Automated Power Factor Correction

and Energy Monitoring System

Yasin Kabir, Yusuf Mohammad Mohsin, Dr. Md. Monirujjaman Khan (Supervisor)
.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North South University, Bangladesh

Objectives
 Continuously monitoring power factor.
 Correcting lagging power factor to an optimum level.
 Switching combination of capacitors to make maximum
utilization of capacitors.
 Incessantly demonstrating electrical and power
parameters on display.

Why is Power Factor Important?

Power factor of a load is the ratio of Active Power (KW) to
Apparent Power (KVA) of an electrical installation
It is a measure of how effectively the electric power is consumed
by the load for useful power output.
 A load with lower power factor draws more current than a load
with higher power factor for the useful power.
 This leads to wastage of energy and poor electrical efficiency.
Fig 1: Lagging power factor Fig 2: Leading power factor
Project Overview
 Voltage and current signals are taken from the mains via voltage
and current transformer.
 Signals are processed separately to make them appropriate for
microcontroller input.
 Mains voltage, current, real power, apparent power, power factor
are determined by microcontroller program.
 If PF is lagging, proper combination of capacitors are switched
automatically to correct PF to an optimum level.
The Designed prototype for the Automated power factor correction and
 Voltage, current and power parameters are displayed for
Energy monitoring system is shown in the following image.
continuously monitoring purpose.
Fig 7: APFC & Energy monitoring System Prototype
Fig 3: Block diagram of the complete system.
Schematic Diagrams
Fig 8: Load situation after PF correction
Results and Findings
 Without PF correction the pf value was significantly low 0.60
which was raised to 0.97 after applying PF correction.
 After PF correction the apparent power demand fall down from
Fig 4: Voltage sensor circuit. 269VA to 166VA which saved 30% Apparent power demand.
The display is showing the load situation continuously
 Automated switching eased the capacitor attachment and
reduced number of capacitors.
Conclusion and Future development
 Lagging power factor is determined accurately and
Fig 5: Current sensor circuit Fig 6: Flowchart of the Complete system
corrected to the targeted level immediately.
 Capacitance requirement is checked continuously to
prevent over correction.
Designed Prototype  Incessantly monitoring load conditions.
 For future development harmonic filtering can be added to
the system and load voltage & current waveforms can be
monitored in graphical representation on PC via serial com.