Difference Between Leading and Lagging Power

Factor
Leading and lagging power factors are the two major terms associated with the power factor of
the AC electrical system. The crucial difference between leading and lagging power factor is that
in case of leading power factor the current leads the voltage.

As against in case of lagging power factor, the current lags the supplied voltage.

The tendency of the circuit that causes the current to either lead or lag depends on the load
conditions.

What is power factor?

Power factor is a crucial property of AC electrical systems. It is dimensionless in nature.

It is used for both single and three-phase AC circuits. It is the ratio of true or actual power to the
apparent power in the ac systems.

In DC circuits one can evaluate the power of the circuit by finding the product of readings of
voltmeter and ammeter.

While in the case of ac circuit, this multiplication of these two provides the apparent power but,
not the actual power. This is so because in ac circuits, the total supplied power i.e., the apparent
power is not solely utilized by the circuit.

And the actually utilized power by the circuit is referred as true power.

More simply, the power factor is the cosine of phase difference existing between V and I.

The power factor of ac circuits with linear loads lies between -1 to 1. Generally, it is considered
that if a system exhibits power factor closer to 1, then such systems are said to be stable.

We will discuss the various factors that differentiate the leading power factor from that of
lagging. But first, see what we are going to discuss in this article.

Content: Leading Vs Lagging Power Factor

1. Comparison Chart
2. Definition
3. Key Differences
4. Conclusion

Comparison Chart
Basis for
Leading Power Factor Lagging Power Factor
Comparison

Basic The load current leads the There is a phase difference between
supply voltage by certain voltage and current where load
phase angle. current lags the supply voltage.

Nature of load in Capacitive Inductive

electrical circuit

Correction of low By the addition of By adding capacitive load.

power factor inductive load.

Value Exists between -1 to 0. Exists between 0 and 1.

Reactive Negative Positive

component

Examples of Capacitive load: Inductive load:

respective loads Electrical motors, Power generator, inductor, relays, etc.
capacitor, radio circuits,
etc.

Definition of Leading Power Factor

The leading power factor in an ac electrical circuit is attained by the use of capacitive load in the
circuit. As in the presence of purely capacitive load or combination of resistive-capacitive load,
the current leads supplied voltage. This gives rise to power factor generally said to be leading in
nature.
As it is known that power factor is the ratio of true to the apparent power. And generally for
sinusoidal waveform power factor is the cosine function of the phase angle existing between
voltage and current.

Consider the wave shapes of voltage supplied to the ac circuit and the current through the purely
capacitive load:

As it is clear from the above figure that current, I encounters the 0 crossings of the time axis
some phase earlier than that of voltage, V. This is referred as leading power factor.

The figure below represents the leading power factor triangle:

Definition of Lagging Power Factor

In ac circuits lagging power factor, is achieved when the load is capacitive in nature. This is so
because when a purely capacitive or resistive capacitive load is present then there exists a phase
difference between voltage and current in which the current lags the voltage.

Thus the power factor of such circuits is of lagging nature.

Let us consider the waveforms of supplied voltage to an ac circuit and the current through the
purely capacitive load as:

Here the current encounters the 0 crossings at some phase after the voltage. Thereby giving rise
to lagging power factor.

The lagging power factor triangle is given below:

Key Differences between Leading and Lagging Power Factor

1. The key factor of differentiation between leading and lagging power factor is that leading
power factor is attained when the load current is in the leading position to that of the supply
voltage. While lagging power factor shows that the current lags the voltage by some phase
angle.
2. When the load of the linear electrical network is capacitive in nature then it generates a
leading power factor. As against when the load is of inductive nature then it results in lagging
power factor.
3. In the case of leading power factor, the phase angle of current is positive with respect to
voltage. However, in the case of lagging power factor current phase angle is negative with
respect to that of voltage.
4. As the power factor is a crucial parameter of ac electrical circuits thus correction is quite
necessary if the power factor is quite low. Thus a leading power factor is corrected by the
addition of inductive loads. Whereas the correction in the lagging power factor is done by
adding capacitive loads.
5. In the case of the capacitive load, the load supplies reactive power. Thus the reactive
component is negative as here the power is provided to it. But for inductive load, the load
consumes reactive power, hence reactive component will be positive.
6. The value of leading power factor i.e., with capacitive load ranges between -1 to 0. While
for the lagging power factor i.e., with an inductive load, it lies between 0 and 1.

Conclusion
So, from this discussion, we can conclude that ideally it is assumed that voltage and current are
in the same phase. Thereby having a phase angle of 0° between the two. However, a difference in
phase exists between the two that is referred as the power factor of the circuit.