Electrical Power

Experiment: Performance under Capacitive Load

Objective: To perform single phase connection and to observe the operation under capacitive
load.

Experiment Outcome: At the end of the session the students should be able to:
1. Measure the effect of the capacitive load type.
2. Determine the efficiency using capacitive loads.

Appratus: Three phase variable power supply, three phase transformer, digital multimeter,
capacitive load, resisitive load, inductive load, digital multimeter, oscilloscope, power factor
meter and connecting plugs.

PART 1 Procedures

Single phase
voltage Ammeter Digital C apa citiv e
( Power & multimeter Load
supply) Voltmeter

Power factor
meter

Block Diagram 1: Capacitive load connection

1. Connect the capacitive load to the power supply as shown in block diagram 1.

2. Set the variable power supply to the following settings:

a) Star connection
b) Vac = 230 V

3. Connect the analogue ammeter (I1) and voltmeter (V1) to the power supply.

4. Connect the digital multimeter and power factor meter to the capacitive load.

5. The capacitive load is then changed accordingly. The observations are recorded.

Electrical Power
Performance under Capacitive Load
Results

C (uF) V1 I1 V2 I2 cos θ P1 P2 Q2

2 134 0.09 0.12 15.2 11.6

4 134 0.17 0.04 2.14 21.8

8 134 0.34 0 07 3.22 45.3

12 135 0.52 0.06 64.3

Calculate the apparent power.

Draw the power phasor diagram for all capacitive values.

Show a comparison between the measured value and calculated value for the value of C =
8uF.

Electrical Power
Performance under Capacitive Load
PART 2

1. Connect the resistive load in series with the capacitive load to the power supply

2. Set the resistive load at 80%.

3. Following step 2 to step 4 in Part 1 of the experiment, record down your observations.

Results

C (uF) V1 I1 V2 I2 cos θ P1 P2 Q2

2 133 0.04 0.12 1.46 11.6

4 133 0.17 0.09 2.14 22.1

8 134 0.35 0.07 3.25 45.4

Calculate the efficiency of the system based on the amount of active power consumed and
output.

Draw the power phasor diagram for all capacitive values.

No further work required.

Electrical Power
Performance under Capacitive Load