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Methods of Reactive Power Compensation - PPT

1. The document discusses methods for reactive power compensation, which is important for improving the power factor of AC systems. 2. There are three main methods: using capacitor banks, synchronous condensers, and static VAR compensators. 3. Capacitor banks improve power factor by using capacitors that provide leading reactive power to counteract the lagging power from inductive loads. Synchronous condensers can absorb or generate reactive power through excitation control. Static VAR compensators maintain voltage stability using thyristor-controlled reactors and capacitors.

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Vaibhav mule
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529 views

Methods of Reactive Power Compensation - PPT

1. The document discusses methods for reactive power compensation, which is important for improving the power factor of AC systems. 2. There are three main methods: using capacitor banks, synchronous condensers, and static VAR compensators. 3. Capacitor banks improve power factor by using capacitors that provide leading reactive power to counteract the lagging power from inductive loads. Synchronous condensers can absorb or generate reactive power through excitation control. Static VAR compensators maintain voltage stability using thyristor-controlled reactors and capacitors.

Uploaded by

Vaibhav mule
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Methods of Reactive Power Compensation:

Definition: The compensation of reactive power of the circuit is quite important as it is


associated with the value of the power factor. The reactive power compensation
corresponds to the controlling of reactive power to increase the performance
characteristics of the AC system. There are some methods by which the power factor of
the system can be improved and hence these are regarded as methods of reactive power
compensation.

On a practical basis, it is said that the value of the load power factor should be
nearly unity as this value is economically viable.
As here we are dealing with reactive power compensation methods thus, let us first
understand in brief, what is reactive power?
Reactive power is defined as the amount of power that remains unused and
gets generated within an AC circuit or system by the reactive components. This is
sometimes called imaginary power. A reactive circuit supplies the amount of power
back to the supply which it has consumed thus, the average consumed power of the
circuit will be zero.
The reactive power is regarded as a fundamental part of the total power of the circuit.
Need for reactive power compensation:
We have recently discussed that there is a back and forth movement of
reactive power from supply to the reactor in a way that in the first quarter cycle of the
AC signal, a capacitor stores the power while in the second quarter cycle, the stored
power gets back to the AC source. This to and fro movement of the reactive power
between the source and load must be controlled.

Also, the loads in industrial equipment like induction motors, induction furnaces, arc,
etc. are the ones that operate at poor power factor while fluorescent tubes, fans, etc. that
operate at low power factor requires quite a large amount of reactive power hence the
level of voltage at the load terminals get reduced.
Reactive power is defined as the amount of power that remains unused and gets
generated within an AC circuit or system by the reactive components. This is sometimes
called imaginary power. A reactive circuit supplies the amount of power back to the
supply which it has consumed thus, the average consumed power of the circuit will be
zero. The reason for this is that the same amount of energy flows from source to load back
and forth.
The reactive power is regarded as a fundamental part of the total power of the
circuit. It is expressed in a unit called volt-ampere reactive (VAr) with the symbol ‘Q’
and is the product of volt and ampere that are out of phase with respect to each other.
Need for reactive power compensation:
We have recently discussed that there is a back and forth movement of
reactive power from supply to the reactor in a way that in the first quarter cycle
of the AC signal, a capacitor stores the power while in the second quarter cycle,
the stored power gets back to the AC source. This to and fro movement of the
reactive power between the source and load must be controlled.
Also, the loads in industrial equipment like induction motors,
induction furnaces, arc, etc. are the ones that operate at poor power factor while
fluorescent tubes, fans, etc. that operate at low power factor requires quite a
large amount of reactive power hence the level of voltage at the load terminals
get reduced.
Due to this reason, the power factor of the system must be necessarily
improved using some specific methods.
With reactive power compensation, transmission efficiency is increased. Along
with this, the steady-state and temporary over-voltages can be regulated that resultantly
avoids blackouts.

The demand for this reactive power is mainly originated from the inductive load
connected to the system. These inductive loads are generally electromagnetic circuits of
electric motors, electrical transformers, the inductance of transmission and distribution
networks, induction furnaces, fluorescent lightings, etc. This reactive power should be
properly compensated otherwise, the ratio of actual power consumed by the load, to the
total power i.e. vector sum of active and reactive power, of the system becomes quite less.
This ratio is alternatively known as the electrical power factor, and a lower
ratio indicates a poor power factor of the system. If the power factor of the system is
poor, the ampere burden of the transmission, distribution network, transformers,
alternators and other types of equipment connected to the system, becomes high for
required active power. And hence reactive power compensation becomes so important.
This is commonly done by a capacitor bank.
Methods of Reactive Power Compensation:
A low value of power factor requires large reactive power and this affects the voltage level.
Hence in order to compensate for the reactive power, the power factor of the system must
be improved.
Thus, the methods for reactive power compensation are nothing but the methods by which
poor power factors can be improved. The methods are as follows:

 Using capacitor banks


 Using synchronous condensers
 Using static VAr compensators
Let us now discuss each one separately.
1. Capacitor Banks:

In this method, a bank of capacitors forms a connection across the load. As we


know that the capacitor takes the leading reactive power, thus this causes the decrease in
power taken from the source. This resultantly improves the value of the power factor of
the system. This is further classified as series and shunt compensation.
Static capacitors can further be subdivided into two categories,
Shunt capacitors
Series capacitor
These categories are mainly based on the methods of connecting the capacitor
bank with the system. Among these two categories, shunt capacitors are more commonly
used in the power system of all voltage levels.
There are some specific advantages of using shunt capacitors such as,
It reduces the line current of the system.
It improves the voltage level of the load.
It also reduces system Losses.
It improves the power factor of the source current.
It reduces the load of the alternator.
It reduces capital investment per megawatt of the Load.
All the above-mentioned benefits come from the fact, that the effect of the capacitor
reduces the reactive current flowing through the whole system.
2. Synchronous Condensers:
Exciting a synchronous motor above a fixed level makes it work as a
synchronous condenser or capacitor. It is designed to provide dynamic correction of
power factors over the range of its excitation. Initially, when the synchronous motor is
under excited then it functions as a lagging power factor thus reactive power is absorbed.
While under overexcited conditions, the leading power factor comes into action and starts
generating reactive power thus acts as a capacitor.
We have discussed recently static capacitor bank where we have seen that it
offers power factor controlling in a discrete manner while in case of synchronous
condenser power factor improvement and reactive power flow are of continuous nature.
However, the losses in synchronous condensers are comparatively more than
the capacitor bank. Along with this, it offers equipment installation at a single fixed place
while capacitor bank offers distributed installation. This increases the effectiveness of the
synchronous condenser. The response time of the synchronous condenser is comparatively
more than the capacitor bank.
3. Static VAr Compensators:
The high voltage power system, makes use of a static VAr compensator. It is
abbreviated as SVC and shows improved system stability, reduction in line losses,
maintaining the variation within limits. It has shunt reactors and shunt capacitors. Shunt
reactors and thyristor-controlled reactors are used for limiting the voltage rise at no load or
low load conditions while static capacitors and thyristor switched capacitors are used for
preventing the voltage sag at peak load conditions.
This can be formed in two ways, one with the parallel combination of thyristor controlled
reactor and fixed capacitor while the other one is the parallel combination of thyristor
switched capacitor and thyristor controlled reactor.

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