Capacitors come in many forms but power capacitors are a special breed. Here we are looking at capacitors that pass many amps of reactive current. Now you may say well so what a reactive current cannot dissipate, true, but it does "flow" and it is impossible to make a capacitor that has no real part. So there must be dissipation (otherwise of what use is tan delta that manufacturers supply) and that dissipation is what power capacitors are very concerned with. Not just because any power loss in the capacitor results in less power to the load but, also, because heat is generated in a capacitor.
If you think that a few watts in a capacitor is nothing, then put an excess of amps through a ceramic capacitor and wow, an exploding capacitor is a sight to see, debris everywhere. Ok, just make the capacitor larger (more parallel paths) but there is a trade off, size, both size v frequency and size v economics.
Here we look at some capacitors suitable for power filters, especially the sum-filter and harmonic filters
Inductors also come in many forms and like power capacitors dissipation is a major concern but, with a different emphasis. Inductors are made of metal and metals conduct heat as well as current allowing an inductor to run at a much higher temperature than a power capacitor. Power inductors tend to be large, run hot, have to be kept away from other components, eminate a high magnetic field.
Thus we see the design problems are different, orientation is important to minimise interaction between the magnetic fields of an inductor chain. Special mounting techniques are required to dissipate the heat generated. For example an inductor in a MW, AM duplexor may be 50cm dia, 100cm long, use 25mm copper pipe and have fins soldered on to the pipe to enhance air cooling!
Here we look at some inductors suitable for power filters, especially the sum-filter and harmonic filters