Pad-Mount or Pole-Mount: Choosing the Right Capacitor Bank

摘要

Reactive compensation in a power system can come from a variety of sources including increased generation capacity and large substation capacitor or condenser systems. Increasingly, however, power engineers seeking optimum control, minimum system disruption and prudent cost control are specifying smaller capacitor banks located on the load requiring voltage or VAR support. Capacitor banks, consisting of a pre-assembled, pre-wired array of capacitors and switches, also have the advantage of easy and low-cost installation. And they can typically be ordered with a choice of microprocessor devices that efficiently switch capacitors in and out of the circuit based upon time, temperature, voltage or VAR parameters. Both pole-mount and pad-mount capacitor banks offer a wide range of compensation performance and are used with distribution system voltages up to 34.5 kV. While many voltage and VAR compensation needs are met effectively through simple pole-mounted capacitor banks, there are other cases where it is well worth the additional purchase price to opt for fully enclosed, pad-mounted banks. A careful look at application and environmental factors will help guide the decision.