Impact of shunt capacitor banks on substation surge environment and surge arrester applications

The introduction of high voltage shunt capacitor banks on a power system can result in a number of overvoltage problems that tend to be associated with capacitor switching. The paper describes how proper application of surge arresters near a shunt capacitor bank requires careful analysis of the power system, the switching devices and their arrangements, the insulation level of nearby equipment, the type of grounding and the arrester energy dissipation duty.