DAVINDAR SINGH BHAMRA

U1064255
UNIVERSITY OF HUDDERSFIELD
Power Factor Investigation
& Voltage Regulation


Computing & Engineering






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Table of Contents
1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 3
2. Theory ................................................................................................................................................. 4
2.1 Power ............................................................................................................................................ 4
2.2 Power Factor ................................................................................................................................. 5
2.3 Voltage Regulation ........................................................................................................................ 6
3. Procedure ............................................................................................................................................ 7
4. Discussion .......................................................................................................................................... 11
5. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 12
6. References ........................................................................................................................................ 13


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1. Introduction

The aims and objectives of this report are to investigate the relation between voltages, currents and
power in three-phase circuits. The efficiency of three-phase and single phase systems are to be
determined and compared and an investigation into what effect of load imbalance has on a neutral
circuit. The power factor is also taken into account during the experiment. The three-phase systems
are used in a variety of applications from industry to homes because of their efficiency over single-
phase.
The objectives of this report are to calculate and compare the efficiency of a three-phase, single-
phase and a three-phase with an unbalanced load.


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2. Theory
2.1 Power
Explain ac
Cap ind load etc

Complex power
Explain real,apparent and reactive power
Componets real and im
Etc

In AC sinusoidal circuits there are three forms of power which occur these are Real power, Reactive
power and Apparent power. Real power is the power absorbed by the resistive component in the
load. Real power has no imaginary component to it; it only has a real component hence on the
power triangle shown further down it is always aligned with the x-axis.
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2.2 Power Factor
Power Factor is a measure of how efficiently electrical power is consumed by a system. A poor
power factor would indicate that more current is being drawn that needed to be; as more current is
drawn the I
2
R power losses increase.
To calculate the power factor (pf) the following equation is used:
Pf = cos .
The closer to one the power factor is the more efficient it is however in real life situations the power
factor is more commonly found hovering around 0.7.


Figure 7
In a purely inductive system the power factor is usually between 0.6 and 0.8 and the voltage leads
the current by 90
o
as illustrated in figure 7 above. In a purely conductive system the power factor is
usually between 0.4 and 0.3 and the current leads the voltage by 90
o
.
Fix
Add commercial and triangle etc

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2.3 Voltage Regulation
Define
Example
etc


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3. Procedure

The investigation into power factor and voltage regulation required the equipment listed below in
different arrangements.
The apparatus used to conduct these experiments are the following;
1. Variable Ac supply
2. Two Power analyser
3. Variable Resistor
4. Variable Inductor
5. Variable Capacitor
6. Fixed resistors to model a distribution network
7. Assortment of wires

The circuit diagram below shows the arrangement of the apparatus.

Firstly the Variable AC supply is connected to the 240V mains supply, the output of the Variable AC
supply is 50V and this is our source voltage (Vs). The Variable AC supply is connected to the first
power analyser and from this power analyser we can measure the voltage, current and power from
the source. The first power analyser is connected to a second power analyser via a set of fixed
resistors which act as a distribution network. The second power analyser is used to measure the
power, current, voltage and power factor when different loads are attached to the circuit.
The circuit was tested with no load, with load and also with a capacitor in parallel with the load.
Firstly the circuit was tested with no load, results were taken from both power analysers.
Power Analyser 1 Power Analyser 2
Power (W) 42.6 38.16
Voltage (V) 50.03 43.17
Current (A) 0.928 0.928
Power Factor (pf) 0.951

The values above the voltage regulation (Vreg) and the efficiency () can be calculated.
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To calculate voltage regulation (Vreg) the following equation was used.

Where Vs is the source voltage and V
L
is the load voltage. So for no load the voltage regulation is the
following

= 0.158
The voltage regulation for this circuit with no load is 15.8%.
To calculate the efficiency () of the system the following equation is used.




So the efficiency of this circuit with no load is the following

Next the load consisting of a variable resistor and inductor was connected to the system and
measurements were taken using the power analysers.
Power Analyser 1 Power Analyser 2
Power (W) 40.9 32.60
Voltage (V) 49.92 39.05
Current (A) 1.259 1.257
Power Factor (pf) 0.663

The voltage regulation (Vreg) and the efficiency () were calculated from the results above.

The voltage regulation for this circuit with no load is 27.94% and the efficiency of the system is;






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The variable resistor is reduced to 12.5 which is half the maximum resistor value to give the same
power, once this was done values were taken at this stage.

Power Analyser 1 Power Analyser 2
Power (W) 55.3 43.0
Voltage (V) 49.71 36.86
Current (A) 1.517 1.514
Power Factor (pf) 0.772


The voltage regulation (Vreg) and the efficiency () were calculated from the results above.

The voltage regulation for this circuit with no load is 34.86% and the efficiency of the system is;




The power factor is 0.772 which means the system is drawing more current then needed a capacitor
with a particular value can be added in parallel with the load to alter this and make the power factor
closer to 1.
To calculate the value of the capacitor first the reactive power (Q) must be calculated.

Where S is apparent power and P is actual power.

S=VI therefore using the values from the results table above S= 36.86V X 1.517A = 55.91W
P = 43W
Therefore

Now the capacitive reactance (Xc) is calculated from the following equation.

Where E is the electromotive force.

Putting values into the equation:

and then rearranging

Now taking the above equation and rearranging to give C.
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Where f is the frequency of the supply which is 50Hz.

Values are added into the equation and a value of C is obtained.

The capacitor value required to correct the power factor is 84F.
The variable capacitor is connected in parallel to the load and set to 84F and values were taken
from both power analysers.
Power Analyser 1 Power Analyser 2
Power (W) 48.7 43.4
Voltage (V) 49.96 45.02
Current (A) 0.976 0.975
Power Factor (pf) 0.989

The voltage regulation (Vreg) and the efficiency () were calculated from the results above.

The voltage regulation for this circuit with no load is 10.92% and the efficiency of the system is;



















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4. Discussion

The results obtained from the procedure are in line with the theory described earlier in the theory
section of this report. The three-phase is more efficient then the single-phase as there is less power
loss and voltage drop across the system.
During the three-phase unbalanced testing the source voltage remains unchanged from 200V and
there is less resultant current then in the single-phase.
There are a number of errors in the experiment which range from a parallax error which occur when
reading the analogue multimeter to loose connections in the three-phase system which results in
high resistances. There is also a 2% error in the meters to overcome this problem the final result has
a error margin added to it. The parallax error can be overcome by reading the results of the
multimeter from a birds eye point of view to minimise errors.
Overall the experiment was a success as it proves a three-phase system is more efficient than a
single-phase system.
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5. Conclusion
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6. References

[1] D W TYLER. (2001) Electrical Power Technology
[2] Three-Phase http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-phase,
[3] A Comparison between Star and Delta http://people.clarkson.edu/~pillayp/58.pdf,
[4] N STOREY. (2009) Electronics a Systems Approach 4
th
Ed: Addison- Wesley