Capacitors - sometimes dangerous

The danger of aged or overloaded capacitors in power factor correction units and passive filters is very often underestimated. It depends on the construction, if ionized gas or smoke can be blown out, when the capacitor fails. Sometimes also metallic parts or the complete content gets blast away.

In the case shown in the picture, the whole capacitor was blown and an arc flash was induced on the field busbar. It was only luck, that not the whole switchgear was burned by an arc on the main busbars.

Therfore it is very important, to check power factor correction units and passive filters for an arc proof design. We are glad to assist in such cases.