POWER FACTOR CORRECTION

Presented by: Katlego Mohlala : 920316383

and
: Stalin M Ndlovu : 200603148
 POWER FACTOR CORRECTION

Table of Contents
1. Objective ............................................................................................................................. 3
2. Power Factor Correction ...................................................................................................... 3
3. Requirements ...................................................................................................................... 3
4. Apparatus............................................................................................................................ 4
5. Method ............................................................................................................................... 4
6. Results and Calculations ...................................................................................................... 5
7. Discussion ......................................................................................................................... 10
8. Conclusion......................................................................................................................... 10

Table of figures

Figure 1: circuit before correction ................................................................ 4

Figure 2: simplified circuit before correction ............................................... 4
Figure 3: Phasor diagram at lagging power factor (before correction) .......... 6
Figure 4: Measured power factor (time delay) ............................................. 7
Figure 5: Phasor diagram after power factor correction ................................ 8
Figure 6: measured voltage and current after correction ............................... 9

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 POWER FACTOR CORRECTION

1. Objective
To perform power factor correction on a circuit with resistor and inductors.

2. Power Factor Correction

The topic of power factor correction is similar to that of matching a transmission
line; it is of at most importance to match the transmission line such that there are
no reflections from the load back to the source. While power factor correction
looks at the situation from the current point of view. Industrial loads consist of
heavy inductive machines and long cables. Due to the inductive nature of the
circuit reactive power will results because the more the inductance the more
current required for the same power that can be delivered by a none inductive
load.

Ztotal = R+jXl; impedance of the circuit.

Xl
Ө=arctan =pf; power factor angle.
𝑅

If pf<1 lagging (inductor dominates).

If pf>1 leading (capacitor dominates).

Pf=1; unity (equal compensation between inductor and capacitor i.e. no reactive
power).

The lack of a good power factor can result in huge losses in both the equipment
and the transmission lines in power systems, this can be a huge economical strain
for any Power distribution utility like Eskom

3. Requirements
 To design a circuit with a lagging power factor.
 To correct the power factor of the circuit close to unity.

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 POWER FACTOR CORRECTION

4. Apparatus
 2 Isolators
 LCR meter
 Multi-meter
 The orange box
 Oscilloscope

5. Method
Input voltage: 40V

Input frequency 50Hz

Figure 1: circuit before correction

Figure 2: simplified circuit before correction

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 POWER FACTOR CORRECTION

6. Results and Calculations

Theoretical (determined by using circuit parameters)

Vin  40Vrms
Total  Im pedance
Z  R  JX l
Z  333 .3  j 232 .5
Z  406 .1334 .9 0 

Current drawn by components.

Vin 400 0
I in    98.5  34.9 0 mA
Z 406 .1334.9 0

Power factor angle

pf  cos  cos 34 .9  0.82 Lagging

The power factor is however large but this does not stop us correcting power
factor. We are looking at a practical purpose and we aimed for unity.

 From the power factor angle we can decrease the current drawn by the
inductor by increasing the power factor as close to unity as possible. This
was for experimental purpose thus we can aim for unity “ideal situation”.

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 POWER FACTOR CORRECTION

Complex Power

S  P  jQ
S  VI *

S  40 0.0985 34 .9o VA 
S  3.232  j 2.256VA
P  3.323W
Q  2.256VAR
S  3.94 34 .9o VA

Figure 3: Phasor diagram at lagging power factor (before correction)

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 POWER FACTOR CORRECTION

Measured power factor

Figure 4: Measured power factor (time delay)

𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒚 𝟐.𝟐𝟎

𝜽= × 𝟑𝟔𝟎° = × 𝟑𝟔𝟎° = 𝟑𝟗. 𝟔°
𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒅 𝟐𝟎

Power factor was calculated to be: pf=cos39.60=0.77 lagging

The difference between the theoretical calculation and the actual measured power
factor is 0.05. the difference is quite small and we can neglect it.

Power factor correction

Required capacitance for correction

Ideally we want the power factor to be 1, thus we correct our power factor to 0.95
lagging. This will give a new angle between the voltage and current.

 new  cos1 0.95  18.2o

At this new power factor we can approximate the capacitive effect that will be
introduced in the circuit to compensate for the impressed current in the inductors.

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 POWER FACTOR CORRECTION

The resulting capacitive reactive power is as follows:

 new  P tan new

Qnew  3.232 tan18 .2 0
Qnew  1.063VAR
 Qc  Q  Qnew  2.256  1.063  1.193VAR
2
V 40 2
 Zc    1341 .2
S* 1.193
but
1 1
C j j  2.4 F
2fZ c 2  50  1341 .2

S new  3.232  j1.193VA

S new  3.4520 .30 VA
*
S new 3.45  20 .30
I new    86 .25  20 .30 mA
Vin 40 0 0

 new  20 .30
P  Pnew  3.232W
Qc  1.193VAR

Figure 5: Phasor diagram after power factor correction

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 POWER FACTOR CORRECTION

Measured power factor after correction

Figure 6: measured voltage and current after correction

The time delay between voltage and current was measured to be 1.12ms

𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒚 𝟏. 𝟏𝟐
𝜽 𝒏𝒆𝒘 = × 𝟑𝟔𝟎° = × 𝟑𝟔𝟎° = 𝟐𝟎. 𝟐°
𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒅 𝟐𝟎

Pf=cos20.20=0.94

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7. Discussion

From the above results it can be seen that;

 When correcting the power factor the time delay between the current and
voltage is reduced.
 The reduced time delay reduces the phase angle i.e. as the phase angle
approaches zero the power factor approaches unity.
 The current is always lagging the voltage this is of significant importance
as it reduces distortions.
 In power factor correction for a single phase circuit as in figure1 it can be
shown that there is a reduction in the current drawn by the circuit when a
capacitor is introduced in parallel to the load. This was achieved as the
current dropped from 98.5mA to 86.25mA

8. Conclusion

The objective of power factor correction is to attain a power factor close to unity.
The importance of this power factor is to remove all the reactive energy which is
oscillatory. In our design and experiment for power factor correction we corrected
the power factor to 0.94 instead of unity in order to keep little reactive energy for
stability.

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