POWER FACTOR

IMPROVING POWER FACTOR
The solution is to add power factor correction capacitors to the plant power distribution system. They act as reactive power generators, and provide the needed reactive power to accomplish KW of work. This then reduces the amount of reactive power, and thus total power, generated by the utility. Let's look at an actual case of power factor improvement to an industrial plant, and the savings that resulted. (See Figure 2)

Because the utility applied a penalty formula when the power factor fell below 85%, this user had a penalty of $650.00 added to the bill. To accomplish 812KW of work the 1500KVA transformer was almost 78% loaded. (1160/1500 = 77.3%)

The solution in this case was to add capacitors to the system by installing them at each of thirteen large motors. The total KVAR added was 410. This improved the power factor to 89%, and reduced the required KVA to 913, which is the vector sum of KW and KVAR. (See Figure 3)

The user, doing the same amount of work, but now with capacitors installed, has eliminated the $650.00 monthly penalty. This would be an annual savings of $7,800.00. The capacitors and the labor to install them cost $7,351.00, a payback of less than 12 months.

The utility has to generate 247 less KVA (1160 - 913 = 247), and the user has the 1500 KVA transformer now loaded only to 60% capacity. This will allow the addition of more load in the future to be supplied by the transformer.

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