A New Index for Online Tracking of the Switched capacitor bank location in distribution systems

In this paper, a new index is proposed in order to track and find the location of switched capacitor banks in distribution systems. The method is based on branch current changes immediately after the switching instant. The hypothesis states that branch current, measured by Power Quality Meter (PQM), is increasing for monitoring location at line and branches which feed the capacitor bank and is decreasing for monitoring location at other branches of the systems. Comparing the index calculated for each branch, it is possible to track and find the location of switched capacitor banks. The method is valid for both wye and delta configured capacitor banks. The size of the switched capacitor banks has no effect on method accuracy. The efficacy of the proposed technique is demonstrated using simulation results on the IEEE 13-bus distribution system. Results show that the new method is accurate and applicable in real distribution systems.