POWER FACTOR CORRECTION AT INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS

Abstract

Most industrial loads (motors, lights, etc.) are inductive in nature, so they have a lagging power factor. Therefore, these loads draw more current (apparent power) than is required to do the actual work (real power). This result is higher costs to the customer. Power Factor Correction attempts to improve the power factor by the addition of capacitor(s) in parallel with the load. These capacitors supply some or all of the reactive power to the inductive load, which reduces the reactive power and therefore the current that the power supply delivers. This project will cover the effects of poor power factor, the advantages of high power factor and the procedure of how to correct the power factor