Electricity Today T&D Magazine

The Southern States CapSwitcher®, a capacitor switching device specifically designed to meet the power quality needs of today’s electrical systems, has become a prefered switching method for medium and high voltage capacitors. This special purpose SF6 capacitor switcher is available for application on single bank or back-to-back banks. Its closing resistors provide transient mitigation to minimize the detrimental effects of voltage transients, including voltage magnification, on sensitive equipment such as computers, CNC machines, and variable speed drives. It also minimizes the detrimental effects of current transients on utility equipment such as circuit breaker contacts, power transformer cores and coils, etc. Other key features of this device include circuit making in SF6 rather than in air, reliable long-life operation utilizing a mechanically gang operated spring-spring mechanism , and single gap per phase puffer interrupters having long contact life and multi-time fault closing capability. The CapSwitcher’s use of a closing resistor significantly reduces the inrush current, thus eliminating the need for inrush current reactors that are often required for use with breakers and other switching devices.