IEC TR 63396:2021

IEC TR 63396 ®
Edition 1.0 2021-11
TECHNICAL
REPORT
Noise measurement method on power capacitors
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IEC TR 63396 ®
Edition 1.0 2021-11
TECHNICAL
REPORT
Noise measurement method on power capacitors

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
ICS 29.120.99; 31.060.70 ISBN 978-2-8322-1049-8

– 2 – IEC TR 63396:2021 © IEC 2021
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 4
INTRODUCTION . 6
1 Scope . 7
2 Normative references . 7
3 Terms and definitions . 7
4 Noise measurement . 10
4.1 Power injection conditions for capacitors . 10
4.1.1 Current injection conditions for shunt capacitor units . 10
4.1.2 Current injection conditions for AC filter capacitor units . 11
4.1.3 Current and voltage injection conditions for DC filter capacitor units . 11
4.2 Measuring environment . 11
4.3 Characteristics for basic acoustic instruments . 11
4.4 Arrangement of the power capacitors . 11
4.5 Arrangement of the microphone . 12
4.6 Measurement on sound pressure levels . 12
4.6.1 General . 12
4.6.2 Calculation of average sound pressure level at measurement surface . 12
5 Measurement of uncertainty . 14
6 Test report . 15
Annex A (informative) Microphone arrangement on noise measurement surface of
power capacitors. 16
A.1 Measurement surface . 16
A.2 Measurement positions and orientation of microphone . 17
Annex B (informative) Typical test circuit for power capacitor noise measurement . 18
B.1 Shunt and AC filter power capacitor noise test circuit . 18
B.2 DC filter power capacitor noise test circuit . 18
Annex C (informative) Typical format of power capacitor noise test report . 19
C.1 Basic information in the typical test report . 19
C.2 Sound level meter parameters . 19
C.3 Test parameter configuration . 19
C.4 Noise measurement data . 20
C.5 Meteorological conditions of the test environment . 21
C.6 Measuring personnel and time . 21
Bibliography . 22

Figure A.1 – Schematic diagram of installation of the test object . 16
Figure A.2 – Microphone positions on the parallelepiped measurement surface . 17
Figure B.1 – Schematic diagram of shunt and AC filter power capacitor noise test
circuit. 18
Figure B.2 – Schematic diagram of DC filter power capacitor noise test circuit . 18

Table 1 – Test acceptance criteria . 13
Table A.1 – Coordinates of measurement positions on the parallelepiped measurement
surface . 17
Table C.1 – Power supply loaded to the test object . 20
Table C.2 – Background A-weighted sound pressure level of each measuring point in

decibels . 20
Table C.3 – A-weighted sound pressure level of each measuring point in decibels . 20

– 4 – IEC TR 63396:2021 © IEC 2021
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
NOISE MEASUREMENT METHOD ON POWER CAPACITORS

FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
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IEC 63396 has been prepared by technical committee 33: Power capacitors and their
applications. It is a Technical Report.
The text of this Technical Report is based on the following documents:
Draft Report on voting
33/658/DTR 33/663/RVDTR
Full information on the voting for its approval can be found in the report on voting indicated in
the above table.
The language used for the development of this Technical Report is English.
This document was drafted in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, and developed in
accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1 and ISO/IEC Directives, IEC Supplement, available
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The committee has decided that the contents of this document will remain unchanged until the
stability date indicated on the IEC website under "http://webstore.iec.ch" in the data related to
the specific document. At this date, the document will be
• reconfirmed,
• withdrawn,
• replaced by a revised edition, or
• amended.
– 6 – IEC TR 63396:2021 © IEC 2021
INTRODUCTION
Power capacitors are important equipment for HVDC project, but at the same time they are also
the main noise source. However, there is no IEC document which is specific to the noise
measurement on power capacitors until now.
In recent years, Chinese authoritative testing organizations have conducted a large number of
experiments in this area. Now, many laboratories in China are able to simulate the actual
operating conditions of power capacitors in HVDC converter stations for noise testing.
This new technical report is aimed to document a feasible method to measure power capacitor's
noise in AC and DC systems, in particular in HVDC converter stations, based on the experience
developed in China. Furthermore, the testing laboratories could also check and validate
periodically the common technical parameters of the noise measurement on power capacitors
in an uniform way by this method, in order to promote the practical application of the
measurement method and possibly to improve it (in view of a possible future conversion of the
technical report to a technical specification).
This document is intended to fill the gap in this technical field, and to promote the construction
of environmentally friendly AC and DC substations.

NOISE MEASUREMENT METHOD ON POWER CAPACITORS

1 Scope
The object of this Technical Report is to document a method for the sound pressure level
measurement on power capacitor units, by which the sound power level of power capacitor units
is determined.
This method is applicable to shunt capacito
...