Modeling and Analysis of Multiple Capacitor Coupled Substations at Different Proximities

Electricity plays a critical role in the economy of any country. Access to electricity has become a necessity rather than a luxury over the years. With the modernization and expansion of big cities, the focus for electrification has shifted towards highly concentrated communities. Constructing conventional power distribution networks in sparsely populated rural areas is said to be uneconomical. This gives rise to the need for alternative technologies to supply electricity to these areas, mainly the rural areas. One of the technologies that exists within the un-conventional rural electrification technologies is the Capacitor Coupled Substation (CCS). This technology makes use of the high voltage power transmission lines that normally pass through these communities from town to town. A CCS operates by tapping electrical power from the high voltage lines through the use of capacitors as its key components. As capacitors are known to cause interference on an electrical system, the implementation of a CCS needs to ensure that there is limited interference on the network. This paper modelled and analyzed multiple-CCS focusing on the impact caused by the proximity of each CCS to the nearest one. A three CCS system model was developed through MATLAB/Simulink to simulate the impact on the system when one or more CCS is switched ON or OFF. The results showed that in all the scenarios created, there was minimal disturbance on the supply side and the downstream system except for the reactive power fluctuations on the downstream power network when the CCS were switched. Further analysis was also recommended to understand the impact of each critical component within a CCS.