Power factor(pf) and its

improvement

Fig(c)
Fig(a) Phasor diagram Fig(b) power impedance
triangle triangle
for Inductive load
• Power factor is defined as the cosine of
angle between voltage and current
ie;pf=cosØ where Ø is the angle between V
&I
• If the circuit is inductive, the current lags
behind the voltage as shown in fig(a) and
the pf is called lagging pf
• If the circuit is capacitive, the current
leads the voltage and the pf is called
leading pf
• If the circuit is resistive,the current
and voltage are in phase and the pf is
unity
• Consider an inductive circuit where current I
lags behind the supply voltage V by an angle
Ø as shown in fig(a)
• The current I can be resolved into two
perpendicular components namely (i)IcosØ
in phase with V and (ii) IsinØ 90o out of
phase with V
• The component IcosØ is called active
component or wattful component and
the component IsinØ is called the
reactive component or wattless
component
• The reactive component IsinØ is a measure
of the pf
• If the reactive component is small,the phase
angle Ø is small and hence pf will be high
and if the reactive component is high,the
phase angle Ø will be high and hence the pf
will be small
• We have to attach the word lagging or
leading with the numerical value of the pf to
signify whether current lags or leads the
voltage
Power triangle:
• The power triangle for an inductive circuit
is shown in fig.(b)
• Here OA=VIcosØ=active power P in W or
kW
• AB=VIsinØ=reactive power Q in VAR or
kVAR
• OB=VI=apparent power S in VA or kVA
• S=√P2+Q2
• From power triangle
pf,cosØ=OA/OB=P/S=kW/kVA ie;pf of a
circuit can also be defined as the ratio of
active power to the apparent power
• From the impedance triangle pf,cosØ=R/Z
ie;pf of a circuit can also be defined as the
ratio of resistance to impedance of a
circuit
• The lagging reactive power is responsible for
the low pf.It is clear from the power triangle
that smaller the reactive power component
the higher is the pf of the circuit and
viceversa
• The reactive power is neither consumed in
the circuit nor it does any useful work.It
merely flows back and forth in both
directions in the circuit.
• Wattmeter measures only active power
 Disadvantages of low
• The pfpf
plays an important role in ac circuits
since power consumed depends upon this
factor
•For 1Ø supply, P=VIcosØ
Load current I=P/VcosØ
•For 3Ø supply,P=√3VLILcosØ
Current IL=P/ √3VLcosØ
• It is clear from the above that for fixed power
and voltage,the load current is inversely
proportional to the pf
• Lower the pf,higher is the load current and
vice versa
• So a low pf results in the following
disadvantages
1) Large kVA rating of equipment:
• The electrical machinery such as
alternators,transformers,switchgears etc is
always rated in kVA because the pf of the load
is not known when the machine is
manufactured in the factory
• kVA=kW/cosØ
• It is clear that kVA rating of the equipment
is inversely proportional to the pf
• The smaller the pf,the larger is the kVA
rating and viceversa
2) Greater conductor size:
• To transmit or distribute a fixed amount
of power at constant voltage,the
conductor have to carry more current at
low pf
• This necessitates large conductor size
and hence increased cost
3) Large Cu losses and poor efficiency
• The large current at low pf causes more
I2R losses which results in poor efficiency
4) Poor voltage regulation:
• The large current at low pf causes
greater voltage drops in
alternators,transformers,transmission and
distribution lines
• This results in the decreased voltage at the
receiving end of the supply,thus reducing
the performance of utilisation devices
• Inorder to keep the receiving end voltage
with in permissible limits voltage
regulators are required
5)Reduced handling capacity of the system:
• The lagging pf reduces the handling
capacity of all the elements of the system
• It is because the reactive component of
current prevents the full utilization of
installed capacity
 Thus it is concluded that low pf is an
objectionable feature in the power
system
 Causes of low
pf
1) Most of the ac motors are of induction
type(1Ø and 3Ø induction motors)
which have low lagging pf
• These motors work at a low pf(0.2 to 0.3)
at light loads and high pf(0.8 to 0.9) at full
load
2) Arc lamps,electric discharge
lamps,industrial heating furnaces etc
operate at low lagging pf
3) The load on the power system is varying,
being high during morning and evening
and low at other times
• During light load period,supply voltage is
increased which increases the
magnetisation current and hence the pf is
decreased
Power factor improvement
using capacitors
• The low pf is mainly due to the fact that
most of the power loads are inductive in
nature and therefore take lagging currents
• In order to improve the pf some device
taking leading current eg:capacitor should
be connected in parallel with the load
• The capacitor draws a leading current and
partly or completely neutralises the
lagging reactive component of load
current
• This improves the pf of the load
• Consider a 1Ø RL load taking lagging current
I at a pf cosØ1 as shown in fig.(i)
• To improve the pf a capacitor C is connected
in parallel with the load as shown in fig.(ii)
• The capacitor draws current Ic which leads
the supply voltage V by 900.
• The phasor diagram is shown in fig(iii)
• From the phasor diagram,the resulting line
current ľ is the phasor sum of I and Ic and
its angle of lag is Ø2.
• It is clear that Ø2 is less than Ø1 ,hence
cosØ2 is greater than cosØ1
• Thus the pf of the load is improved
 Conclusions
1)The circuit current ľ after pf correction is
less
than the original circuit current I
2)The active component of load current
remains the same before and after pf
correction because only the lagging reactive
component of load current is reduced by the
capacitor
ie;I cosØ1= ľ cosØ2
3)The lagging reactive component of load
current is reduced after pf correction and
is equal to the difference between lagging
reactive current before pf correction and
capacitor current
Ie; ľ sinØ2=IsinØ1-Ic
4)We have, I cosØ1= ľ cosØ2 multiplying by V
V I cosØ1=V ľ cosØ2ie;active power before
and
after pf correction is same ie;active power
kW remains unchanged after pf
improvement
5)We have ľ sinØ2=IsinØ1-Ic multiplying by
V Vľ sinØ2=VIsinØ1-VIc ie;reactive power
after pf correction is the difference
between
the reactive power before pf
correction and the reactive power
supplied by the capacitor
Ie;net KVAR after pf correction=lagging
KVAR before pf correction-leading KVAR
of capacitor
 Advantage
s
1) Cost is less
2) They have low losses
3) They require little maintenance as there
are no rotating parts
4) They can be easily installed as they are
light and require no foundation
5) They can work under ordinary
atmospheric conditions
 Disadvantage
s
• They have short service life ranging from 8
to 10 years
• They are easily damaged if the
voltage exceeds the rated value
• Once the capacitors are damaged ,their
repair is uneconomical
• By using capacitors,the pf improvement
can only be done in steps by switching the
capacitors in various groupings