FUNDAMENTALS OF POWER SYSTEMS 5

The currents IL and IC are equal in magnitude and, therefore, the power requirement is
same. The line power will, therefore, be zero. Physically this means that the energy travels
back and forth between the capacitor and the inductor. In C
I R
one half cycle at a particular moment the capacitor is fully
charged and the coil has no energy stored. Half a voltage
cycle later the coil stores maximum energy and the Vm sin wt
capacitor is fully discharged.
The following example illustrates the relationship Fig. 1.5 Relationship between electric
field energy and reactive power.
between the reactive power and the electric field energy
stored by the capacitor. Consider an RC circuit (Fig. 1.5).
From Fig. 1.5
V V C
I= = (1.5)
2 2
R + (1/C) R 2C 2 + 1
2

and if voltage is taken as reference i.e., v = Vm sin t, the current

i = Im sin (t + )
Vm C
i= . sin (t + ) (1.6)
R 2C 2 + 1
2

I /C 1
where sin = = (1.7)
2 2 2
I R + ( I /C) R C2 + 1
2 2

Now reactive power Q = VI sin (1.8)

Substituting for I and sin , we have
VC 1 V 2 C
Q=V. . = (1.9)
R 2 2C 2 + 1 R2 2C 2 + 1 R2 2C 2 + 1

V 2 C
Reactive power =
R 2 2 C 2 + 1
Now this can be related with the electric energy stored by the capacitor. The energy
stored by the capacitor
1
W= 2
Cv2 (1.10)

Now v=
1
C
z
i dt =
1
C
VmC
2 2 2
R C +1
cos (t + ) Vm cos (t + )

= .
R2 2C 2 + 1
(1.11)

1C Vm2 cos2 (t + ) V 2 cos2 (t + )

W= 2
. = (1.12)
R2 2C 2 + 1 R2 2C 2 + 1
dW V2
= 2 2 2 . 2 cos (t + ) . sin (t + ) . C
dt R C +1
V 2 C
= . sin 2(t + )
R 2C 2 + 1
2

= Q sin 2(t + ) (1.13)