capacitor bank

[gradfire]

Dear All,

As a fire risk assessor, i wiuld like to seek some expert inputs from Electrical engineers on these forum regarding capacitor bank and associated fire hazards. Simply if anyone could put following in easily understandable perspective.
-What could go wrong in capacitor which in turn leads to major fire and explosion ?
-Components of capacitor banks which could act as fuel
-Source of ignition /heat

Thanks in advance.

Best Regards.

 

[krisys]

-What could go wrong in capacitor which in turn leads to major fire and explosion ?
Ans: Internal shorting of capacitor elements! Increased value of loss angle (tan delta) due to the film deteoration

-Components of capacitor banks which could act as fuel
Ans: If the capacitor is oil filled type, the oil spillage would catch fire

-Source of ignition /heat
Ans: The arc produced during the fault

Hope this helps you.

 

[gradfire]

Thanks a lot Krisys.Would there be any fire risks involve in STATCOM as well. My research indicates low fire risks.
Cheers.

 

[krisys]

It depends.
Please note that the STATCOM is an assembled plant by itself. It consists of items like a step down transformer, switching equipments, thyristor valves, capacitors, resistor banks for high pass filters, bus works, reactors, CTs, VTs, cooling system and what not. Based on the design, some items are indoor and some are outdoor.
So the fire hazard shall be assessed for individual categories of equipments and fire protection philosophy shall be applied as per the standard practice for that particular equipment.