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electrical-engineering-portal.com/capacitor-bank-power-factor
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Calculate reactive power of the capacitor bank and improve power factor (on photo: Automatic Capacitor Banks with on-load break switch; credit: RTR Energia)
To carry out distributed or group power factor correction, it is necessary to calculate the cos of the
single load or of the group of loads (factory areas).
If the readings of the active and reactive energy absorbed by the load or by the whole of the loads constituting the
factory areas during a work cycle are available, the average power factor can be calculated as follows:
where:
EPi and EQi are the values of active and reactive energy read
at the beginning of the work cycle
EPf and EQf are the values of active and reactive energy read
at the end of the work cycle
Indicating by:
Once the initial cos is known, Table 1 allows to calculate (in kvar
per kW installed) the power of the capacitor bank necessary
to obtain a dened power factor.
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In the low voltage eld, where insulation problems are less important, the delta connection is usually preferred for the
capacitor bank, since it allows a smaller sizing of the capacitances of each phase.
Example calculation
In a plant with active power equal to 300 kW at 400 V and cos= 0.75, we want to increase the power factor up to
0.90. In the table 1 above, at the intersection between the row initial cos 0.75 with the column nal cos 0.9, a
value of 0.398 for the coecient K is obtained.
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Figure 1 Nomograph for the calculation of the correction power
As shown in the gure, tracing a line segment from the value of the initial cos to the value to be obtained, the
intersection of the line with the middle graduated scale, gives the value of K which, multiplied by the active power P
of the load, denes the necessary reactive power Qc.
Reference // Power factor correction and harmonic ltering in electrical plants by ABB
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