The influence of capacitor banks on transformer load current

Abstract

This paper deals with the influence of capacitor banks used for reactive energy compensation on total load current of 10/0,4 kV/kV distribution transformers. The analysis regards distribution area of Leskovac which comprehends town Leskovac and nearby settlements. Differently from previously published references that treat excessively reactive energy consumption, the value of reactive power on low voltage side of transformer taking into account the presence of capacitor banks is observed primarily in this paper. Both theoretically possible cases are restated on the basis of measurements: the compensation is adequate or inadequate. The cases of insufficient compensation and overcompensation are regarded to be inadequate compensation. The adequate compensation is achieved when reactive power oscillates around 0 kvar. The special case of adequate compensation, called conditionally adequate compensation, is introduced. For all four cases that describe reactive energy compensation, the calculation results of relative change of low voltage transformer current in the presence of capacitor banks, in comparison to the current without installed banks are presented.

Keywords

• transformer
• capacitor banks
• compensation
• load current