causing it to reflect
by doubling the voltage. After reflection the wave travels back to the failing CB pole. Here
it creates a current zero passage on which the breaker can interrupt. The frequency of
this current is typically of the order of 100 kHz for cable connected capacitor banks. Fig.
3 shows the voltage swing to earth on the bank terminals. Note that
- For each of the three bank terminals the voltage jumps to a new value, which means
that the neutral point of the bank attains also a different value.
- The voltage difference between terminals remains unchanged. The capacitors
themselves are not stressed by the breakdown.
- The maximum terminal voltage to earth attains a high value see table I. This is a DC
voltage, so all parts of the installation are stressed during a long period.
- The CB is stressed by the composed voltage of network voltage and capacitor bank
terminal voltage.
- The capacity of the bank itself is of no significance for the phenomenon.
Table 1
Compilation of voltages
associated with capacitor
bank switching for
nominal network voltages

Identification of zones at risk

In table I the maximum possible overvoltage produced by a NSDD is shown for three
commonly used classes of network voltages. For each voltage class column 2 gives Us
the nominal network voltage.
Column 3 gives the maximum overvoltage on the capacitor bank terminal to earth and
column 4 the maximum overvoltage across the CB terminals. For reference the BIL and
power frequency withstand voltages of the equipment are given. For all three voltage
classes both overvoltages exceed the peak value of the power frequency withstands
voltage. For the CB the overvoltage comes very close to the rated BIL voltage for 36 kV
class networks.

Experimental Verification
Test procedure
The objective was to create in a reproducible way NSDD type of breakdowns in a
capacitive current interruption test. This allowed to minimize the number of tests to obtain
a NSDD as in normal switchgear this phenomenon is rare and therefore very
irreproducible, and to have a measurement window with high frequency sampling set
around the moment of breakdown for precise measurement. A triggered vacuum gap
(TVG) parallel to the R-phase of the VCB is used to create an artificial NSDD in a
controllable way. A separate experiment confirmed that the TVG was able to

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interrupt high frequency currents of, for instance, 300A at 100kHz and 10 A at 900 kHz at
the first current zero.
Hence, the duration of the “artificial” NSDD is determined by the circuit topology and only
one half cycle of high frequency current will pass through the TVG. Numerical modelling
showed that this will lead to the highest possible overvoltage.
Full scale tests are performed in a direct test circuit fed by a generator 2000 MVA at 12
kV with short circuit current limited at 14 kA. The capacitive load was a 8 MVAr capacitor
bank; nominal current of 430 A. The detailed characteristics of the test circuit are given in
fig. 4 and table II.

Figure 4
3-phase test circuit with
generator and 8 MVAr
capacitor bank.

Figure 5-a
Normal interruption of
capacitive current
followed by NSDD in R
phase after 30 ms.

Figure 5-b
As fig. 5a Surge arrester
in phase T limits the
overvoltage.

Fig. 6a shows the measured voltage on the capacitor bank terminal in phase T after the
NSDD in phase R.
Before the NSDD the voltage is about 0.89 pu. The voltage jump is between 0.6 and 3.2
pu. leading to an over-voltage of maximum 4.1 pu. In order to investigate whether the

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above condition is the most severe one, the experiment was repeated by keeping the first
phase to clear in phase R and generating the NSDD in phase T.

Table 2
Main characteristics of
test system

Figure 6-a
Variation of over-voltage
in phase T expressed in
pu due to instant of
occurrence (phase angle)
of the NSDD in 1st phase
R to interrupt.

The highest overvoltage is now found in phase R. The instant of occurrence of the NSDD
was varied by firing the TVG at a predetermined moment to see the influence of the
phase angle on the nature and the value of the over-voltage. The waveform of the
overvoltage is the same for all tested phase angles, only the overvoltage varies
sinusoidal with the phase angle. Fig. 6b shows the measured voltage on the capacitor
bank terminal in phase R after the NSDD in phase T. Before the NSDD the voltage is
about 1.5 pu. The voltage jump is between 0 and 2.5 pu. resulting into an over-voltage
of maximum 4.0 pu.

Figure 6-b
Variation of over-voltage
in phase R expressed in
pu due to instant of
occurrence (phase angle)
of the NSDD in 2nd
phase T to interrupt.

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Note that the over-voltage is the addition of the original capacitor bank voltage after
current interruption and a voltage jump due to the NSDD. The amplitude of the voltage
jump depends on two factors :
· the voltage across the breaker at the instant of breakdown, which varies with time or
phase angle, and which is maximum 2.5 pu. (see fig. 4a).
· an amplitude multiplication (K-)factor which is here about 1.3
The voltage difference at breakdown is transmitted integrally to the neighbouring phases
as predicted by the numerical simulation. Except for a reduced amplitude factor the
behaviour found is identical to the simulation.
Moreover, the most severe overvoltage is produced by a NSDD in the first phase to
interrupt at the moment of the largest voltage difference across the CB.

Influence of TRV circuit

The influence of the TRV circuit on the high frequency behaviour of the breakdown has
been studied with the following circuits:
TRV-1 : The standard TRV circuit composed of 2 branches see fig. 2.
TRV-2 : No TRV circuit; only stray capacitance between Generator and CB.

Table 3
Influence TRV circuit on
peak value of overvoltage

Results are shown in table III. The voltage jump after breakdown can be characterised
by:
· A peak voltage immediately after the NSDD: with K factor : K-immediate.
· A dc voltage after a transition period: K-late. The transition is characterised by a time
constant here called “damping time”.
· The frequency of the breakdown current.

Fig. 7 shows an oscillogram of the voltage across the CB during the NSDD for TRV-2
circuit. Numerical simulation suggests voltage doubling with a K-factor equal to 2.
Therefore the reduced value of K-immediate is attributed to damping of the high
frequency current at NSDD.

Figure 7
Zoom at voltage
behaviour at NSDD in R
phase with TRV-2.
Green : Load side
voltage on CB and
capacitor bank terminal.
Red : Source side
voltage on CB. Time
scale 10μs/div.

Protection by surge arresters

Arresters are commonly proposed as means to protect the capacitor bank against
excessive overvoltages due to restrikes [6]. In such a case the overvoltage rise-time is
of the order of milliseconds. Yet in case of an NSDD the overvoltage rise-time is only
several microseconds.
In order to verify the effectiveness of the surge arrester the following two cases are
investigated.
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A. Surge arresters on all three phases to earth Test conditions are similar as under
section IIIA but with surge arresters on the load side of the CB to earth.
On initiation of a NSDD in phase R, the highest overvoltage of 2.2 pu. was in phase T
due to immediate limitation of the overvoltage by the surge arrester in phase T; the
associated oscillogram is shown in fig. 5b).
A significant current flows through the surge arrester:
890 A during 1 ms; representing an energy of about 8 kJoule. This current is determined
by:
1. The series impedance of two branches R and T of the capacitor bank and the series
inductance of phase R and the resistance to ground of the generator.
2. . The voltage difference across the capacitor prior to breakdown minus the voltage of
the arrestor
B. Surge arrester on neutral to earth Test conditions are similar as under section IIIA but
with a single surge arrester on the neutral point of the capacitor bank. If a NSDD was
initiated in phase R, the highest overvoltage of 2.1 pu. was in phase T due to immediate
limitation of the overvoltage by the surge arrester. A significant current flows through the
surge arrester: 575 A during 2.5 ms; representing an energy of about 13 kJoule. This
current is determined by
1. The series impedance of one branch of the capacitor bank, the inductance of one
phase of the circuit and the resistance to earth of the generator.
2. The voltage difference across the capacitor prior to breakdown minus the voltage of
the arrestor
C . Choice of the surge arrester
The surge arrester limits effectively the overvoltage by suppressing the high frequency
(150 kHz) peak overvoltage. The absolute value of the remaining overvoltage depends
though on the choice of the surge arrester. The voltage limitation is effective at a level of
3.1 times the rated continuous operating voltage of the surge arrestor. The choice of the
rated voltage of the surge arrester must take into account abnormal circuit conditions as
well. In table IV two common situations are compared.
· For networks with high-ohmic insulated neutral system and automatic earth fault
clearing the nominal voltage of each phase is fixed at Un/√3 and the neutral point of the
capacitor bank has 0 (zero) voltage. The continuous operating voltage of the surge
arrester can be chosen accordingly. The surge arrestor with associated continuous
operating voltage (COV) gives a protection of 2.2 pu. During a normal breaking operation
the neutral point of the neutral attains a peak voltage of 0.5*Un√(2/3), which lasts until
discharging of the capacitor bank; this corresponds to a COV of 0.5*Un/√3; the resulting
level of protection is 2.1 pu.
· For networks with earth fault compensation or with a high-ohmic insulated neutral
system a possible persistent single phase earth failure increases the nominal voltage of
the healthy phases a factor 1.5, and the voltage on the neutral point of the capacitor bank
increases to 1 pu. These more severe conditions determine the continuous operating
voltage of the surge arrester. For arresters on the circuit-breaker terminals the nominal
voltage can reach 1.5*Un/√3; the resulting level of protection is 3.3 pu. For a single
arrester on the neutral of the bank the continuous voltage can reach Un/√3; the resulting
level of protection is 3.2 pu. During interruption of the capacitive current the voltage of
the neutral can increase slightly more. Yet, the surge arrestor is capable of dealing with
this temporary overvoltage under this rare abnormal network condition.
Table 4
Choice of continuous
operating voltage of the
arrester and the resulting
overvoltage protection
level depends on network
operation conditions and
arrester location.

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Discussion The main results of this study are summarized in table V. An important difference is
found between the numerically and experimentally obtained overvoltage values. The
measured overvoltage on the banc terminal to ground is significantly lower than
calculated. This is due to natural damping of the high frequency phenomena by
dissipative elements in the circuit and by the very small capacitance on the source side
due to the absence of parallel feeders. The peak over-voltage has a limited duration of
about 10μs. Surge arresters effectively limit these overvoltages to values as low as
2.2 pu between terminal and earth. The capacitors themselves are not stressed either by
the NSDD or by the action of the surge arresters during limitation, as the discharge
current is a single phase current flowing towards earth.

Table 5
Over-voltages in
capacitor bank switching

In the introduction it was outlined that NSDD’s are a common phenomenon in vacuum
interrupters and that the simultaneous occurrence of NSDD’s in 2 phases give rise to a
restrike. The frequency of occurrence of a NSDD is related to design parameters like the
contact opening stroke. Hence it is possible to design a vacuum CB according to the
requirements of either “low restrike probability” class C1 or “very low restrike probability”
class C2 of [7]. For 24 kV Class C2 vacuum CBs with “very low restriking probability” this
leads to a nominal contact gap of 16 mm, see fig. 1. For voltages of 36 kV and above [8]
proposes to use two vacuum interrupters in series. Although these measures are
effective from a normative point of view, they do not contribute to an economically
conclusive and reliable solution as shown by the following numerical example. For
instance, contactors which allow for frequent operations have a small contact opening
stroke. Even with a NSDD frequency of only 1/500 they will produce over 2000 NSDD’s in
their entire lifespan. Therefore, only the application of surge arresters is an effective
solution to suppress overvoltages and eliminate any risk for equipment: capacitor bank,
circuit breaker and switch board. The application guide in table VI summarises this
recommendation relating the choice of switchgear to the application duty. If the CB is
used only occasionally for energizing and de-energizing the capacitor bank a vacuum CB
with class C1 or C2 can be used. Yet for daily operation of the capacitor bank a
protection by surge arrester is recommended, and in this case a class C1 rating is
sufficient, as the suppression of overvoltage during a NSDD reduces significantly the
probability of a second simultaneous NSDD, and hence the risk of a restrike. For more
than daily operation a vacuum contactor with surge arrester is an economical
viable solution in series with a vacuum CB for protection.

Table 6
Application guide

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When applying surge arresters, special attention must be given to the energy dissipation
in the arrester. It is proposed to dimension the arrester to be capable to carry out 3
consecutive protective actions without cooling down. Furthermore the dimensioning is
related to the reactive power of the capacitor bank, Sk. Guidelines are given by [6, 9] in
the case of restriking CBs, in which case the arrester has to be dimensioned for an
energy of 6*Sk/ω, where ω : angular frequency of the network. Transposing this
approach to a protection against NSDD the guidelines as presented in table VII
dimension the energy dissipation capability of the arrester. Hence, for the protection
against NSDD’s the arrester can be designed 3 to 6 times smaller.

Table 7
the requested energy
dissipation capability of
the arrester

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This study focussed on the interaction of vacuum circuit breaker with a capacitor bank
Conclusion during switching operation. The occurrence of a Non Sustained Disruptive Discharge
leads to a shift of the voltage of the neutral point of the bank. Although the phenomenon
in itself is rare, the over-voltages produced are deterministic and depend on the recovery
voltage of the phase in which the NSDD occurs and on the moment of breakdown. The
experimental study shows that the overvoltage after NSDD is limited to about 4.2 pu. on
the capacitor bank terminals. Surge arresters are shown to be an effective means to limit
this overvoltage. As cost efficient solution it is proposed to use a single surge arrester on
the neutral point of the capacitor bank.
Guidelines are presented to dimension these arresters.

References
[1] T. Yokoyama, Y. Matsui, K. Ikemoto and M. Inoyama “ Technique on
Overvoltage Phenomenon Analysis for Vacuum Switching Equipment ” by,
Meiden Review Series No. 78,1986

© 2015 Schneider Electric. All rights reserved.

[2] Y. Sunada,N.Ito, S. Yanabu, H. Awaji, H. Okumura and Y. Kanai,
“ Research and Development on 13.8kV 100kA Vacuum CB with Huge capacity
and Frequent Operation ”, CIGRE, Paris, 1982
[3] P. Huhse and E. Zielke, “ 3AF Vacuum CBs for Switching in Capacitor Banks
”, Siemens Power ENGENEERING III (1981) No 8-9
[4] D. Koch, “Control equipment for MV capacitor banks”, ECT142,
Schneider-Electric, Grenoble, 1992
[5] T. Kamakawaji, T. Shioiri, T. Funahashi, Y. Satoh, E. Kaneko and I. Oshima, “
An Investigation into Major Factors in Shunt Capacitor switching Performances
By Vacuum CBs With Copper Chromium Contacts ”, IEEE Power Engeneering
1993 winter meeting Columbus OHIO
[6] L. Gebhardt, B. Richter, ”Surge arrester application of MVcapacitor banks to
mitigate problems of switching restrikes”, paper 0639, 19th CIRED, 2007, Vienna.
[7] International Standard IEC 62271-1, 2008, “High Voltage Switchgear and
Controlgear – Part 1: Common specifications ”
[8] E. Dullni, W. Shang, D. Gentsch,I. Kleberg and K. Niayesh, “ Switching of

NRJED315643EN
Capacitive Currents and the Correlation of Restrike and Pre-ignition Behavior” ,
IEEE trans. on dielectrics and electrical insulation, vol. 13, no1, pp. 65-71, 2006
[9] R. Rudolph and B. Richter, “Dimensioning, testing and application of metal
oxide surge arresters in medium voltage networks”, open document ABB,
Wettingen, 1999

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