Economic Merits of Secondary Capacitors [includes discussion]

The installed cost per kilovar of secondary capacitors is approximately twice as much as the installed cost per kilovar of primary capacitors. This factor alone makes the use of secondary capacitors appear prohibitive. However, secondary capacitors offer benefits not obtainable with primary capacitors that can more than offset this high-cost ratio. This paper presents a new method of determining when secondary capacitors are economically justified.