ELSEVIER Electric Power Systems Research 32 (1995) 141-143

Power factor measurement and correction techniques

C.S. Prasanna Kumar a, S.P. Sabberwal b, A.K. Mukharji b
a National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi 110012, India
b Centre,[br Energy, Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi 110060, India

Received 10 October 1994

Abstract

The prevailing method of power factor measurement is debatable. Certain methods are suggested in this paper with hints to
improve power factor measurement and correction.

Keywords: Power factor measurement

1. Introduction induction and arc furnaces, saturated reactors and weld-

ing loads are inherently non-linear loads. Non-linearity
Both small- and medium-size industries in India face causes harmonics and improvement of the power factor
the power factor penalty which is being levied by the becomes a difficult task in the presence of harmonics.
supply authorities for violation of statutory limits. In most rolling mills and furnaces, the loading is
From the power system point of view this sector of never constant and varies between wide limits. For
industry is badly organized due to financial constraints. rolling mills, the current level in motors can be as high
Such industries run one or two shifts of eight hours each as the short-circuit level whenever the rollers get stuck.
daily. Generally, the power input is 11 kV three phase, Even during normal peak production times, three out
which is stepped down to 440 V three phase through a of six passes working, high current levels are experi-
delta-wye transformer of rating between 300 and enced. The waveshapes of the ensuing currents are
1000 kVA. The supply authorities instal a kWh meter non-sinusoidal and create a lot of impediments to
and a kVAh meter incorporating a kVA M D indicator. power factor improvement.
In this country a minimum power factor of 0.85 is Additionally, voltage variations and surges accentu-
mandatory on the H T side. Various aspects of determi- ate the difficulties encountered owing to the increased
nation of the power factor, degree of accuracy of the level of harmonics in currents with comparatively little
meters on varying loads with varying power factors, and increase in delivered power. Hence, the overall power
the legality of the penalty imposed on the industries are factor decreases.
discussed in this paper. Some practical hints on the Generally, it is seen that on national holidays, week-
improvement of the power factor are also discussed. ends and at night the voltage level increases. Typically,
a 10% increase is quite common. This has the effect of
increasing the magnetizing currents and operating the
2. State of the problem system at a low power factor. Correction devices which
have been installed tend to fail due to prolonged over-
The power factor is defined as the cosine of the angle voltage. During undervoltage operation, the current
between the voltage and the current. It is an instanta- levels increase significantly and so do the losses, thereby
neous value. Further, the above is true only if both the resulting in an improvement in the power factor.
signals, i.e. voltage and current, are sinusoidal. In India, In thyristor controlled devices, phase angle control is
most of the loads become non-linear when operated at most common. Invariably, the equipment is operated at
voltages above the rated value. Additionally, all dis- 0.4-0.7 times the full load level. The angle of delay is
charge lamps such as fluorescent tubes, sodium and quite large, causing truncation of the current sine wave.
mercury lamps, thyristor controlled devices, recondi- Consequently, the harmonic level becomes comparable
tioned motors, normal motors working at low loads, with that of the fundamental. The effect of chokes in

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142 C.S. Prasanna Kumar et al. /Electric Power Systems Research 32 (1995) 141 143

series also becomes significant as the impedance is kWh and kVArh. It is also assumed here that the
dependent upon the frequency. The power factor in energy consumed per unit time is constant. Then,
establishments using such devices is normally low, p.f. = AB/AD
about 0.4-0.6. The penalty attracted is high, and nor-
mal correction methods become defunct. The power factor determined by the supply authori-
ties is a stretched hypotenuse, i.e. the scalar addition of
the instantaneous kVAh values. The above value of the
3. Power factor measurement power factor could at times go below the mandatory
statutory limit of 0.85, thereby attracting a penalty.
The supply authorities take the cumulative monthly It is generally seen that there is an initial high power
readings of the kWh and kVAh meters. factor operation with reduced power factor at the end
Let the kWh reading be x, the kVAh reading be h, of the day. This usually occurs in medium-size indus-
and the kVArh reading be y (if any). The power factor tries where one or two shifts are operating. When the
(taken over a month) is given by load in the third shift is less, the power factor is low.
Even under such situations the power factor determined
P-f. = (x2 - x l )/(h2 - hi ) by the supply authorities is questionable.
It is generally seen that It can therefore be concluded that the best way to
determine the power factor is as follows:
H 2 _~ x 2 + y 2
p.f. = x / ( x 2 + y2)1/2
The industries which have attracted penalties have In other words, the power factor should only be
raised doubts about the method of determination of the related to the amount of reactive kVA supplied (re-
power factor. The various methods suggested for the ceived) by the supply authorities per unit kW of load
measurement of the power factor, they argue, could be over a specified time. It is therefore very important
any one of the following: to take the readings on exact specified dates to arrive at
(a) p.f. = ~ p.f.,/n an unquestionable value of the power factor for any
industry.
(b) 1/p.f. = (l/n) ~ (1/p.f.,) It is therefore obvious that supply authorities should
only instal two meters, a kWh and a kVArh meter, if
(c) p.f. = x2 - Xl trivector meters are used the power factor should only
[(x2 - x , )2 + (y2 - y , )2],/2
be determined by the kWh and kVArh meters; the
The question that arises, therefore, is how to arrive kVAh meter should only serve the purpose of obtaining
at a justifiable value of the power factor. the kVA MD.

4. Some practical situations 5. Power factor correction techniques

Referring to Fig. l(a), it is tacitly assumed here that Generally speaking, if the machines of a factory run
the power factor over a period of time from tl to t2 has on full load, its power factor is best. The method of
remained constant at all loads. In this case, connecting capacitors on the main line and hoping
for the best is basically unscientific for varying load
p.f. = AB/AC conditions.
Referring to Fig. l(b), over the period of time from All phase correction devices should be connected on
t~ to t 2 the power factor of the load is varying. AB the load itself with the axiom 'load on, capacitor on'.
indicates the recorded kWh, AD the recorded kVAh,
5.1. M o t o r s
and BC the recorded kVArh. AC is the kVAh based on
It is best to correct the power factor of any motor at
no-load/dead-load conditions. The power factor at load
c / will be looked after by itself. The reason for this
// technique lies in the fact that magnetizing current
causes low power factor, whereas the load part of the
current has essentially a high power factor.
In star-delta starters, phase correction devices have
to be connected on the star side so that initially a lower
Fig. 1. Measurement of the power factor where (a) the power factor voltage is impressed and the initial current jerk is low,
is constant at all loads between t~ and t 2 and (b) it is varying. thereby reducing the chances of damage to capacitors.
 C.S. Prasanna Kumar et al, Eleclric Power Systems Research 32 (1995) 141 143 143

In inching applications, a time delay is incorporated 5.5. Induction furnace

so that the correction device is connected only when the
electrical conditions have reached the steady-state val- Correction is needed during patching only as the
ues, otherwise the possibility of damage is increased. power factor is quite high during most of the melting
Electrical resonance conditions must be avoided to operation. Permanent correction during patching has
prolong the life of the equipment. negligible effect during the melting time.
Typical power factor figures at 0.5, 0.75, and 1.00 The auxiliary transformer in an induction furnace
per unit dead load on motor are 0.5, 0.6, 0.7-0.8, and shop is normally operated at a low power factor. Its
0.8-0.9, respectively. If correction is achieved on dead correction leads to a substantial improvement in power
load, the corresponding power factor readings become factor values, especially where only single-shift working
0.95, 0.96, 0.98, and 0.98 (leading). Where a group of is involved.
motors run simultaneously, the phase correction device
may be connected in the vicinity of the largest possible 5.6. TransJormers
motor with an adequate time delay incorporated in the
circuit. Some industries shut off their activities in winter, e.g.
The above argument is different from the philosophy ice factories. Others operate at a reduced load, e.g. cold
espoused in the technical literature. storages. Such installations suffer from low power fac-
tor because the transformer is unloaded most of the
5.2. Discharge htmps time. Shunt capacitors do not improve the power factor
because of the distortion in no-load current. One of
Correction at each load point has to be made. The the successful methods is to reduce the tap on the
capacitor chosen must have a low dielectric loss factor high-voltage side, thereby reducing the operating flux
owing to the presence of large harmonics. density.
In India, where the operating voltage is 240 V, there
are some limitations in the use of discharge lamps,
which have a voltage drop of about 100 V across them
4. Conclusions
[1]. The best operating voltage is around 160V, with
the use of a three-phase delta-wye transformer sepa-
The present method of determining the power factor
rately for lighting circuits. This has the effect of im-
by the supply authorities in India is misleading, faulty
proving the power factor, reducing line currents and
and can lead to legal complications. An exact method
reducing distribution losses.
of determining the power factor is described, with a
By and large, energy conservation can also be
new definition of power factor.
achieved by the use of L (2" ballasts [2,3] operating on
Some techniques for power factor correction are
line voltage at line frequency.
described here. Detailed calculations can be made only
after taking adequate spot readings of electrical
5.3. Thyristor controlled devices
parameters. The normal practice of linking the rating of
a kVAr capacitor bank with h.p./load (kW) is rather
Better power factor can be achieved by incorporat-
misleading, as it is applicable only to newly installed
ing a suitable triplen harmonic trap between supply and
motors. Conditions on the ground are quite different.
load. The damage normally done by harmonics is thus
Power factor correction is possible for all types of
minimized. However, the fifth and seventh harmonics
loads.
still play a significant adverse role.
Some companies instal automatic switching control
Alternatively, all thyristor devices should incorporate
panels. These are ineffective for direct current, widely
gate turn-off thyristors with adequate clipping of the
varying loads and transient conditions.
waveform effected at suitable leading and trailing edges.
The authors have tried this technique on a laboratory
scale and the results are encouraging. This basically
References
involves going into the motor control circuitry. Only a
daring factory owner will allow such an upheaval.
[1] C.S. Prasanna Kumar et al., Some limitations in the use of
discharge lamps. Accepted for publication in Energy Conversion
5.4. Welding equipment and Management, Texas.
[2] C.S. Prasanna Kumar et al., Energy conservation and distributed
Connecting a suitable capacitor in series helps only capacitive compensation using capacitive ballasts for fluorescent
lamp circuits, Proc. 1EEE T E N C O N , 1991, Vol. 1.
to some extent in power factor improvement. Where a
[3] C.S. Prasanna Kumar et al., Electronic capacitive ballasts for
large part of the load is due to welding, power factor fluorescent and other discharge lamps, US Patent No. 5 049 789
correction can be quite a task. (17 Sept. 1991).