Distance estimation of switched capacitor banks in utility distribution feeders

This paper proposes an efficient and accurate technique for estimating the location of an energized capacitor bank downline from a monitoring equipment. The proposed technique is based on fundamental circuit theory and works with existing capacitor switching transient data of radial power distribution systems. Once the direction of a switched capacitor bank is found to be downstream from a power quality monitoring point, the feeder line reactance is estimated using the initial voltage change. The efficacy of the proposed technique is demonstrated with system data from IEEE test feeders modeled in a commercial time-domain modeling software package.