What is a Capacitor Bank and what is it used for?
A capacitor can store electrical charge, and a bank of them could store alarge charge. We sometimes set up a capacitor bank to store a large electrical charge for certain physics experiments. With the flip of a switch, we can “dump” all that electrical energy into a circuit to power up something. The pulse of power might be use do drive a big laser to punch a hole in a missile in a high arc, just to cite one example of the use of a bank of capacitors. In the electrical trade the capacitor bank is used for power factor correction. The capacitive reactance is used to offset the inductive reactance caused by inductive loads (motors). Motor loads can cause the power factor to drop to .8 or lower and for this the customer is penalized by an extra service charge. The goal is to have a power factor level above .9. where there is no surcharge from the power supply authority. The cost of installing a capacitor bank is soon payed off from the absence of the surcharge.
A capacitor bank is generally a large array of single capacitors that may be used in industry to cushion irregularities in DC voltage. Electrons are stored on charged plates as voltage increases and are released to a circuit as voltage decreases. Because voltage is electrical pressure (similar to water pressure) capacitors serve to maintain electrical pressure similar to a water tank containing a compressed air bubble (stored energy). Capacitors are also used in AC circuits to correct power factors as induction motors are loaded and unloaded, increasing efficiency of the system (avoiding wasted power). Capacitors are also used in AC tank circuits opposite reactors (coils of wire) to tune circuits (oscillators, etc.).
