UNIVERSITY OF GUYANA

Faculty of Engineering and Technology

Department of Electrical Engineering

Name: Camroul Hookumchand (1024903)

ELE 3115 – Power System I
Assignment #2 – Power factor correction
lecturer: Miss Klass
 Introduction

The general motive of this assignment was to perform proper power factor correction on a 3-phase
system and complete a simple cost analysis on the recommended compensators. The electrical
system presented is rated at 150 kVA, 415V, 3 phase and it is a 4-wire set-up. Line voltage, current
and power factor readings were all taken in different time intervals throughout the day. A table of
available capacitors was also provided with their respective cost. From the records taken and table
provided the required capacitance in reactive power was established along with the pay back period
in months.
Part A:

The apparent power (S), reactive power (Q) and real power (P) were calculated using the line
voltage, current and power factor provided. The calculation process is simplified below:

𝑆 =3. 𝐼. …. eq1a
√

√
𝑆 =3. 𝐼. .  𝑆 = √3. 𝐼. 𝑉 ….. eq1b
√ √

𝑃 = 𝑝𝑓. 𝑆 …… eq2

𝑄 = √𝑆 − 𝑃 𝑜𝑟 𝑆 = 𝑄 + 𝑃 …..eq3

Apparent Power (S) Reactive Power (Q)

TIME (hrs) Voltage (VL) Current (Amps) Power Factor (pf) Real Power (P) KW
KVA KVAR
7:00 420 60 0.8 43.648 34.918 26.189
9:00 415 120 0.75 86.256 64.692 57.053
10:00 410 150 0.7 106.521 74.565 76.071
12:00 415 100 0.8 71.880 57.504 43.128
14:00 410 160 0.7 113.623 79.536 81.143
16:00 415 85 0.75 61.098 45.824 40.413
18:00 418 65 0.8 47.060 37.648 28.236
20:00 420 70 0.8 50.922 40.738 30.553
The table above is showing the analysis performed on the 3- phase system

The results from the table indicates a few key points. The power factor throughout the day never
reaches 0.9 indicating that there is great difference between apparent power and real power most
of the time. So, the system is demanding a lot of apparent power from the electrical grid when
compared to what is actually used. Additionally, overall power demand is high during the 10am
period and then it is high again at 2pm (maximum). While the lowest power demand appears to be
in the early morning period and during the night time period. The change in power demand during
the day is highly expected since we are considering a manufacturing company. The maximum
power demand intervals correspond to the time of the day when production would be at peak. As
real power requirement goes up so does the apparent power and reactive power. To improve power
factor and make this setup more efficient the reactive power can be reduced with the use of
capacitor banks.
Part B:

The change in reactive power over the day is shown in the graph below. It can be seen that there
are high peaks two times during the day as expected since the system demands more real power
during these times of the day. Also, the reactive power always seems to be higher than 25kVar
during the entire day. These deductions will be useful in determining the type of capacitors to
apply.

A graph showing the Reactive power drawn by the loads over time recorded

Part C:

In order to improve the electrical efficiency of this manufacturing company, power factor
correction capacitors can be applied. The following capacitors were presented:

Previously it was established that the Q is always above 25kVars, now a capacitor of this rating
can be used but preferably, we want power factor to be around 0.95 to 0.99. So a desired power
factor of 0.98 was established; new apparent power, reactive power and required kVars was
determined by keeping the real power demand constant. A fixed capacitor of 20kVars was chosen
since 19.1 kVars was needed to maintain the desired power factor of 0.98 at minimum demand
and for higher demand time three time-switch capacitors of ratings 20, 20 &10 kVars were
selected. The procedure is simplified in the table form below:

Required capacitive
Desired pf New S (KVA) New Q (KVAR)
Q
0.98 35.63075947 7.090431609 19.0981766
0.98 66.01234455 13.1362907 43.9167767
0.98 76.08651762 15.14102583 60.93027296
0.98 58.6776396 11.67670285 31.45136226
0.98 81.15895213 16.15042755 64.99229116
0.98 46.75874406 9.304872583 31.10771683
0.98 38.41617995 7.644723287 20.59116898
0.98 41.56921938 8.272170211 22.28120603
The table above is used to estimate the capacitors rating based on some desired power factor

Time switch Time switch Sum of time switch Sum of fixed

Fixed Capacitance Time Switch Capacitor 1 Time Switch Capacitor 2 Total cost
capacitor 3 capacitor 4 capacitors capacitors
20 10 20 20 0 50 20

RATE ($US/ KVAR) 35 30

Cost (USD) $1,750.00 $600.00 $2,350.00

The table above shows the capacitors used for power factor correction and the costing is highlighted

The Switched capacitors (current with supervisory control) was not chosen due to its high rate per
kVars. The overall compensation system cost a total of $2,350.00 USD. The graph below compares
the capacitance kVars that was added with the original reactive power.
Part D:
After power factor correction was performed on the system the new apparent power, reactive
power and power factors were calculated. The results are shown in the table below, capacitance
applied was subtracted from old reactive power giving the new reactive power. Then apparent
power was determined using eq 3 given earlier. We know that power factor is the ratio of real
power (P) to apparent power (S). It can be seen from this results that apparent power is closer to
real power meaning the demand from the grid becomes closed to the actual power that is used.

Capacitance applied
Time (hrs) Voltage (Vl) Current (Amps) Power Facor S (KVA) P (KW) NEW Q (KVARS)
(KVAR)
7:00 420 20 48.74803854 0.984655002 35.4623134 34.91814428 6.18860821

9:00 415 40 93.07439706 0.966968391 66.90197761 64.69209766 17.0530674

10:00 410 60 107.4112128 0.977551573 76.27708794 74.56478727 16.07129879

12:00 415 30 82.05831892 0.974916389 58.98360868 57.50408681 13.12806511

14:00 410 70 113.0937797 0.99032856 80.31251073 79.53577308 11.14271871

16:00 415 30 65.37513429 0.9751414 46.99171747 45.82356918 10.41258941

18:00 418 20 53.22972796 0.976897722 38.538176 37.64785635 8.235892265

20:00 420 20 57.84856802 0.968044706 42.08259676 40.73783499 10.55337625

The table above shows the new reactive power, new apparent power, new power factor and current after
pf correction

It should be noted that the power factor could have been improved to be closer to 1.0 but cost,
payback period and changes in future loading were also taken into consideration.
Part E:
The calculation of the company’s new and old electrical bill is shown below. There is no
difference in the monthly energy consumed since improving the power factor mainly changes the
apparent and reactive power drawn from the grid. However, the company still saves since
businesses like these have to pay a demand charge each month. The demand charge is the
maximum apparent power times some rate from the utility company. Thus improving your power
factor reduces the overall demand charge.

_ Before compensation After compensation

Apparent power (KVA) 113.62 80.31
Real power (KW) 79.54 79.54
load factor 0.6 0.6
hours per day (hrs) 24 24
Demand charge ($/KVA) $1,850.00 $1,850.00
Energy charge ($/KWh) $60.00 $60.00
Daily energy charge ($-
$68,718.91 $68,718.91
GYD)
Demand ( $- GYD ) $210,201.69 $148,578.14
Monthly energy charge
$2,061,567.24 $2,061,567.24
($-GYD)
Monthly bill ($-GYD)
{Demand + Monthly $2,271,768.92 $2,210,145.38
energy charge}

The table above displays the electrical demands and the electrical bill cost

Part F:
Finally, the payback period was estimated using the cost of the capacitors calculated earlier. This
was found to be approximately 8 months. It should be noted that using more smaller time switch
capacitor to maintain a constant power factor through out the day can be done but it is not
necessary. Doing this would also make the payback period longer but the savings per month would
be tremendously great which in the long term would be better saving.

Monthly Save Cost of capacitors Payback time

(GYD) (GYD) (Months)
$61,623.54 $492,160.50 7.99
Recommendations:
The following are some recommendations that this manufacturing company can apply from
various financial standpoint:

 If the company wants a shorter payback period, then a 25 kVar fixed capacitance can be
used instead 20kVars and 5kVars can be removed from the time switch capacitors so the
initial cost would be reduced. This would however affect the power factor slightly bringing
it very close to 1.0 in the morning and night time period.

 If the company have larger financial budget for this problem then they can employ some
supervisory control capacitors so that better power factor correction can be done but in this
case the payback period would be much longer. Additionally, smaller time switch
capacitors of various rating can switch in for further correction but again the payback
period would be longer as initial cost goes up.

 Lastly if the cost of purchasing the capacitors is too large then some time switch capacitors
can be removed but this will affect the amount that is being save back each month thus
affecting the payback period.

Conclusion:

This assignment can be concluded on the bases that the power factor was successfully improved
using the necessary capacitor presented. The electrical bill was draft and it proved that actual
saving was done for power demand. Lastly it takes about 8 months to repay for the cost of the
capacitor which can be altered slightly to about 7 months or 9 months.
References
Brown , G., 6.6.17. Renewable Energy World. [Online]
Available at: https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/2017/06/06/making-sense-of-demand-charges-
what-are-they-and-how-do-they-work/
[Accessed 1 3 2020].

Shadzi, J., 29 Mar, 2017. Cosmic Solar. [Online]

Available at: https://www.cosmicsolar.com/what-are-demand-charges
[Accessed 1st March 2020].

STAHLEY, B., JULY 12, 2019. SUNPOWER. [Online]

Available at: https://businessfeed.sunpower.com/articles/commercial-electricity-demand-charges
[Accessed 1st March 2020].