Consolidated Edison is a regulated utility providing electric, gas, and steam service to New York City and Westchester County, in one of the most power demanding cities in the world. ABB delivered DS1 to one of Con Edison's substation, thus performing a pilot installation of the first synchronous capacitor switch in the world based on diode technology and insulated with dry air.
Shaping a stable and more reliable network
Over the years, the ABB switch has undergone significant technical improvements and refinement, culminating in the final product DS1, the first diode-based transient-free capacitor switch.
With DS1, ABB has reached a milestone with the first capacitor switch based on semiconductor technology that allows synchronized switching. DS1 is the first indoor medium-voltage apparatus of its kind in terms of innovation and performance. The switch, fully dry-air insulated, is able to perform opening and closing operations on capacitor banks without causing any transient voltage or inrush current and eliminating the probability of restrike occurrence.
Thanks to DS1, capacitor bank switching will no longer be a delicate operation since any side effects on the distribution network and the capacitors are avoided. This prolongs component product life and eliminates the need for additional equipment such as inrush reactors. Moreover, this new capacitor switch can perform up to 50,000 operations with a switching frequency of more than one operation per second.
The pilot installation of DS1 occurred in May 2014 and is fully functional. By the end of the first quarter 2015, DS1 performed about 200 operations on capacitor banks.
Switch performance requirements fulfilled
In order to have substantiated evidence of DS1's excellent switching performance, an instrumentation system has been installed to monitor and evaluate the performance of the switch. The phase currents are measured with Rogowski coil sensors, while voltages upstream and downstream of the switch are measured with ABB KEVA resistive voltage dividers. Every operation is captured with a data acquisition board connected to a laptop. The measurement results show the network is not affected by capacitor switching overvoltage nor inrush current.
Using DS1 provides a big step forward in guaranteeing reliable and stable networks.
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