Calculating power factor

As was mentioned before, the angle of this “power triangle” graphically indicates the
ratio between the amount of dissipated (or consumed) power and the amount of
absorbed/returned power. It also happens to be the same angle as that of the
circuit's impedance in polar form. When expressed as a fraction, this ratio between
true power and apparent power is called the power factor for this circuit. Because
truepower and apparent power form the adjacent and hypotenuse sides of a right
triangle, respectively, thepower factor ratio is also equal to the cosine of that phase
angle. Using values from the last example circuit:

It should be noted that power factor, like all ratio measurements, is

a unitless quantity.
For the purely resistive circuit, the power factor is 1 (perfect), because the
reactive power equals zero. Here, the power triangle would look like a horizontal line,
because the opposite (reactive power) side would have zero length.
For the purely inductive circuit, the power factor is zero, because true power equals
zero. Here, thepower triangle would look like a vertical line, because the adjacent
(true power) side would have zero length.
The same could be said for a purely capacitive circuit. If there are no dissipative
(resistive) components in the circuit, then the true power must be equal to zero,
making any power in the circuit purely reactive. The power triangle for a purely
capacitive circuit would again be a vertical line (pointing down instead of up as it was
for the purely inductive circuit).
Power factor can be an important aspect to consider in an AC circuit, because
any power factor less than 1 means that the circuit's wiring has to carry more
current than what would be necessary with zero reactance in the circuit to deliver the
same amount of (true) power to the resistive load. If our last example circuit had
been purely resistive, we would have been able to deliver a full 169.256 watts to the
load with the same 1.410 amps of current, rather than the mere 119.365 watts that
it is presently dissipating with that same current quantity. The
poor power factor makes for an inefficient powerdelivery system.
Poor power factor can be corrected, paradoxically, by adding another load to the
circuit drawing an equal and opposite amount of reactive power, to cancel out the
effects of the load's inductive reactance. Inductive reactance can only be canceled by
capacitive reactance, so we have to add acapacitor in parallel to our example circuit
as the additional load. The effect of these two opposing reactances in parallel is to
bring the circuit's total impedance equal to its total resistance (to make the
impedance phase angle equal, or at least closer, to zero).
Since we know that the (uncorrected) reactive power is 119.998 VAR (inductive), we
need to calculate the correct capacitor size to produce the same quantity of
(capacitive) reactive power. Since this capacitor will be directly in parallel with the
source (of known voltage), we'll use the power formula which starts from voltage
and reactance:

Let's use a rounded capacitor value of 22 µF and see what happens to our circuit:
(Figure below)
Parallel capacitor corrects lagging power factor of inductive load. V2 and node
numbers: 0, 1, 2, and 3 are SPICE related, and may be ignored for the moment.

The power factor for the circuit, overall, has been substantially improved. The main
current has been decreased from 1.41 amps to 994.7 milliamps, while
the power dissipated at the load resistor remains unchanged at 119.365 watts.
The power factor is much closer to being 1:
Since the impedance angle is still a positive number, we know that the circuit,
overall, is still more inductive than it is capacitive. If our power factor correction
efforts had been perfectly on-target, we would have arrived at an impedance angle
of exactly zero, or purely resistive. If we had added too large of a capacitor in
parallel, we would have ended up with an impedance angle that was negative,
indicating that the circuit was more capacitive than inductive.
A SPICE simulation of the circuit of (Figure above) shows total voltage and total
current are nearly in phase. The SPICE circuit file has a zero volt voltage-source (V2)
in series with the capacitor so that the capacitor current may be measured. The start
time of 200 msec ( instead of 0) in the transient analysis statement allows the DC
conditions to stabilize before collecting data. See SPICE listing “pf.cir powerfactor”.
pf.cir power factor
V1 1 0 sin(0 170 60)
C1 1 3 22uF
v2 3 0 0
L1 1 2 160mH
R1 2 0 60
# resolution stop start
.tran 1m 200m 160m
.end
The Nutmeg plot of the various currents with respect to the applied voltage Vtotal is
shown in (Figurebelow). The reference is Vtotal, to which all other measurements are
compared. This is because the applied voltage, Vtotal, appears across the parallel
branches of the circuit. There is no single current common to all components. We can
compare those currents to Vtotal.
Zero phase angle due to in-phase Vtotal and Itotal . The lagging IL with respect to Vtotal is
corrected by a leading IC .
Note that the total current (Itotal) is in phase with the applied voltage (Vtotal),
indicating a phase angle of near zero. This is no coincidence. Note that the lagging
current, IL of the inductor would have caused the total current to have a lagging
phase somewhere between (Itotal) and IL. However, the leading capacitor current, IC,
compensates for the lagging inductor current. The result is a total current phase-
angle somewhere between the inductor and capacitor currents. Moreover, that total
current (Itotal) was forced to be in-phase with the total applied voltage (Vtotal), by the
calculation of an appropriate capacitor value.
Since the total voltage and current are in phase, the product of these two
waveforms, power, will always be positive throughout a 60 Hz cycle, real power as in
Figure above. Had the phase-angle not been corrected to zero (PF=1), the product
would have been negative where positive portions of one waveform overlapped
negative portions of the other as in Figure above. Negative power is fed back to the
generator. It cannont be sold; though, it does waste power in the resistance of
electric lines between load and generator. The parallel capacitor corrects this
problem.
Note that reduction of line losses applies to the lines from the generator to the point
where the powerfactor correction capacitor is applied. In other words, there is still
circulating current between the capacitor and the inductive load. This is not normally
a problem because the power factor correction is applied close to the offending load,
like an induction motor.
It should be noted that too much capacitance in an AC circuit will result in a
low power factor just as well as too much inductance. You must be careful not to
over-correct when adding capacitance to an AC circuit. You must also be very careful
to use the proper capacitors for the job (rated adequately forpower system voltages
and the occasional voltage spike from lightning strikes, for continuous AC service,
and capable of handling the expected levels of current).
If a circuit is predominantly inductive, we say that
its power factor is lagging (because the current wave for the circuit lags behind the
applied voltage wave). Conversely, if a circuit is predominantly capacitive, we say
that its power factor is leading. Thus, our example circuit started out with
a powerfactor of 0.705 lagging, and was corrected to a power factor of 0.999
lagging.
• REVIEW:
• Poor power factor in an AC circuit may be “corrected”, or re-established at
a value close to 1, by adding a parallel reactance opposite the effect of the
load's reactance. If the load's reactance is inductive in nature (which is
almost always will be), parallel capacitance is what is needed to correct
poor power factor.

The power factor of an AC electric power system is defined as the ratio of the active
(true or real) power to theapparent power
where
• Active (Real or True) Power is measured in watts (W) and is the power drawn
by the electrical resistance of a system doing useful work.
• Apparent Power is measured in volt-amperes (VA) and is the voltage on an AC
system multiplied by all the current that flows in it. It is the vector sum of
the active and the reactive power.
• Reactive Power is measured in volt-amperes reactive (VAR). Reactive Power is
power stored in and discharged by inductive motors, transformers and solenoids
Reactive power is required for the magnetization of a motor but doesn't perform any
action. The reactive power required by inductive loads increases the amounts of
apparent power - measured in kilovolt amps (kVA) - in the distribution system. Increasing
of the reactive and apparent power will cause the power factor - PF - to decrease.

Power Factor
It is common to define the Power Factor - PF - as the cosine of the phase angle between
voltage and current - or the "cosφ".
 The power factor defined by IEEE and IEC is the ratio between the applied active (true)
power - and theapparent power, and can in general be expressed as:
PF = P / S (1)
where
PF = power factor
P = active (true or real) power (Watts)
S = apparent power (VA, volts amps)
A low power factor is the result of inductive loads such as transformers and electric
motors. Unlike resistive loads creating heat by consuming kilowatts, inductive loads
require a current flow to create magnetic fields to produce the desired work.
Power factor is an important measurement in electrical AC systems because
• an overall power factor less than 1 indicates that the electricity supplier need to
provide more generating capacity than actually required
• the current waveform distortion that contributes to reduced power factor is
caused by voltage waveform distortion and overheating in the neutral cables of
three-phase systems
International standards such as IEC 61000-3-2 have been established to control current
waveform distortion by introducing limits for the amplitude of current harmonics.
Example - Power Factor
A industrial plant draws 200 A at 400 V and the supply transformer and backup UPS is
rated 200 A × 400 V = 80 kVA.
If the power factor - PF - of the loads is only 0.7 - only
80 kVA × 0.7
= 56 kVA
of real power is consumed by the system. If the power factor is close to 1 the supply
system with transformers, cables, switchgear and UPS could be made considerably
smaller.

A low power factor is expensive and inefficient and some utility companies may charge
additional fees when the power factor is less than 0.95. A low power factor will reduce
the electrical system's distribution capacity by increasing the current flow and causing
voltage drops.

Power Factor for a Three-Phase Motor

The total power required by an inductive device as a motor or similar consists of
• Active (true or real) power (measured in kilowatts, kW)
• Reactive power - the nonworking power caused by the magnetizing current,
required to operate the device (measured in kilovars, kVAR)
The power factor for a three-phase electric motor can be expressed as:
PF = P / [(3)1/2 U I] (2)
where
PF = power factor
P = power applied (W, watts)
U = voltage (V)
I = current (A, amps)
 F.A.Q.#22.

What is power factor?...

Power factor is the ratio of true power or watts to apparent power or volt
amps. They are identical only when current and voltage are in phase than the
power factor is 1.0. The power in an ac circuit is very seldom equal to the direct
product of the volts and amperes. In order to find the power of a single phase ac
circuit the product of volts and amperes must be multiplied by the power factor.
Ampmeters and voltmeters indicate the effective value of amps and volts. True
power or watts can be measured with a wattmeter. If the true power is 1870
watts and the volt amp reading is 2200. Than the power factor is 0.85 or 85
percent. True power divided by apparent power. The power factor is expressed
in decimal or percentage. Thus power factors of 0.8 are the same as 80 percent.
Low power factor is usually associated with motors and transformers. An
incandescent bulb would have a power factor of close to 1.0. A one hp motor
about 0.80. With low power factor loads, the current flowing through electrical
system components is higher than necessary to do the required work. This
results in excess heating, which can damage or shorten the life of equipment, A
low power factor can also cause low-voltage conditions, resulting in dimming
of lights and sluggish motor operation.
Low power factor is usually not that much of a problem in residential homes. It
does however become a problem in industry where multiple large motors are
used. Power Factor Correction Capacitors are normally used to try to correct
this problem.

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