04-05-2012, 02:05 PM
Power Factor Improvement Based on a study done for an industrial plant
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-Introduction:
Industrial plants usually pay large fines because of any large inductive loads in their factories. Inductive loads result from the storage of energy in magnetic fields, which occurs in coils of wire, such as in motor windings and transformers. To decrease high electricity bills resulting from these large inductive loads, capacitors may be installed at the facility to increase the power factor.
Power factor is the ratio of active (real) power to apparent (total) power.
VI-Theory:
A simple idea for the power factor improvement is the use of a capacitor in parallel to the factory to decrease the reactive power losses.
It is known that in the capacitor the current leads the voltage by a 90° angle. Given that the active and reactive powers are given as:
(4,5)
Therefore, for the capacitor P = 0, while Q = -S (because it is the current that leads the voltage).
Procedures (work plan):
PHASE A
1-Measurements:
refer to the section of the used devices
2-Data analysis:
The data retrieved from the measuring device calculates the above mentioned quantities. By analyzing these data, some important facts are highlighted, such as:
• The power factor calculated by the distribution company was less than the actual power factor. This means that the distribution company measuring devices are not working efficiently and they need to be replaced.
• Some parts of the plan have high P.F. because they are pure resistive loads.
• Some motors and transformers are partially loaded.