On tracking and finding the location of switched capacitor banks in distribution systems

In this paper, a new method is proposed for tracking and finding the location of shunt switched capacitor banks in distribution systems. The technique is based on measurement of voltage and current transients created by capacitor switching. The hypothesis states that: ¿the slope of voltage and current transient waveforms created by capacitor switching immediately before and after the switching instant will have opposite polarity for monitoring location at line and branches which feed the capacitor bank and identical polarity for monitoring location at other part of the power networks¿. A new index based on the hypothesis is proposed. Comparing the value and polarity of the index calculated for each branch, make it possible to track and find the location of switched capacitor banks. The method is valid in all normal, back-to-back, and abnormal switching of wye-and delta-configured capacitor banks. The hypothesis is proved and the efficacy of the proposed method is validated using simulation results for the IEEE-13 bus distribution system. Results show that the new method is accurate and applicable in real distribution systems.