CHAPTER 6 REACTIVE POWER 6.0 Introduction — It is pointed out in the power engineering literature and in the electric power industry that apparent power is the product of rms voltage and rms current with the dimension of volt-amperes, without having any physical nature at all. Then again, in ‘common usage, apparent power is said to have two fundamental components, namely active or real power and reactive power. Where, from a fundamental law of physics, the word “ power” is defined to be the rate of change of energy transfer or usage with respect to time. In electric circuits, real or reactive power is defined in terms of “instantaneous power” and “average power” with the dimension of volt-amperes and with meaningful physical nature of power and both of these terms satisfy the principle of conservation of energy. The real power is usefully converted into heat, mechanical work, light, or other forms of energy. The second part of apparent power also does have the dimension of volt-amperes and in general has no physical meaning and does not obey the principle of conservation of energy, it does not deal with any energy dissipation and finally it may or not be related to energy storage in electric or magnetic fields of force. In this chapter, we will restrict our discussion to linear reactive circuits with sinusoidal supply voltage, so we will relate reactive power to energy storage. Therefore, capacitors or inductors can be viewed as a variable impedance; or as a variable source ( or sink) of reactive current, or as a variable source (or sink) of reactive power, hence, reactive elements (capacitors or inductors) can be visualized as a storage tank. Later in this chapter we will demonstrate 61 aan example of a reactive power storage tank. Reactive power, can not be converted into useful forms of energy, but existence is nevertheless an inherent requirement of the load. For example, in an induction motor, reactive power represents the magnetizing reactive power. On the other hand it is common practice in electric power systems to assume the system as reactive circuits with sinusoidal supply voltage and then try to add reactive power algebraically. Hence, utilities deal with compensating the reactive power need in the system and also try to optimally minimize its consumption. However, in modern electric power systems, with the presence of non-sinusoidal voltage supply due to nonlinear load, this type of practice is misleading. Afier deregulation, under normal operating conditions, the reactive power Tequirements of generation, transmission and distribution systems must be handled independently by installing necessary power factor correction equipment at the required places. The wheeling charge structure has to undergo major changes, specially from the Feactive power point of view. At present, the transmission of reactive volt amperes is not included in the wheeling charge, primarily because reactive power exhibits a “local” phenomena. At present, due to utilization of nonlinear load by some customers, the voltages and currents in the electric power systems tend to be non-sinusoidal, hence the problems of understanding and dealing with reactive power will be less clear. With these regards, some types of indices are required to be developed to indicate the flow of reactive power in the power system along with its source of need for the reactive power flow. In addition, these indices need to show the participation of each of the reactive power suppliers to the individual elements in the power system. This can be any transmission line or any distribution company. Determination of the fundamental role of the characteristics of reactive power in both linear and nonlinear circuits with sinusoidal and non-sinusoidal voltage supply in electric power systems is required. Through this fundamental understanding of reactive Power a better reactive power management strategy requirement in generation, transmission and distribution systems will be developed. 626.1, Real and Reactive Power _ Just like most power system analysis, we start our analysis with sinusoidal voltages and currents with the same frequency. Since in power system circuits generally we deal with a series R-L circuit, consider a simple circuit as shown in Figure 6.1.1, where the expressions for voltage and currents are as follows: iw z R -———- tw -w + wo Figure 6.1.1 AC circuit for reactive power v(t) = Veos(a) 6.1.1 i(t) = Teos(ct — 8) 6.12 Where V and I are called amplitudes, and the voltage is chosen as a reference, and 0 is the phase angle of current. Traditionally for convenience in power system analysis the Phasor representations of v(t) and i(t) are used and then later on the true phenomena is forgotten. The instantaneous or time variant power, p(t) entering the circuit is obtained by multiplying the time variable voltage by the time variable current. P(t) = v(t) -i(t) 6.13 Figure 6.1.2 shows the curves for voltage, current and instantaneous power. 63@e 200 yo. (a) Voltage (6) Current 250, POD=VO*O, 200 150 100 | 30 0 t “50 (©) Instantaneous power Figure 6.1.2 Curves for voltage, current and instantaneous power Substituting Equation 6.1.1 and Equation 6.1.2 into Equation 6.1.3 and expanding we get P(t) = Vcos(«x)Teos(cxt - 8) awl = Vor Igy COSO + Ving Leze COS( 2004 — 8) Where the first part is the average time dependent power, Viql_ is the magnitude of power swing, and the second partis the oscillating part. Also, Equation 6.1.4 can be written in the following form P(t) = Veos(«at) Teos(ext 8) = Vion Lome COS 6[1 + C05(200t)]+ Vice Ieee Sin 8 sin(2c0t) 6.1.5 ee no v I : Where V,., == and Tig are effective or rms voltage and current, respectively, me 2 the values that would be read on a measuring device. The instantaneous power, p(t) is given in Equation 6.1.5 and depicted in Figure 6.1.2 (c) is the product of instantaneous voltage and current hence the product does not have the same frequency as voltage orcurrent but it has twice the frequency of the supplied voltage and has two parts. The first Part, P,(t) is shown in Figure 6.1.3 (a) and is the power associated with a resistor with a constant part plus an oscillating component of double supply frequency. This part is always positive and has a positive average value Of Vigy I, 60S, Which means that the resistor always receives power. The physical meaning of P, (t)is that the power actually is consumed and exhausted in the circuit. Therefore, in the power industry, the average of P, (t) is called real power or active power and is given by P= Vyggling COSB 6.1.6 ‘The second part, P, (t) is shown in Figure 6.1.3 (b)is associated with an inductor and does not have any constant part and has just a pure oscillating component of double supply frequency without any offset with zero average value. This part of power, flows toward the inductor during the first half cycle where P,(t)>0, and flows back to the source during the second half cycle where P, (t)<0. The inductor never consumes power actually. 200 150 100 50 @ pW ©) P0 Figure 6.1.3 Power associated with resistor and inductor The "give and take” of P(t) continuously takes place in every cycle. Therefore, the physical meaning of P,(t) is "the power exchanged between source and circuit but not exhausted in the circuit.” The maximum power during the exchange of P, (t), as shown in Figure 6.1.4, is called reactive power Q, i.e. 65PL(t) = Velie Sin sin(20x) = Qsin(2ar) 6.17 Thus, Figure 6.1.4 Definition of reactive power Q From the power transfer point of view, the reactive power Q is nothing but maximum value of the power exchanged between source and inductor. In metering the active power, P, usually the average value of real power is taken, Where we measure Q, the peak value of oscillating P, (t) is used. Figure 6.1.1 is a circuit of voltage source, resistor and inductor. If the inductor is replaced with a capacitor, the second term of instantaneous power is similar to P, (t) but with 180° angle shift as shown in Figure 6.1.5. This means the capacitor delivers power to the source during the first half cycle and receives power from the source during the second half cycle. 66R0 Figure 6.1.5 Instantaneous power associated with a capacitor In a power system, transmission lines are represented by resistors, inductors and capacitors; bus load is normally a combination of a resistive component and an inductive component. Therefore, the loads to the generators are the combination of the impedance of transmission lines and impedance of bus loads. Generators need to generate real power which is dissipated in the resistive part of line impedance and consumed by the resistive bus load. Generators also need to supply reactive power which is swapped between generators and the reactive/capacitive load. 6.2 Definition of Real Power and Reactive Power: an Alternative Approach In power systems, the sources of voltage and current are usually sinusoidal types. One of the properties of the sinusoidal function is that the sum of two sinusoidal functions is still sinusoidal. By Kirchhoff’'s Current Law (KCL), current i(t) in the circuit of Figure 6.2.1 is the sum of ig(t) and i,(t), or i(t)=ig(t)+i,(). If one expands i(t) = Ieos(ax-8), i(t) = Tcos@ cos(x) + Isin @cos(at - 90°) 62.1 = Tigne COO) + Tg-9 COS(t — 90°) where I,,_, =Icos® and I... =Isind. 67Figure 6.2.1 Ac circuit for reactive power illustration Both terms of the above equation are sinusoidal functions of the same frequency as that of i(t). The first term has no angle shift with respect to the voltage, v(t) = Vcos(ax). The second term is 90° out of phase with respect to the voltage. Since a resistor does not cause any phase angle shift on current and inductor causes current to be 90° lagging, the currents on the resistor and inductor are designated as ig(t) and i, (t) respectively, and expressed as ig()) =1,_, cos(at) 6.2.2 and 2 i Figure 6.2.2 (a) shows the waveforms of i(t) and its component currents i,(t) and ca» C05(@t~ 90°) 6.23 i, (t). The voltage waveform is shown in Figure 6.2.2 (b). 20 10 i \ } UY -200 (a) Current (b) Voltage Figure 6.2.2 Component currents of total current i(t) and the applied voltage — 68o In terms of phasor representation, Figure 6.2.3 illustrates the phase relationship between voltage and currents. V, I, I, and 1, in the figure are root-mean-square values of v(t), 10, ig (D and i, (0), respectively. Note that current I is lagging by © and I, is lagging by 90° with respect to voltage, and I, is in phase with the voltage. Figure 6.2.3 Phasor diagram of voltage and currents The instantaneous power related to a resistor is the product of v(t) and ig (t) ie. Pa(t (ig () Cos(Ox)T,,., cos(eat) 6.24 = Vener €088(1 + cos(2c0t)) Similarly, power related to an inductor is P(t) = Vipul ye Sin @sin(20") 625 The total instantaneous power is then PW) = PRO +PL(O = Vowel x COS6(1+ €OS(20)) + VingTma Sin 6 sin(2cat) _ The above results are the same as those discussed in Section 6.1. If the same definitions of real power and reactive power introduced in Section 6.1 apply, the real power P and reactive power Q become ecco Ve 6.2.7 and Q= Vorele Sin 8 = V,,,1 6.28 695 Therefore, the product of voltage and the in-phase current is the power actually dissipated in the resistor and the product of voltage and the out-of-phase current is the reactive Power exchanged between source and inductor. However, the product of the effective, or Toot-mean-square, values of voltage and the in-phase current is exactly the real power, and the product of the effective values of voltage and the out-of-phase current is reactive power. 6.3 Direction of Reactive Power and Voltage Reactive power Q is defined as the maximum value of the instantaneous power exchanged between source and inductive/capacitive elements, as discussed in the previous sections. In power flow analysis, one is dealing with real power and reactive power instead of instantaneous power. When talking about real power or reactive power, “power delivery”, “power supply” and “power consumption” are commonly used, which means that the direction of power flow is as important as the amount of power flow. ‘When active power, P is moving from source to the load we call the power flow or power delivery. For the simple circuit previously used, it is clear that power is delivered from the Source to the resistive element. The reactive power flow in a power system is not as Straight forward as active power, and one has to think about the phenomena of a storage tank introduced in Section 6.0 and also how reactive power does the swapping. As we know, in a power system it is difficult to find a storage on a large scale. On the other hand, we can realize that in an AC power system the kind of reactive swapping tank is inherent provided that there is a companion or a partner to oscillate together. Hence the Teactive power can not move freely without oscillator partner. As a matter of fact, in an AC power system, there is a huge natural storage of reactive power (much greater than active power) in magnetic fields and electrostatic fields. Actually, in a power system, as we adjust the voltage +5% or + 10% the reactive power storage tank will be adjusted by the square power of the voltage magnitude change. Even when the power factor is one, there will be reactive power swapping between the load and the transmission line. This ‘swapping must be balanced, and the deficiency must be compensated for by the generator 6-103 or capacitor bank or reactors or etc. Otherwise the system voltage will be affected and voltage abnormality will accrue. If the voltage control could not be met by compensating the deficiency on swapping tanks, then voltage collapse may occur. This shows a great Opportunity for an energy management system for reactive power control in power systems. The direction of reactive power flow is also dependent on the reactive element itself. At some instant, Q is delivered from source to inductor as shown in Figure 6.3.1 (@), and from capacitor to source as shown in Figure 6.3.(b). If the circuit has both inductor and capacitor and the reactive power required for the inductor equals to that the capacitor can supply, then the source does not deliver Q to the circuit, the direction of Q at some moment is shown in Figure 6.3.(c). In other words, the reactive power demand of the inductor is compensated for by the reactive power supply of the capacitor. Poe em Pi ay ee @ ) © Figure 6.3.1 Direction of reactive power flow It should be note that the convention for the direction of reactive power flow and sign convention is completely arbitrary. For instance, as shown in Figure 6.3.2, if we assume that V=1020° and 02 -90° then .0290° = 0.0+ j1.0 Here we define reactive power +1.0 because S is usually defined as S=P+jQ 63.1 61 —So +Qis defined the lagging power. eS E> rsizso et fH] + OIF ae Load Source - Figure 6.3.2 Capacitor sign convention However if we define leading power as follows: V=1020° e and 1=10290° then $= VI" =102-90° =00- j10 Based on Equation 6.3.1 the reactive power will be -1.0 and will be defined to be negative. vate vel valor | | Hoes | Load Source Figure 6.3.3 Inductor sign convention | 612Hence our sign convention is completely arbitrary, but since in most literature the sign convention is defined as illustrated in the above, we will try to keep this convention, In power systems, reactive power flow between two adjacent buses is much related to bus voltages. Figure 6.3.4 is the m model of a transmission line and its simplified model. The simplification is based on the fact that X, >>. and the reactive power flow on the line series impedance is the only concern, The reactive power flow is approximately obtained by oulviltwl-tveb a Observing the above equation, one can say that Q flows from bus #1 to bus #2 if the voltage magnitude of bus #1 is higher than that of bus #2. If |V,| >|V|| then Q is negative, i.e. reactive power flow is from bus #2 to bus #1. As a conclusion, the direction of reactive power flow is from a high voltage bus to a low voltage bus. vi26, V2 26, re 1 i ied : } Figure 6.3. 4 Line model 64 Energy Exchange Reactive Power Energy involved in the operation of a power system can be categorized into two types: one is related to real power, which is to meet the system MW demands or disappears in the form of heat; another is related to reactive power, which is stored in the forms of electric field and magnetic field alternatively. In the previous discussion, the average of instantaneous reactive power was zero which implied that the energy associated with reactive power was never consumed. This 613- kind of energy flows forward and backward among generators, transmission lines and loads. These system apparatuses behave like inductors and/or capacitors in terms of reactive power. Actually, the current associated with reactive power must flow through resistances of transmission lines or transformers, and, more or less, causes heat losses. However, in this section we will focus on the reactive power and the energy directly related to capacitive and inductive characteristics of these apparatuses. Alll resistances will be ignored throughout this section. The reactive power demand of a power system could include inductive and capacitive loads. The net demand could be inductive (lagging power factor), capacitive (leading power factor) or zero ( unity power factor). Thus the load side can be considered as an inductor, a capacitor or none, accordingly. The m model of a transmission line includes both capacitive (shunt) reactance and inductive (series) reactance. For a transformer, there is only inductive reactance. Therefore the system network and loads make up a circuit of many inductors and shunt capacitors. When energized, energy is stored in an inductor in the form of magnetic field and in a capacitor in the form of electric field. In other words, we can consider both the inductors and capacitors as energy tanks only with different storage mechanisms. The energy stored in the inductor or capacitor is time variant if an AC source is applied. A 60 Hz sinusoidal voltage source will result in a 120 Hz sinusoidal reactive power and the wave of the associated energy is also 120 Hz sinusoidal since the energy is the integration of power over time. Due to the leading current for capacitors and lagging current for the inductors with respect to voltage, the energy waves related to capacitors and inductors are 180° out of phase. This phenomenon gives us a picture that the energy is exchanging between any two neighboring capacitor and inductor; when energy is released from a capacitor, this energy goes to a neighboring inductor, and vise versa. However, the capacities of energy storage of each pair of capacitor and inductor are ifferent in most of the cases. There must be some place for the surplus, or deficient, energy in order to keep the balance. Generators are installed to dynamically serve this function in addition to their major purpose, producing real power. From this point of view, a generator can be capacitive energy tank or inductive energy tank depending on the system conditions. The energy stored in inductors is proportional to the square of the currents that flow through the inductors; while that stored in capacitors is proportional to the square of the voltages across the capacitors. Since bus voltages normally are close to 1 pu, the 614energy that capacitors can store is relatively constant. However the currents flow within a network are somehow proportional to system loads, resulting in a huge difference of the amount of energy that an inductor can store between peak load and off-peak load. During a daily load profile, various situations might happen. Figures 6.4.1 through 6 illustrate the energy exchange, or swap, for several situations for a simple system composed of a generator, a transmission line and a load. In the figures, sine waves indicate the sending or receiving of energy for the generator. Positive means that the generator is sending energy and negative means that the generator is receiving energy. Note that the frequency of energy swap cycle is 120 Hz, twice the system frequency. Figure 6.4.1 is for a heavy and inductive load. ‘The energy tank for x, is greater than that for X,., or in terms of reactive power, Qx, >Qx_. Hence the generator serves as a capacitive energy tank, or a reactive power source. Throughout the exchange cycle, the ‘energy swaps between generator and transmission line, and between generator and load Figure 6.4.2 is for a light and inductive load. x, is greater than x, in this case, but not large enough to swap the energy with inductive load. Therefore, the generator in this case still serves as a capacitive energy tank. Figure 6.4.3 illustrates a very light inductive load. ‘The energy tank for x, is very small due to the extremely light load. The generator becomes an inductive energy tank and is operating in leading condition. This situation might happen during an off-peak load period. ‘Occasionally, at some moderate system load conditions, the capacities of tanks for X, and x, are almost the same and the energy can swap between the capacitor and inductor of the line. The generator provides part of its capacity for the energy swap with inductive load eventually. Figure 6.4.4 illustrates this situation. Some utilities encourage large customers to install a shunt compensator to improve their power factor. Figure 6.4.5 is for this case, unity power factor at the load side and unity power factor in the transmission network, ie., Qx,=Qx.. Energy swaps only within the transmission system; the generator does not need to provide its capacity for energy swap, thus can be operating at its maximum output, The dotted line of the sine wave in Figure 6.4.5 indicates that the generator is neither sending energy nor receiving energy. ‘The other situation is capacitive load and Qy, =Qx_, as shown in Figure 6.4.6. This might happen when a system is over compensated. The generator serves as an inductive energy tank and is operating in the leading condition. 61sL-] Figure 6.4.1 Energy exchange among generator, line and load ~ inductive load and Qy. < Quy, 6-16oO Figure 6.4.2 Energy exchange among generator, line and load ~ inductive load and Qx. > Qy, 617‘TranimisionEe\ i ' i Lod Figure 6.4.5 Energy exchange among generator, line and load ~ unity power factor and Qx. = Qy, 620ee