Performance of capacitor dielectrics during some of the important tests of IEC standards

Reliability of power capacitor plays a key role in effective reactive power management in power system. Performance evaluation, following certain standard procedures, is an important stage in assessing the reliability of power capacitors as it helps to identify the deficiencies prior to their application in electrical network. Performance of capacitor dielectrics is generally assessed with reference to testing standards like Indian Standard, IEC standard, IEEE standard, etc. The paper deals with the performance of capacitor dielectrics namely, oil impregnated-polypropylene film and metalized polypropylene film, during some of the critical tests like electrical endurance test, discharge current test, thermal stability test, ageing test and destruction test covered in IEC standard.