Puget Sound Energy (PSE)

Substation Capacitor Bank Sizing Tool

This student team will work to evaluate the sizing, operation, and coordination of substation capacitor banks on PSE’s distribution system. With the drive toward renewable energy and electrification, understanding how to approach reactive power flow on the distribution system is a complex problem to solve. Changing load and generation types, including Electric Vehicles, Data Centers, Solar Generation, and Energy Storage provide both a challenge and opportunity for PSE to appropriately plan for reactive power flow. This student team will work to help PSE identify how Substation Capacitor banks, as one piece of the distribution power system, can effectively coordinate to provide reactive power support. This student team will work to develop specific design parameters and performance criteria as part of the project. The scope of work includes planning, control, and operation of substation capacitor banks. This student team will work to document existing operational procedures and recommend improvements and appropriate sizing of capacitor banks in substations via an Excel-based tool. Additionally, the student team will work to create a tool that includes consideration of other reactive components on the system, such as inverter based resources, line capacitors, and transformer LTC. The desired outcomes this student team will work to achieve are a detailed understanding of current capacitor bank operational approach and the identification and recommendation of future opportunities for improvement. This student team will work to provide a summary report and Excel-based tool that provides recommendations to PSE on appropriate sizing and operation of substation capacitor banks.