Chapter 13 Power Factor Improvement irked = Effect. of Poor Power-Factor 1 Mathous of Reactive Power Compensation = Static VAr Compensator (SVC) 1 Some Worked Examples ‘There are several techniques available for the improvemeht of system power factor. Out of all these, the one employing thyristor controlled reactor (TCR) is now the most sought-after method. It is because TCR offers a continuous and a very fast control of reactive-power flow in a system for regulating its power factor. Primarily, popularity of this method is due to the use of thyristors which are fast, reliable, efficient and precise in their operation. In this chapter, power-factor improvement techniques in se systems, with more emphasis to TCR, are discussed. iy eae a First of all, the effect of poor load power-factor on the system performance would be illustrated through an example. Example 18,1. An alternator, with fixed source voltage of 250 V, delivers power io a load. The transmission line reactance is 5 © and load current is 20 A, Calewlate the load voltage, voltage regulation, system utilization and the energy consumed for a load power factor of (a) unity and (b) 0.5 lagging, Solution. (a) Unity pf load. The phasor diagram for unity load is shown in Fig. 13.1. (b), where V;, = load voltage and E = source voltage, 250 V, Fig. 13.1 (a) represents the circuit diagram where E, V;, load and reactance are shown, 108 ro0v ae E =2s0v a) Fig. 13.1, Pertaining to Example 13.1 (a) circuit diagram and phasor diagrams et (b) unity pf and (c) pj676 fart. 13.2) Power Electronics From Fig. 13.1 (6), 2507 = V2 + 1007 or Load voltage, V;, = 229.13 V 250-229.13 199. Fo * 100= 8.85% Load power = VI cos = 229.18 x 20x 1= 4582.6 W ‘Maximum possible system rating = 250 x 20 x 1=5000 W ‘System utilization factor & ses x 100 = 91.652% Voltage regulation = Load energy delivered per hour =S5508 ~ 4.6 units Assuming Rs. 5 per unit, revenue earned = 4.6 x 5 = Rs. 23 per hour. (8) Load power factor = 0.5 lagging, For this power factor, the phasor diagram is as shown in Fig. 13.1 (c). From this figure, OA" + AB? = EP or (0.5 V;)? + (0.866 V, + 100)" = 250" or V,=158.35V Voltage regulation a 250 188 oe x 100 = 36.66% Load power = V,, I cos 0 = 158.35 x 20x 0.5 = 1583.5 W is 1583.5 2 System utilization factor = pap * 100= 31.67% _ 1583.5 Energy delivered to load per hour= “756° = 1.68 units e Revenue earned = 1.58 x 5= Rs. 7.90 per hour Itis seen from the above example that for the samo source voltage and load (or line) current, a load at a poor pf effects the system performance as under : (@ Load power is reduced by 4582.6—18835 , 199 = 65.45%, As a consequence, revenue earned falls from Rs. 23 per hour to Rs. 7.90 per hour. Gi) Load voltage falls to 158.35 V. As a result; utility devices, like fluorescent tubes, lamps, refrigerators, washing machines ete., designed to operate at 230 V, would operate erratically or may even fail to operate (iii) System utilization is reduced from 91.52% to 81.67%. It means that system infrastructure is now utilized up to 31.67% of its installed capacity. Underutilization of the system, associated with low revenue earnings, cannot be tolerated by an efficient organization, At the same time, consumers are peeved at the poor and unreliable performance of their utility devices. ‘This example demonstrates that load pf should be improved and made as close to unity as is economically viable, Industrial loads, which normally operate at poor pf are induction motors, arc and induction ces. Fluorescent tubes, fans ete also operate at low value of power factor. All these loads,Power Factor Improvement [Art 13.2] 677 working at low pf, need large amount of reactive power which results in reduced voltage level at the load terminals. A low voltage at the constuner tefminals is undesirable as it leads to impaired performance of their utility devices. ‘The various methods of power-factor improvement are as under : (i) Use of capacitor banks (i) Use of synchronous condensers (iii) Use of static VAr compensators. ‘These are now discussed in what follows, 18.2.1. Capacitor Banks A bank of capacitors is connected across the load, Since the capacitor takes leading reactive power, overall reactive power taken from source decreases, consequently system power factor improves. Example 13.2 illustrates how capacitor bank renders the improvement in system power factor. Example 13.2. A.single-phase induction motor, when running from 230 V, 60 He supply, gave the following data : No-load : 24, pf = 0.3 lag. . Half-full load: 5A, pf = 0.5 lag. Full-load : 10A, pf = 0.7 lag. Calewlate the capacitance required in parallel with the induetion motor so that power-factor of the motor-capacitor combination (or the supply power factor) is raised to unity under all the three operating modes listed above. 230. cowA)% (a) ) Fig. 18.2, (a) Circuit diagram and its (b) its phasor diegram, Pertaining to Example 13.2. Solution. A capacitor, connected in parallel with 1-phase induction motor, is shown in Fig. 18.2 (a). Its phasor diagram is drawn in Fig. 18.2 (6), where OB = motor current I, lags the source voltages V, by motor operating p/'cos @ and,OC = capacitor vurrent J, leads V, by 90°. For unity power factor o&the combination, OC must be equal to AB = /,, sin 6 for all the threo operating modes. (a) At no load, OC =AB or I, =I, sin 8 =2 sin [cos 0.3] But 1.908 x 108 * Bx 50x 280 c = 26.406 uF678__[Art. 13.2] Power Electronics () At half-full load, OC =AB or 1, =5 sin [cos 0.5] = 4.33. A 4.33 x 10% CB x 50 x 230 ~ 99-925 HE (¢) At full load, OC = AB or I,=10sin [cos”* 0.7] = 7.1418 A= 22 f CV, 1413 x 10° C= Dex 50x 230 = 92:894 UF This example illustrates that for keeping the supply power factor unity, the value of capacitance across the motor terminals must be varied as the load on the induction motor alters, This is called dynamic VAr compensation or dynamic pf control ; that is, reactive power compensation is carried out through switching-in or out of the capacitors so as to achieve a desired pf at all load conditions. A continuous control of the pf would entail the need of a large number of capacitors of small ratings, The switching-in or cut is carried out by means of relays and circuit breakers. But this all is quite cumbersome and expensive. The mechanical switches and relays are sluggish, unreliable, require frequent maintenance and introduce switching transients. However, with the replacement of mechanical switches by thyristors, it has been made possible to continuously (i) regulate the reactive power flow and (ii) control the power factor and voltage profile by rapid switching-in or out of the static capacitors. 13.2.2, Synchronous Condénsers A 3-phase synchronous motor, when overexcited, works as a synchronous condenser, or a capacitor, It gives dynamic power-factor correction over a wide range of its excitation, When underexcited, it operates at a lagging power factor and therefore absorbs reactive power from the bus. When oyerexcited, a synchronous motor works at a leading power factor and therefore acts as a generator of reactive power and therefore behaves like a capacitor. A static capacitor bank provides pf control in discrete steps whereas a synchronous condenser furnishes a continuous control of power-factor improvement and the associated reactive power flow. Asynchronous condenser, however, suffers from the following drawbacks. @ It has more losses as compared to capacitor bank. Gi) A synchronous condenser can be installed at one place only, whereas capacitor bank can be distributed at many places. A distributed capacitor bank is more effective in controlling the reactive-power flow and voltage profile. (iii) A synchronous condenser is slow in response due to large time constant of its field circuit, whereas a capacitor bank offers faster response. 13.2.3, Thyristor Controlled Reactors (TCRs) ‘Thyristor controlled reactor is a major component of static VAr compensator. In this section, only TCR is described, Static VAr compensator is explained in the next article 13.8 Statie thyristor controlled reactors ore connected in parallel with the load for the control of reactive power flow. With increase in the size of industrial connected loads, fast reactive power compensation has become necessary, For such loads, thyristor controlled reactors (TORs) are now becoming increasingly popular TCR is also called thyristor controlled inductor (T Fig. 13.3. (a) shows a linear reactor ( 1r) L connected to ac source v, through two thyristors connected in antiparallel. This circuit configuration is also called ac voltage controfler, Chapter 9. It ean, therefore, be said that in Fig. 18.3 (a), a lin: aductor L isPower Factor Improvement [Art 13.2] 679 —— if “on jad = fare} —_tn— | fern fir ] ' | Aslam i sor aac? i Qs asin iia (2) Fig. 13.3. Thyristor controlled reactor (a) circuit diagram and (0) its voltage and current waveforms. connected to 1-phase voltage controller. A reference to Art. 9.3 is therefore of considerable benefit. During positive half eycle of source voltage, T1 is turned on and during the negative half cycle, T2 is turned on, For firing angle a= 90°, the source current i, is continuous as shown in Fig. 13.3 (4). The circuit behaves as if inductanee L is directly connected to as source without SORs. For «= 90°, i, is a sine wave, its fundamental component in is the same as i, and is V, therefore maximum, As a result, inductive reactance offered by reactor, X;,~* is minimum In when a= 90°. Here V,=rms value of source voltage and J, is the rms value of fundamental component of source current, which for c= 90° is given by Ip =, (rms value of source current). For firing angle a >90°, current i, is discontinuous, Fig. 13.3. (b), but its fundamentel component ip again lags V, by 90°. With a> 90°, as rms value of fundamental component J has decreased, the inductive reactance offered by reactor (= V,/I) has become more. If a is further increased, fundamental component of i, would be further reduced and therefore, reactance offered by the reactor would be more pronounced. For firing angle, «= 180°, i, = 0, i, =0 and theoretically, the inductive reactance offered by the reactor would be infinite. This shows that with firing angle control from a= 90° to 180° ; the effective reactance of the reactor, as seen by the source, can be regulated from its actual value 4, =2n/L when @= 90°, to an infinite value when «= 180°, As the fundamental component of source current lags the soures vo..age by 90°, the reactor {or inductor) consumes no power. It draws only the reactive power. rms value of source voltage rms value of souree current rms value of fundamental component of scurce current680 __[Art. 13.3] Power Electronies Actually, for 0° < c < 90°, there is no control over the inductor L of Fig. 18.3. (a), therefore, for 0? 90°, the Fourier analysis of inductor current waveform gives the fundamental component Ip, as under : vy, 5 Tp peg, OR Bec sin Bel = Fe (2a sin 2a] (18.2) The reactive power drawn at o= 90° or for 0° < a $90°, is ve Q=ViIne Vast (13.3) For 90° Jar is maximum. When = 180°, reactive power Q (from Eq, (19.4) is zero, Astatic VAr compensator is also called static VAr compensating system (SVS) or thyristor controlled compensator (TCC). It consists of a thyristor controlled reactor (TCR) in parallel with a fixed capacitor C. As stated before, TCR (shown, in the dotted rectangle) is made up of two Is L thyristors 71, 72 connected in antiparallel and a series-connected linear inductor L. An SVC, equal to TCR + fixed capacitor C, is shown in dash-dot rectangle in Fig. 13.4. Load is connected in paralle] with static VAr compensator in Fig. 13.4. Capacitance hais a constant value C ; i, theretore, supplies constant leading-reactive power equal to apoctr CV}. When both SCRs are fired at c= 90°, L soon by source is minimum, therefore TCR takes maximum lagging-reactive power equal to V;/«l. The values of Land C are so selected that maximum value V?/al, is somewhat more than wCV; ; this means that SVC cakes lagging-reactive power from the sourre when = 90°. As a result, pf of the combination (load plus SVC) gets impaired a little when a= 90°, For firing engle c = 90°, TCR current J, is maximum, The current I, through capacitor C is less than the magnitude of J; for c= 90° as stated above. For 2 load pf cos @, the phasor ng load current Jo, TCR current [;, capacitor current J, and source current I, m of Ip, J;,,) is as shown in Fig, 18.5 (a) for «= 90°, The net reactive current = 2 A & x sas Fig. 13.4, Static VAr Compensator (SVC), diagram indicatPower Factor Improvement [Art 13.3] 681 OA (= I, - [,) lags V, by 90°, the pf of the combination, therefore, deteriorates from cos @, to cos @, The reactive power from the supply has increased from V, Jp sin 0p to V, J, sin 0. In other words, lagging-reactive power taken from the source has increased by V, (J; ~1,). Note that fundamental component Jy, of TOR current J, for = 90° is the same as J, see Fig. 13.3 (b). In other words, I, = J, when c= 90°, For firing angle a =c,, where a, > 90°, the inductive reactance aL offered by reactor is more, likewise Jy (fundamental component of I;) gets reduced. This is shown in Fig, 13.5(b). Now, net reactive current, leading V, by 90°, is OB (=I, - In) and pf gets improved from cos ‘to cos 6,, The net reactive power taken from the supply is now VJ, sin ®,, less than the load reactive power V, I, . sin 5. a 90° 20088} lagging exa2>a1 ofS asas>ay qefptstes, ~ptscasd, losing Gel) ~ (ety), do| Lo (c) @ Fig. 13.5, Phasor diagrams illustrating the change in the firing angle of TCR (a) c= 90° (6) ce= 01 > 90° (e) cr= 1g > Oy (d) CH= Og > 0. For firing angle o =, where 0 > cy, the inductive reactance offered is still more and I, and therefore Jp are further reduced. As a result, net reactive current leading V, is now OC > OB of Fig. 13.5 (b) and power factor is shown to become unity in Fig. 13.5 (c). The reactive power taken from the supply is now zero. For firing angle c= og, where 0 > op, the inductive reactance is more, I, or Ip is less. As a result, net reactive current OD (=1,—Ip), leading V, by 90°, is more than OC of Fig. 12.5 (e). Power factor now becomes leading as shown in Fig, 18.5 (d). The reactive power, @qual to V, I, sin 95 is now returned to the supply. For a= 180°, J, or J; = 0 and pf is still further improved (not shown). Examination of Fig. 13.4 reveals that fundamental component of SVC current [is given by I= 1, + fundamental component. In of TOR current given by Bq. (13.2). As J. and Tp oppose each other (see phasor diagrams in Fig, 13.5), I. Jpn From Be. (13.2),682_—_[Art. 133) Power Electronics Sa 90° is not a sine wave. Fourier analysis of this waveform shows it to consist of fundamental component as given by Eq, (13.2) and higher harmonies of order n= 3, 5, 7,9, 11 ete. In 3-phase circuits, the TCI (or TCR) is connected in delta so that triplen harmonics are confined to this closed delta and do not enter the ac system. The fixed capacitor C in parallel with TCR delivers VAr to the system and at the same time, filters out high-frequency harmonics. Fifth and seventh order harmonics are also filtered out by suitably designed series-tuned filters which, in addition, contribute some leading ‘Var to the system ; these series tuned filters are appropriately cannected in parallel with SVC. ‘Example 18.3. A reactive load is connected to I-phase 230 V, 50 Hz source. Load current is observed to vary between two extreme limits of (4 - j0) A and (6 -} 10) A. It is required that supply pf be maintained at unity by using a fixed capacitor and TCR of linear characteristics in parallel with the load. Determine the required values of capacitor and inductor. What should be the firing angle of TCR at the two extreme limits of load current ? Solution, When load current is (6 ~j 10) A, the phasor diagram is as shown in Fig. 13.6 (a). Now capacitor current J, must be equal to 10 A so as to cancel 90° lagging current J, = 10 A in onder that source pf is unity, Lenny = 2R/ CY, 10x 10° Bex 50 x 250 ~ 198996 LF For load current of (6 -j 0) A, TOR should not take any current, therefore its firing angle should be 180°, When load current is (4 —j0) A, the current J, in the fixed capacitor must be cancelled by inductive current. ing to Example (a) 13.3 and (6) 13.4.