MEASUREMENT OF SINGLE PHASE REACTIVE POWER

Internal guide: Mr. D.B.KRISHNAMURTHY By K.Shivaraj M.Sai Teja Y.Saidulu

Aim of the project

The project aims at calculating single phase reactive power consumed by domestic loads (Low Tension Consumers) This is done through EMBEDDED SYSTEM employed Although todays electronic digital signal processing (DSP) enables reactive energy measurements to be closer to the theoretical value, there is no consensus in the field of energy metering on the methods of measurement

Introduction
The amount and complexity of household electrical equipment has increased tremendously over the last few years Electronic ballast lighting, computer monitors and air conditioners are welcome additions to our homes but come with additional burdens With the application of non-linear loads to power lines the active energy no longer represents the total energy delivered. As a response to improve billing, the measurement of reactive energy is gaining interest. Italys leading energy distributor has decided to install more than 20 million household energy meters with active and reactive power measurement

Reactive Power
AC systems consume both active power and reactive power, measured in VAR
(REACTIVE POWER) = (APPARENT POWER) * SIN() = V I SIN()

Reactive power is a BYPRODUCT of AC systems The portion of power flow that is temporarily stored in the form of magnetic or electric fields, due to inductive and capacitive network elements, and then returned to source, is known as reactive power

Why Do We Need Reactive Power

Reactive power (vars) is required to deliver active power (watts) through transmission lines. Motor loads and other loads require reactive power to convert the flow of electrons into useful work.

When there is not enough reactive power, the voltage sags down and it is not possible to push the power demanded by loads through the lines.

Increasing reactive power production will sometimes alleviate transmission constraints and allow cheaper real power to be delivered into a load pocket.

Reactive Power and Power Factor

Reactive power is present when the voltage and current are not in phase One waveform leads the other Phase angle not equal to 0 Power factor less than unity

Measured in volt-ampere reactive (VAR)

Produced when the current waveform leads voltage waveform (Leading power factor) Vice versa, consumed when the current waveform lags voltage (Lagging power factor)

Elements Producing Or Absorbing Reactive Power

Loads : -Due to composite characteristics, load bus absorbs

reactive power

Underground Cables :

-Generate reactive power due to their loading less than

natural loading

Overhead Lines : - Depending on the load current, either absorb or

supply reactive power

Synchronous Generators: - Can absorb or generate reactive power depending on

excitation

Compensating Devices : - Installed in power system to either supply or

absorb reactive power

Embedded Systems
Embedded System is a combination of hardware and software used to achieve a single specific task by making use of a microcontroller Embedded systems are computer systems that monitor, respond to, or control an external environment. Environment connected to systems through sensors, actuators and other I/O interfaces.

Embedded system must meet timing & other constraints imposed on it by environment.

Block Diagram

Major Building Blocks

Microcontroller Regulated Power Supply Crystal Oscillator LED indicators Current transformer Zero crossing detector Relay unit LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)

Potential transformer

Microcontroller
Microcontrollers are special purpose computers. The Microcontroller includes a CPU, RAM,ROM,I/O ports, Timers etc.., like a standard computer, but on a single silicon chip. Microcontroller based systems are designed to perform a specified task.

The Microcontroller used in the project is PIC Microcontroller developed by Microchip Incorporation

PIC 16F877A

Specifications
Pic16f877 is a 40 pin microcontroller. It has 5 ports port A, port B, port C, port D, port E. All the pins of the ports are for interfacing input output devices. Consists of 5 Ports for interfacing input output devices
SPECIFICATION
RAM EEPROM FREQUENCY FLASH MEMORY I/O PORTS

INFO
368 BYTES 256 BYTES 20 MHZ 8K ABCDE

Crystal oscillator
An oscillator is an electronic circuit that produces a repetitive electronic signal.
The maximum operating frequency of PIC Microcontrollers is 20 MHz. Crystal oscillator is used in the project because of the fact that crystal is more stable to temperature than other types of oscillators.

Regulated Power Supply

PIC Microcontrollers requires a 5V DC for its operation.
The aim of this block is to convert battery voltage to 5V DC. The process of conversion is shown below:

Bridge Full Wave Rectifier

The circuit has four diodes connected to form a bridge Converts an ac voltage to dc voltage using both half cycles of the input ac voltage

Transformer
Most power supplies use a step-down transformer to reduce the dangerously high mains voltage (230V in UK) to a safer low voltage. In this project we use two transformers, one is a step down transformer which provides power supply to relays & microcontroller and the other is a step up transformer to sense the load current.

Potential transformer
We are making use of PT (potential transformer) for capturing the zero-crossing point of voltage wave form. PT converts the high voltage AC to a low voltage measurable quantity. PT of type step-down transformer.

Current transformer
CT are used for current measurements. We are making use of CT (current transformer) for capturing the zero-crossing point of current wave form. CT is of type step-up transformer.

LED Indicators
LED (Light Emitting Diode) is a semiconductor light source used as indicators.

In this project we are using LED indicators for checking Microcontroller working status and various status indications.
This usually works on 2 volts, 10 mA.

Zero crossing detector

Zero crossing detection is the process of finding the variation of waveform from zero as reference point. In this project this is used to find out whether both current and voltage wave forms are leading or lagging or in phase with each other.

Voltage Regulator
A voltage regulator is an electrical regulator designed to automatically maintain a constant voltage level The output voltage is maintained irrespective of the fluctuations in the input AC voltage.

Relay unit
A relay operation depends upon the electromagnetic effects of current flowing in an energizing winding. Relay is used for controlling high voltage device using low voltage signal. This works on electromagnetic principle. Relay takes the commands from the (microcontroller) control unit. It controls the high voltage electrical devices like Lamp, Fan, Water pump, Circuit breaker etc.

LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)

A liquid crystal display (LCD) is a thin, flat electronic visual display that uses the light modulating properties of liquid crystals. The LCD display used in the project is 16X2. We use this display to show the SIN() and Current value.

Choke Coil
An electromagnetic coil (or simply a "coil") formed when a conductor (usually a solid copper wire) is wound around a core or form to create an inductor or electromagnet Used as an inductive load in the project which absorbs reactive power; which is to be computed

Circuit Diagram

DESCRIPTION
This circuit consists of DC power supply unit, zero voltage crossing detectors, Micro-controller, LCD display, Relays and Load circuit For the calculation of the SIN() by the Micro-controller we need digitized voltage and current signals The micro-controller calculates the time difference between the zero crossing points of current and voltage

Sends information regarding time difference between current and voltage and SIN() to the LCD display to display them

Advantages
Advantages of reactive power measurement includes: Actual total energy delivered to low tension consumers can be computed Revenue can be improved (if applied)

Disadvantages
Initial Investment required is more Implementation is little bit complex

Future Scope
Incorporating reactive power measurement in the energy meter for low tension consumers.

Conclusion
By adopting the above technology total actual power delivered to the domestic loads can be computed and billing can be done accordingly.