Power factor

We often use electricity as a way to move energy from one place to another.

We can convert electricity to another form of energy such as heat or mechanical energy, for
example the rotation of a shaft.

In a DC circuit, power is equal to voltage times current. P equals VI.

In an AC circuit containing only resistance this formula would also be correct.

Consider a hotplate on the galley stove whose job is to convert electricity to heat.
 The hotplate only has resistance, and the flow of current, AC or DC, will create heat at the rate
of V times I, which is the same as V squared divided by R, measured in Watts.

The power converted from electricity to another form of energy is known as active power.

The active power P is also equal to I squared times R Watts.

The hotplate load is a pure resistance but other loads nay include capacitance.

If we connect an AC supply across a capacitor in an ideal circuit without resistance a current will
flow.

The positive supply voltage creates a current to store charge in the capacitor.

The current reverses in direction when the supply voltage falls below the capacitor’s voltage.

The same process will occur in reverse as the supply voltage rises to a negative peak before
falling again.

The circuit appears to be using power, as there is a voltage and current but no heat or other non
electrical energy is produced.

This is known as reactive, rather than active, power.

The active power is I squared times R.

 As R is zero then the active power is zero.

The power involved here must be reactive power .

As we have said that Ohms law can be used on capacitive circuits, with reactance used in place
of resistance then we can calculate that the voltage is I times XC so the reactive power, Q, is I squared
time XC .

Many common items on ships electrical systems are inductances, usually in the form of coils of
wire, such as the windings of motors and generators.

If we connect an AC supply across an inductor in an ideal circuit without resistance we have a

similar situation to that of the ideal capacitor.

As the current rises with the positive supply voltage, charge is stored in the inductor’s flux,
returning to the circuit to boost the current as the supply voltage falls and the current tries to fall.

The same process will occur in reverse as the supply voltage rises to a negative peak before
falling again.

Again no heat or other non electrical energy is produced so the power involved must be
reactive, rather than active.
 The active power is again I squared times R which is zero.

The reactive power, Q, is now I squared times XL .

Consider the waveform created by an AC voltage.

In a pure resistance circuit, the voltage and current are said to be in phase, instantaneously
rising and falling together.

With the pure capacitance circuit the charge in the capacitor builds up a voltage which opposes
that of the supply.

When a positive supply voltage is applied and there is no charge in the capacitor a large positive
current flows.

As the capacitor becomes charged its voltage opposes the supply and the current falls to zero.

When the supply voltage falls the capacitor’s voltage is bigger than the supply and the current
flows backwards or negatively.

The peak current occurs before the peak supply voltage and is therefore said to be out of phase
and leading supply voltage.

With inductive circuits a similar change in phase occurs when AC is supplied.

The magnetic field resists changes in current, developing an opposing voltage proportional to
the rate of change of the current.

As the supply voltage goes positive the build up of positive current is delayed by the action of
the inductance.
 AS the supply voltage starts to fall the inductance resists the fall in current so that the current
reaches zero late than the voltage.

The current in the inductive circuit is said to be out of phase and lagging and the circuit is said to
have a lagging power factor.

As the circuit become more complex it is useful to have a tool to help us perform analysis and to
solve problems.

Let us go back to the form of voltage in an AC circuit.

This varies continuously, going from positive to negative and back in every cycle.

We can represent the voltage using a vector, known as a phasor.

The rotation of the phasor can be used to show or calculate the value of voltage at any instant
and predict whether it is rising or falling.

We can add another phasor to represent current.

In the pure resistance hotplate circuit, when the voltage is zero the current is zero and when the
voltage is maximum the current is maximum.
 The voltage and current are said to be in phase, rising and falling together.

With a more realistic circuit, containing inductance, the current will be lagging behind the
voltage by some amount.

We can see how far the current lags behind the voltage by looking at the two waveforms, but it
is easier to use the phasors, especially when we consider 3 phase AC systems.

The convention is to set the voltage phasor as the reference and measure other values from it.

Example:

Consider a 200 Volt AC supply at the instant that the current reaches zero.

While the current phasor is shown horizontal, the voltage phasor has passed this point by 27
degrees.

We can calculate, and on this occasion see on the waveform, that the instantaneous voltage
level is positive and continuing to rise as the angle from zero has not yet reached 90 degrees.
 Its instantaneous value is the peak value times the sine of 27 degrees, or 200 times sine 27,
which is 90 Volts.

If we freeze the system a little later, when the voltage falls to zero, we can do a similar
calculation with the current.

The voltage is at 180 degrees and therefore has an instantaneous value of zero volts, being
about to go negative.

The current phasor is at 180 minus 27, or 153 degrees from the origin of the waveform.

The current value is therefore positive but falling.

If the peak current is 100 Amps then the instantaneous current value is 100 times sine 153,
which is 45 Amps.
 In most circuits there will be resistance plus inductance or capacitance, or all three.

Many of the losses in a circuit depend on the current but only the active power produced by
that current does useful work.

To work out how much useful work and how big the losses will be we need to work out the
balance between active and reactive power.

As we have seen from the diagrams on the previous page, the currents act in different directions
so , unlike the simple addition we used for DC now we need to use vectors to calculate the sum of the
powers.

The power is V times I so we can multiply each current by V to find the active and reactive
powers.
 The two reactive powers act in different directions but along the same axis or scale.

We can therefore consider one positive and the other negative and easily add them together to
get the sum of reactive power Q.

The active power is usually referred to as P.

The apparent power supplied is the vector sum of P and Q, which is a line joining the ends of p
and Q, marked as S.

We can see that the proportion of the apparent power supplied which is available for active
work is Cos phi.

This figure is referred to as the power factor of the system and may be thought of as a measure
of its effective utilization.

If the load is pure resistance, like the hotplate, then Cos phi is one and all the supplied power is
active.

If the load were pure inductance then Cos phi is zero and none of the supplied power is active.
 The overall system power factor is the phasor sum of all the power factors of each individual
load.

In practice the majority of loads on a ship will be inductive because the power taken by
induction motors will be the most important factor.

The power factor of an induction motor depends on a number of things and can vary, being
especially poor at start up.

Example:

To show the problems that a pooer power factor can cause, consider a motor developing
100kiloWatts and starting at a 0.4 lagging power factor.
 The apparent power is 100 divided by 0.4, or 250 kiloVolt Amps.

Assuming a 440 Volt supply the current is 250,000 divided by 440 or 568Amps.

If the power factor improves to 0.8 during operation while the load remains at 100 kiloWatts the
apparent power now falls to 100 divided by 0.8 or 125 kiloVolt Amps.

The line current is also halved to 254Amps. If the power factor does not improve fast enough,
the overload trip is likely to operate.

A typical ship’s system power factor would be around 0.8 lagging, reflecting the typical induction
motor power factor.

If the system power factor fell too low then the excess current could cause the generator circuit
breakers to trip, unless another generator was put online.

The higher line current will lead to excessive losses due to the extra heat being emitted from the
conductors carrying extra current.