Induced Current in a Generator

The effect of inducing a current in a coil by moving

a magnet inside it is used for the generation of electricity in power plants There are two types of generator or dynamo. Both turn rotational energy into electrical energy. 1. One type involves rotating a coil inside a magnet. 2. The other type involves rotating a magnet inside a coil Both types produce ALTERNATING CURRENT. gcsescience.com

An electric generator consists of a magnet, which creates a magnetic field, and a loop of wire which rotates in the magnetic field. As the wire rotates in the magnetic field, the changing strength of the magnetic field through the wire produces a force which drives the electric charges around the wire. AS the loop spins, the direction of the force changes, so too then does the direction of the current The changing direction of the force after every 180 degrees of rotation gives the alternating current.

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ALTERNATING CURRENT
If you use an oscilliscope and look at the power found at a normal

outlet in your house, you will find is that the power looks like a sine wave, and that wave oscillates between -170 volts and 170 volts (the peaks are indeed at 170 volts; it is the effective (rms) voltage that is 120 volts). The rate of oscillation for the sine wave is 60 cycles per second. Oscillating power like this is generally referred to as AC, or alternating current. AC has at least three advantages over DC in a power distribution grid:
Large electrical generators happen to generate AC , so conversion to DC

would involve an extra step. Transformers must have alternating current to operate, and the power distribution grid depends on transformers. It is easy to convert AC to DC but expensive to convert DC to AC, so if you were going to pick one or the other AC would be the better choice.

WAVE FORMS OF 3 PHASE POWER

The power plant produces three different phases of AC power

simultaneously, and the three phases are offset 120 degrees from each other. If you were to look at the three phases on a graph, they would look like this relative to ground:

Three-Phase Systems
So far, our discussion of AC systems has been restricted to single-phase arrangement
as in conventional domestic supplies

In high-power industrial applications we often use three-phase arrangements

these have three supplies, differing in phase by 120 phases are labeled red, yellow and blue (R, Y & B)

 Three-phase arrangements may use either 3 or 4

conductors

Power Measurement
When using AC, power is determined not only by the r.m.s.

values of the voltage and current, but also by the phase angle (which determines the power factor)
consequently, you cannot determine the power from

independent measurements of current and voltage

In single-phase systems power is normally measured using

an electrodynamic wattmeter
measures power directly using a single meter which

effectively multiplies instantaneous current and voltage

 In three-phase systems we need to sum the power

taken from the various phases

in three-wire arrangements we can deduce the total

power from measurements using 2 wattmeter in a four-wire system it may be necessary to use 3 wattmeter in balanced systems (systems that take equal power from each phase) a single wattmeter can be used, its reading being multiplied by 3 to get the total power

Key Points

In resistive circuits the average power is equal to VI, where V

and I are r.m.s. values In a capacitor the current leads the voltage by 90 and the average power is zero In an inductor the current lags the voltage by 90 and the average power is zero In circuits with both resistive and reactive elements, the average power is VI cos The term cos is called the power factor Power factor correction is important in high-power systems High-power systems often use three-phase arrangements