A Method to Calculate Capacitor Switching
Transients Using Short-Circuit Programs
Yu Tian, Student Member, IEEE and Wilsun Xu, Fellow, IEEE
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Canada T6G 2V4
Email: wxu@ualberta.ca
Abstract—Capacitor switching transients is an important
power quality concern. The power quality impact of a capacitor
switching event is traditionally evaluated with the Electromag-
netic transients (EMT) simulation program. This requires the
creation of EMT cases for studying the event, which can be
a very time consuming process. All utility companies conduct
load flow and short-circuit studies for their systems and cases
are always available for such studies. This paper presents an
idea to conduct capacitor switching study using short-circuit
program. The proposed method can be integrated into the
program, resulting in significant saving of engineering time
for capacitor switching studies. The proposed method conducts
transients studies in frequency (harmonic) domain. It models a
capacitor switching event as a harmonic voltage source. Short-
circuit calculation method is used to establish the frequency-
responses of the study system.
Index Terms—Electromagnetic transients, power quality, capac-
itor switching, frequency domain.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Transient overvoltage created by the switching of capacitor
banks on the power system is a common power quality
concern. Utility companies install shunt capacitor banks for
voltage support and reactive power compensation. During
switching of capacitors, high magnitude and high frequency
transient overvoltage can be observed at both the switched
capacitor and remote locations, which may lead to severe prob-
lems such as customer equipment damage, nuisance tripping of
adjustable-speed drives and transient voltage surge suppressor
(TVSS) failure [1–4]. The power quality impact of a capacitor
switching event is traditionally evaluated with electromagnetic
transient (EMT) simulation programs, which are based on
time-domain methods [5, 6].
However, users of such programs often face difficulties in
obtaining data and developing study cases. Many utility com-
panies maintain their network data in commercial load flow
and short-circuit programs. To conduct capacitor switching
simulations, these models and case files needs to be converted
or manually re-entered into EMT simulation programs, which
can be extremely laborious and error prone, especially when
the scale of the power system is large.
To address this issue, this paper presents an idea to conduct
capacitor switching study using short-circuit program. This
method models a capacitor switching event as a harmonic volt-
age source. The transient response due to capacitor switching
978-1-4673-6487-4/14/$31.00 2014
c IEEE
185
is calculated in frequency-domain. Short-circuit calculation is
used to establish the frequency-responses of the study system.
The proposed method can be easily integrated into load flow
and short circuit programs, resulting in significant saving of
engineering time for capacitor switching studies.
II. P ROBLEM D ESCRIPTION
This research deals with the problem as follows: as shown
in Fig. 1, a power system is operated in a steady-state prior
to capacitor switching. Network topology and parameters are
stored in a case file of a commercial load flow and short-circuit
program. A shunt capacitor is to be switched with known
switching time tc at bus i of the network. The objective of
this study is to calculate the voltage waveform at bus i during
the capacitor switching.
Bus i
close at tc
Power System
Network
capacitor
Fig. 1. Capacitor switching circuit
III. P ROPOSED M ETHOD
The proposed method employs frequency-domain transient
analysis technique [7–9] in calculation of capacitor switching
transients. The basic concepts and major procedures of the
proposed method are presented in this section.
A. Switch Model for Closing Operation
Circuit representation of a capacitor switching is the clo-
sure of a switch. The switch can be modelled as an ideal
voltage source. As shown in Fig. 2, the switch prior to closing
can be represented by a voltage source vsw that is equal to
the potential difference between its terminals. After switch
closure, the voltage across the switch is zero. Hence, switch
closure is accomplished by the series connection of a voltage
source Δvsw (t) with an equal magnitude but opposite polarity
to that of vsw (t) so that vsw (t)+Δvsw (t) = 0 after switching.
The voltage source Δvsw (t), which represents the voltage
introduced by the switch closure manoeuvre is given by:
Δvsw (t) = −vsw (t)u(t − tc ) (1)
 switch before closure: closing switch:

(vsw  'vsw 0)

vsw vsw 'vsw

Fig. 2. Switch model for closing operation

vsw (t )
Power System Power System
Network Network 'vsw (t )

Fig. 4. Switch voltage waveforms: vsw (t) and Δvsw (t)

(a) (b)

vsw (t )
Power System
Power System
Network
Network 'vsw (t )
Without Source

(c) (d) Fig. 5. Truncation of the switch voltage source Δvsw (t)

Fig. 3. Superposition principle for analyzing capacitor switching

where vsw (t) is the voltage across the switch without capacitor
switching, and u(t − tc ) denotes a unit-step function jumping
at switch closing instant tc . Fig. 4 shows an example switch
voltage source waveform.
Fig. 3(a) represents a general circuit for capacitor switch-
ing. The power system network is a linear circuit. Based on
the fore-mentioned concept, the switch closure manoeuvre can
be modelled as series connection of an ideal voltage source
Δvsw (t) as shown in Fig. 3(b). The total response (e.g. bus
voltages and branch currents) of the circuit shown in Fig. 3(b)
is the superposition of two parts:
1) Steady-state response, as shown in Fig. 3(c). This re-
sponse is excited by the source within the network. It
sets the initial condition of the capacitor switching.
2) Transient response due to capacitor switching, as shown
in Fig. 3(d). It represents the individual contribution of
switching manoeuvre on the total response. In this circuit,
there is only one source ΔVsw (t) representing the switch
closure. The rest of the network is both passive and linear.
B. Calculation of Transient Response in Frequency-Domain
The core of the capacitor switching transient simulation is
the solution of the circuit shown in Fig. 3(d). In the proposed
method, this circuit is solved in frequency-domain, based on
a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) formulation.
In Fig. 3(d), the voltage source Δvsw (t) representing the
switch closure manoeuvre is both continuous and infinite
in time. For frequency-domain solution, we use a harmonic
voltage source ΔVsw (ω) to approximate it. The procedure is
as follows:
1) Sample the signal Δvsw (t) at a fixed time step Δt.
2) Truncate the signal Δvsw (t) with a window of length
T and assume the voltage source Δvsw (t) repeat itself
outside the window, as shown in Fig. 5.
3) Obtain the harmonic spectrum of the signal Δvsw (t)
through FFT.
Hence in frequency-domain, the harmonic voltage source
ΔVsw (ω) representing the switch closure at tc is given by:
ΔVsw (ω) = FFT{−vsw (t)u(t − tc )} (2)
On the other hand, the whole passive network can be
equivalenced into a single impedance Zii (ω) seen at the
capacitor bus (bus i). Capacitor impedance Zcapacitor (ω) is
also known.
Now the original time-domain circuit shown in Fig. 3(d)
has the form of Fig. 6. It can be considered as steady-state
circuit at each frequency. The excitation of the circuit is
each frequency component of the harmonic voltage source
ΔVsw (ω).
Zii(Z) Bus i
'Iswitch(Z)
'Vsw(Z)
=capacitor(Z)
Fig. 6. Frequency-domain circuit for calculating transient response due to
capacitor switching

186
 From Fig. 6, switch current and bus i voltage due to
switching:
1 T1
ΔIswitch (ω) = · ΔVsw (ω) (3)
Zii (ω) + Zcapacitor (ω)
Zii (ω)
ΔVi (ω) = · ΔVsw (ω) (4)
Zii (ω) + Zcapacitor (ω)
Expression (3) and (4) defines the circuit response (switch
current and bus voltage) due to switching in frequency-domain.
Transient response in time-domain is obtained through in-
verse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) of the frequency-domain
response spectrum
Δiswitch (t) = IFFT {ΔIswitch (ω)} · [u(t − tc )] (5)
Δvi (t) = IFFT {ΔVk (ω)} · [u(t − tc )] (6)
The complete switch current and bus voltage is obtained by
imposing the transient response onto the steady-state response.
C. Choice of Window Length and Sampling Rate
As discussed above, the process of converting the voltage
source Δvsw (t) into a harmonic voltage source ΔVsw (ω)
involves truncation of the original signal. When converting
from frequency-domain response back to time-domain, ‘fake’
response are introduced, which overlaps with the ‘real’ re-
sponse, producing the so-called ‘truncation error’.
Fig. 7(a) shows a transient response with severe truncation
error. In the figure, the total window length is T . The length
before/after switching instant are T1 and T2 , respectively. As
can be seen, ‘fake response’ in front of switching instant (the
first cycle in figure) is introduced. There is a large overlap
between the ‘real’ and ‘fake’ responses. The truncation error
is unavoidable but it can be controlled within an acceptable
value. The requirement is that the ‘fake’ response should be
sufficiently damped out to a negligible value at the instant
of switching. In order to reduce truncation error, the time
margin T1 should be longer than the duration of switching
transient Ttransient . For observing the whole capacitor switch-
ing transient, T2 should also be longer than the duration of the
transient. The window length of the FFT:
T = T1 + T 2 , (T1 , T2 > Ttransient ) (7)
For capacitor switching, the duration of switching transient
is around 5 to 7 cycles. Fig. 7(b) shows the case with small
truncation error.
According to sampling theory, the sampling frequency
should be at least twice the maximum switching frequency:
fs > 2fmax (8)
For capacitor switching, fmax is no larger than 2000Hz.
Once window length T and sampling rate fs are deter-
mined, sampling time (time-step) and total sampling point are
automatically determined:
Ts = 1/fs (9)
N = T /Ts = T · fs (10)
187
(a)
Window Length T
T2
Window Length T (b)
T1 T2
Fig. 7. Calculated transient voltage response: (a) with notable truncation
error (b) with negligible truncation error
D. Determination of Network Frequency-Responses
Network equivalent impedance Zii (ω) represents the net-
work frequency-response at capacitor bus. It needs to be
obtained first before calculating capacitor switching transient
in frequency-domain. Fig. 8 illustrates the definition of net-
work frequency-response. For a passive network (short-circuit
all voltage sources and open-circuit all current sources in
network), the network equivalent impedance Zii is defined
as the voltage seen at bus i when 1 per unit current is
injected to the network at bus i. This section presents a method
Bus i
Power System
Network Vi 1 per unit
current
Without Source injection
Fig. 8. Circuit for illustration of network frequency-response
for determination of network frequency-response using short-
circuit programs. The method consists of two steps.
The first step is to use the modified network case to
represent the network at non-60Hz frequency. Short-circuit
programs only store power system network information at
power frequency (60Hz), as shown in Fig. 9(a). For building
other frequency networks in Fig. 9(b), impedance of each
network element such as generators, transformers, loads, shunt
elements should be modified according to CIGRE and IEEE
guidelines. This can be achieved by calling data modification
functions of short-circuit programs.
Network at Bus i Network at Bus i
60Hz frequency f
(a) (b)
Fig. 9. (a) network at 60Hz (b) network at frequency f
The second step is to utilize the unbalanced short cir-
cuit calculation function to obtain the network equivalent
impedance at frequency f. Once the network at frequency f Start
is established, an unbalanced fault is applied at bus i. The pre-
fault circuit and post-fault circuit are shown in Fig. 10(a). and Read Network Data
Fig. 10(b), respectively. The pre-fault voltage Vi(0) , post-fault
voltage Vi and fault current Ii is obtained by calling built-in 5HDG Steady-State Circuit Response
data retrieval functions of short-circuit programs.
Determine Network )UHTXHQF\5HVSRQVH
Bus i Bus i
Network at Network at
frequency f frequency f
Vi(0) Vi
Yes
I=0 Ii End of Switching?
No
(a) (b)
Calculate Switch Current and Bus
Voltage in Frequency-Domain
Fig. 10. (a) pre-fault circuit (b) post-fault circuit

According to superposition theorem, post-fault nodal voltage: Frequency-Time Transformation

Vi = Vi(0) + Ii · Zii (11) Update Time-Domain Response

Hence the equation for calculating the equivalent impedance:
Vi − Vi(0)
Zii = (12) End
Ii
The impedance Zii in positive-, negative- and zero-sequence Fig. 12. Flowchart of the proposed method
are obtained independently as shown in Fig. 11(a). Its equiv-
alent form in three-phase is a 3 by 3 matrix obtained through
symmetrical component transformation. benchmark system [10] was simulated using the developed
software and compared with the simulation result obtained
Zii,0 from PSCAD/EMTDC.
Zii,1 [Zii,ABC]
Zii,2

(a) (b)

Fig. 11. Network frequency-response (a) in 012-frame (b) in ABC-frame

By following the above steps at each frequencies, the

network frequency-response is determined.

IV. I MPLEMENTATION AND V ERIFICATION

To summarize, the flowchart of the proposed capacitor
switching transient simulation method is as shown in Fig. 12.
The network data and steady-state response is read from
short-circuit programs. The procedures of determining network
frequency-response and calculating capacitor switching tran-
sient is shown in Section III. The actual capacitor switching
is a three-phase sequential energization process. Hence, the
transient response need to be calculated three times in a loop.
The initial condition of each switching is set by the previous
switching.
For illustration of the proposed method, an add-on software
that is capable of simulating capacitor switching transient is de-
veloped. This software works with a commercial short-circuit
program for accessing network data and determining network
frequency-response. Capacitor size, location and switching
instant are user-defined.
Fig. 13. Circuit diagram of IEEE 14 bus test system
In the simulation, the switched capacitor was grounded-
wye type, 20 Mvar at bus 3. Closing times of switch poles were
0.032, 0.035 and 0.04 s for phases A, B and C, respectively.
Simulation length T = 0.1s. Total sampling point N = 8192.
The simulation results is shown in Fig. 14. As can be seen
from the figure, there is a good match between the developed
software result and PSCAD/EMTDC result.
V. C ONCLUSION
This paper has presented a method of conducting capacitor
switching study using the short-circuit program. Its basic
concepts are as follows:

To verify the validity of the proposed method and the accu- 1) Model a capacitor switching event as a harmonic voltage
racy of the developed capacitor switching transient simulation source. Thus the transient simulation problem is simpli-
software, a capacitor switching operation on the IEEE 14 bus fied to steady-state circuit analysis at each frequency.

188
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2) Determine the network frequency response using short-

circuit calculation method.
Based on the proposed method, a software that can per-
form capacitor switching simulation was developed. Simu-
lation of capacitor switching on an IEEE 14 bus test sys-
tem was conducted using both the developed software and
PSCAD/EMTDC. The perfectly matched waveforms clearly
demonstrated that the proposed method is suitable for capacitor
switching transient simulation.
The application scenarios of the proposed method can be
easily expanded to simulation of other types of transients (e.g.
line switching, short circuit, motor starting, etc.) with little
modification based of the algorithm.

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189