Back-to-back capacitor energization transients mitigation: Comparison of pre-insertion inductors versus surge reactors on a 46 kV subtransmission system

Two devices that are used to reduce back-to-back; capacitor bank energization transients, pre-insertion inductors and surge reactors, are investigated in this paper. The Alternative Transients Program (ATP) was used to develop a computer model of a 46-kV system, A parametric study, varying the switched capacitor size and the system strength, was completed to determine the effectiveness of the two methods, Pre-insertion inductors reduced the peak inrush current better than the surge reactors, However, both of these devices generated peak overvoltages greater than the case containing neither of them. The optimum inductor size is highly system dependent, A thorough study of the system should be completed before the choice is made to use pre-insertion inductors or surge reactors.