CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT
The power factor of an ac electric power system is defined as the ratio of the real power to the
apparent power, and is a number between 0 and 1. Real power is the capacity of the electric load
for performing work in a particular time. Apparent power is the product of the current and
voltage of the electric load. Due to energy stored in the load and returned to the source, or due to
a non-linear load that distorts the wave shape of the current drawn from the source, the apparent
power can be greater than the real power. Low-power-factor loads increase losses in a power
distribution system and result in increased energy costs. In a purely resistive ac circuit, voltage
and current waveforms are in phase; changing polarity at the same instant in each cycle Circuits
containing purely resistive heating elements such as filament lamps and cooking stoves have a
power factor of 1.0. Circuits containing inductive or capacitive elements such as lamp ballasts
and motors often have a power factor below 1.0.

Over the last few years, the interest in reactive power compensation has been growing, mainly
because of the way in which energy supplier charge a customer for reactive power. Moreover,
the energy price is growing, what force the industry plants and individual customers to minimize
energy consumption, including reactive power. The aim is to minimize reactive power flow in
supplying and distribution systems, eliminate or minimize the charge for reactive power as well
as aspire to active energy limitation, in result, reducing fare for electrical energy .

In the matter of fact, the energy providers want them customers to compensate reactive power.
There are few solutions, that allow handle the problem of reactive power compensation. One of
them is reactive power compensator basing on power capacitors. This is the most popular
compensating device, mainly because of economical reasons, they are relatively cheap
comparing with i.e. active filters or compensation by means of electric motors. That is one of the
reasons, for which proposed the thesis topic “Design of automatic power factor corrector”.
1.1.1 Power theory
Active power
“Power is a measure of energy per unit time . Power therefore gives the rate of energy
consumption or production. The units for power are generally watts (W). For example, the watt
rating of an appliance gives the rate at which it uses energy. The total amount of energy
consumed by this appliance is the wattage multiplied by the amount of time during which it was
used; this energy can be expressed in units of watt-hours (or, more commonly, kilowatt-
hours).The power dissipated by a circuit element whether an appliance or simply a wire is given
by the product of its resistance and the square of the current through it: P=I 2R. The term
“dissipated” indicates that the electric energy is being converted to heat. This heat may be part of
the appliance’s intended function (as in any electric heating device), or it may be considered a
loss (as in the resistive heating of transmission lines); the physical process is the same. Another,
more general way of calculating power is as the product of current and voltage: P=IV. For a
resistive element, we can apply Ohm’s law (P=I.V) to see that the formulas P= I 2R and P=I.V
amount to the same thing:”

Complex power
“Applying the simple formula P=I.V becomes more problematic when voltage and current are
changing over time, as they do in AC. systems. In the most concise but abstract notation, power,
current, and voltage are all complex quantities, and the equation for power becomes:

S=I*V

Where S is the apparent power and the asterisk denotes the complex conjugate of the current I,
meaning that for purposes of calculation, the sign (positive or negative) of its imaginary
component is to be reversed. All this ought to make very little sense without a more detailed
discussion of complex quantities and their representation by phasors. In the interest of
developing a conceptual understanding of AC. power, let us postpone the elegant mathematics
and begin by considering power, voltage, and current straightforwardly as real quantities that
vary in time.

In the fundamental and correct way to interpret the statement P=I*V when I and V vary in time is
as a statement of instantaneous conditions. Regardless of all the complexities to be encountered,
it is always true that the instantaneous power is equal to the instantaneous product of current and
voltage. In other words, at any instant, the power equals the voltage times the current at that
instant. This is expressed by writing each variable as a function of time,

P (t) = I (t)* V (t)

Where t is the same throughout the equation (i.e., the same instant). “However, instantaneous
power as such is usually not very interesting to us. In power systems, we generally need to know
about power transmitted or consumed on a time scale much greater than 1/60 of a second.
Therefore, we need an expression for power as averaged over entire cycles of alternating current
and voltage. Consider first the case of a purely resistive load. Voltage and current are in phase;
they are oscillating simultaneously. The average power (the average product of voltage and
current) can be obtained by taking the averages (rms values) of each and then multiplying them
together. Thus,

Pave = Irms *Vrms (in resistive case)

But now consider a load with reactance. The relative timing of voltage and current has been
shifted; their maxima no longer coincide. In fact, one quantity is sometimes negative when the
other is positive. As a result, the instantaneous power transmitted or consumed (the product of
voltage and current) is sometimes negative. We can interpret the negative instantaneous power as
saying that power flows “backwards” along the transmission line, or out of the load and back
into the generator.

Reactive power
“Finally, we also specify what we might intuitively think of as the difference between apparent
and real power, namely, reactive power. Reactive power is the component of power that
oscillates back and forth through the lines, being exchanged between electric and magnetic fields
and not getting dissipated. It is denoted by the symbol Q, and its magnitude is given by”

Q = Irms *Vrms* sinφ

Again, note how the equation converges for the resistive case where φ =0 and sin sinφ=0, as
there will be no reactive power at all. Reactive power is measured in VAR (also written Var or
VAr), for volt-ampere reactive. We can represent power as a vector in the complex plane:
namely, and arrow of length S (apparent power) that makes an angle f with the real axis. The
angle φ is the same as the phase difference between voltage and current.”

1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

All current will cause losses in the supply and distribution system. A load with a power factor of
1.0 result in the most efficient loading of the supply and a load with a power factor of 0.5 will
result in much higher losses in the supply system. A poor power factor can be the result of either
a significant phase difference between the voltage and current at the load terminals, or it can be
due to a high harmonic content or distorted/discontinuous current waveform. Poor load current
phase angle is generally the result of an inductive load such as an induction motor, power
transformer, lighting ballasts, welder or induction furnace. A distorted current waveform can be
the result of a rectifier, variable speed drive, switched mode power supply, discharge lighting or
other electronic load. A poor power factor due to an inductive load can be improved by the
addition of power factor correction, but, a poor power factor due to a distorted current waveform
requires a change in equipment design or expensive harmonic filters to gain an appreciable
improvement. Many inverters are quoted as having a power factor of better than 0.95 when in
reality, the true power factor is between 0.5 and 0.75. The figure of 0.95 is based on the Cosine
of the angle between the voltage and current but does not take into account that the current
waveform is discontinuous and therefore contributes to increased losses on the supply. Electrical
power generators are design to produce quality, reliable and stable power to consumers. It came
to light that most of the loads in commercial use are inductive loads that produce inductive
reactance and if not immediately checked, contributes to low power factor thereby increasing the
amount of electrical energy that flows through the electrical network from the generating station,
example of industrial and commercial loads are (inductive motors, furnaces, arc welding
machines, etc.) and (air conditions, washing machines, deep freezers, refrigerators heaters, etc.)
respectively. Attempts are made over the years to improve the low factor close to unity using
capacitors banks to generate capacitive reactance to compensate for the inductive reactance.
Switching on and off of the capacitor banks for the compensation also produces harmonics in the
system .Therefore the need for improving the power factor using microcontroller to do the
switching of the capacitor banks on/off the system and also eliminate harmonic effect in the
system.
1.3 OBJECTIVE

1.3.1 General objective

The main objective of the proposed system is, in order to compensate the reactive power by
switching on and off the capacitor bank through electromagnetic relay using Micro-controller
and to provide an automatically controlled power factor correction unit that will bring the power
factor near to 0.95 and have sufficient capacity for future PFC requirements or expansion .

1.3.1 Specific objective

 In order to size the desired capacitor bank.

 In order to select power factor transducer.

 To program the microcontroller that will switch the capacitor bank base from the data of
the power factor transducer.

 In order to select appropriate relay and relay driver.

 CHAPTER-TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

Though correction of power factor is very old practice, we have considered the work done in
recent years in our Thesis. Many of the authors below have suggested and prescribe many ways
of power factor correction but this work concentrates on We have considered the work done in
the previous years, starting from 1988.Proposed a continuing effort to develop an effective,
reliable, and inexpensive adaptive power factor controller (APFC). The APFC was able to
compensate adaptively the reactive power of rapidly varying loads without adding harmonics or
transients to the power system. Based on thousands of hours of field operation, the APFC had
substantially modified to improve its reliability and effectiveness.

Proposed the speed and power factor of an adjustable speed slip power recovery drive were
controlled in order to optimize the operation. This was accomplished by means of a variable-
voltage-variable-frequencies power converter. The function of the digital controller of the power
converter was to provide the online speed and power factor regulation.reports a laboratory model
of a microcomputer-based power factor controller (PFC) for compensating the reactive power of
rapidly varying loads by switching capacitors sized in a binary ratio, with the help of zero
voltage static switches. Four types of control strategies were tried, viz.

2.1 POWER FACTOR

Power factor is an energy concept that is related to power flow in electrical systems. To
understand power factor, it is helpful to understand three different types of power in electrical
systems. Real Power is the power that is actually converted into useful work for creating heat,
light and motion. Real power is measured in kilowatts (KW) and is totalized by the electric
billing meter in kilowatt-hours (KWh). An example of real power is the useful work that directly
turns the shaft of a motor. Reactive Power is the power used to sustain the electromagnetic field
in inductive and capacitive equipment. It is the non- working power component. Reactive power
is measured in kilovolt-amperes reactive (KVAR). Reactive power does not appear on the
customer billing statement. Total Power or Apparent power is the combination of real power and
reactive power. Total power is measured in kilovolt-amperes (KVA) and is totalized by the
electric billing meter in kilovolt-ampere-hours (kVAH). Power factor (PF) is defined as the ratio
of real power to total power, and is expressed as a percentage (%).

Power factor = Real Power (kWh) Total Power (kVAH) x 100

Or Power factor cos ϕ is defined as the ratio between the Active component IR and the total
value of the current I; ϕ is the phase angle between the voltage and the current.

Figure-2.1: Phaser diagram

2.2 POWER FACTOR CORRECTION

Power factor correction is the process of compensating for the lagging current by creating a
leading current by connecting capacitors to the supply. A sufficient capacitance can be connected
so that the power factor is adjusted to be as close to unity as possible.

Power factor correction (PFC) is a system of counteracting the undesirable effects of electric
loads that create a power factor that is less than one. Power factor correction may be applied
either by an electrical power transmission utility to improve the stability and efficiency of the
transmission network or, correction may be installed by individual electrical customers to reduce
the costs charged to them by their electricity service provider.

An electrical load that operates on alternating current requires apparent power, which consists of
real power and reactive power. Real power is the power actually consumed by the load. Reactive
power is repeatedly demanded by the load and returned to the power source, and it is the cyclical
effect that occurs when alternating current passes through a load that contains a reactive
component. The presence of reactive power causes the real power to be less than the apparent
power, so the electric load has a power factor of less than one. The reactive power increases the
current flowing between the power source and the load, which increases the power losses
through transmission and distribution lines. This results in operational and financial losses for
power companies. Therefore, power companies require their customers, especially those with
large loads, to maintain their power factors above a specified amount especially around ally 0.90
or higher, or be subject to additional charges. Electrical engineers involved with the generation,
transmission, distribution and consumption of electrical power have an interest in the power
factor of loads because power factors affect efficiencies and costs for both the electrical power
industry and the consumers. In addition to the increased operating costs, reactive power can
require the use of wiring, switches, circuit breakers, transformers and transmission lines with
higher current capacities.

Power factor correction attempts to adjust the power factor of an AC load or an AC power
transmission system to unity through various methods. Simple methods include switching in or
out banks of capacitors or inductors which act to cancel the inductive or capacitive effects of the
load, respectively. For example, the inductive effect of motor loads may be offset by locally
connected capacitors. It is also possible to effect power factor correction with an unloaded
synchronous motor connect across the supply. The power factor of the motor is varied by
adjusting the field excitation and be made to behave like a capacitor when over excited. Non-
linear loads create harmonic currents in addition to the original AC current. There are two types
of PFCs, Passive and Active.
CHAPTER-THREE
METHODOLOGY