Analysis of capacitor cells failure due to circuit breaker pole discrepancy in RRVPNL power grid

This paper addresses the failure of capacitor cells of high voltage (HV) shunt capacitor banks in Rajasthan Rajya Vidhyut Prasaran Nigam Ltd. (RRVPNL) power grid, a transmission network of Rajasthan state of India, due to pole discrepancy among the three poles of circuit breaker (CB). The high voltage peaks detected at the time of capacitor switching, when there is time difference in the closing of three poles of circuit breaker, is the major cause of failure of capacitor cells. The detailed simulation study of circuit breaker current and phase voltages with and without pole discrepancy is done with MATLAB/Simulink. The simulation results show the failure of capacitor cells at the time of switching the capacitor bank due to high voltage peaks, which is coincident with actual observation in the network of RRVPNL power grid.