Power Factor

Suppose voltage & current phasors are:

⇔𝑣 (𝑡 )=¿𝑉∨cos⁡(𝜔𝑡+𝜃𝑉 )⇔𝑖 (𝑡)=¿𝐼∨cos⁡(𝜔 𝑡+𝜃𝐼)

Power dissipated in load Z is:
1 1
¿ |𝑉 || 𝐼|cos ( 𝜃 𝑉 − 𝜃 𝐼 ) + |𝑉 ||𝐼 |cos ( 2 𝜔 𝑡 + 𝜃 𝑉 +𝜃 𝐼 )
2 2

Average power:
is the power factor

a lagging power factor (normal case: Current lags Voltage)

a leading power factor (rare case: Current leads Voltage)
Power Factor Correction
V = 230. Consider an inductive as 5||7j Ω.
𝑉
𝐼= ¿ 46 − j 32.9 A ¿ 𝟓𝟔 . 𝟓 ∠ −𝟑𝟔 ° 𝑨
𝑅+ 𝑍 𝐿
𝑃 °
∗
𝑆=𝑉 𝐼 =10.6 + j 7.6 kVA kVA ⇒ 𝑐𝑜𝑠 ∅ = =𝑐𝑜𝑠 36 =𝟎 .𝟖𝟏
|𝑆|
Add a parallel capacitor of 300 μF:
1
𝑍 𝐶= =− 10.6 𝑗 Ω ⇒ 𝐼 𝐶 =21.7 𝑗 𝐴
𝑗 𝜔𝐶
°
𝐼 =46 − 𝑗 11.2 𝐴=𝟒𝟕 ∠ −𝟏𝟒 𝑨
𝑆 𝐶 =𝑉 𝐼 ∗𝐶 =− 𝑗 5 𝑘𝑉𝐴
∗
𝑆=𝑉 𝐼 =10 .6 + j2 .6 kVA=¿ kVA
𝑃
𝑐𝑜𝑠 ∅ = =𝑐𝑜𝑠 14° =𝟎 . 𝟗𝟕
|𝑆|
Average power to motor, P, is 10.6 kW in both cases.
reduce from 56.5 to 47 A (-16%) Lower losses
Effect of C: reduce VARs from 7.6 to 2.6 kVAR, power factor from 0.81 to 0.97
Power factor correction – induction motor illustrated
 Power Factor Correction – induction motor

Changes in power factor for an induction motor

as a function of motor loading.

• It is recommended that motors are

run at their rated power in order to
achieve the best power factor cosϕ
 Compensation of Reactive Power
by Rotational Phase-Shifting Machines
• A 510 kVA synchronous generator for
phase-shifting purposes.
• Today these applications for
synchronous motors is rare.
• Sometimes they may still being used
in older power stations with a rated
power of more than 1000kVA.
Active power Vs Reactive power
P = AVERAGE POWER
• Useful power – also known as ACTIVE POWER

• Converted to other useful form of energy – heat, light, sound, etc

• Power charged

Q = REACTIVE POWER
• Power that is being transferred back and forth between load and source

• Associated with L or C – energy storage element – no losses

• Is not charged

• Inductive load: Q positive (current lags voltage, lagging PF ), Capacitive load: Q

negative (current lead voltage, leading PF)
Harmonics Distortion - Introduction
• Harmonics distortion in the grid have increased rapidly in
recent years due primarily to the increasing application of non-
linear semiconductor devices:
▫ Industrial: Rectifiers DC, arc furnaces, welding machines,
motor drives, etc.
▫ Lighting: Fluorescent, Neon, Sodium lamps, Mercury-vapor
lamps, etc.
▫ Consumer Electronics: PC, laptop charger, monitors, phase
control dimmers, heater, etc.
Harmonics Distortion – Ex1: Industrial DC PS
• 3-phase rectifier with smoothing capacitor:

Lots of harmonic with current waveform Better current wave form with 12-pulse rectifier
Harmonics Distortion – Ex2: LED Lighting, CFLs
Note: new & more expensive
light has internal PFC – reduce
harmonic distortion.
Harmonics Distortion – Ex3: Consumer Electronics
• Single-phase rectifier with smoothing capacitor (R load)

Surge current may

even create
distortion on
voltage if voltage
source has high
internal resistance.
Understanding Harmonics Distortion
• Any periodic waveform can be represented as a sum of:
▫ A sinusoidal term at the fundamental frequency
▫ Other sinusoidal terms (harmonics) having frequencies that
are multiples of the fundamental frequency.
What is bad about high order harmonics?
a) The line rms current harmonics do not deliver any real power
in Watts to the load, resulting in inefficient use of equipment
capacity (i.e. low power factor).
b) Harmonics will increase conductor loss and iron loss in
transformers, decreasing transmission efficiency and causing
thermal problems.
c) The odd harmonics are extremely harmful to a three-phase
system, causing overload of the unprotected neutral
conductor.
d)- Oscillation in power system should be absolutely
prevented in order to avoid endangering the stability of
system operation.
e)- High peak harmonic currents may cause automatic
relay protection devices to mis-trigger.
f)- Harmonics could cause other problems such as
electromagnetic interference to interrupt communication,
degrading reliability of electrical equipment, increasing
product defective ratio, insulation failure, audible noise,
etc.
Power Factor Generalized
• Defined as the ratio of real power (P) consumed by load to apparent power (S),
which produces a figure from 0 to 1 that indicates the degree of distortion and
phase shift in the current wave form.

• Intuitively, the overall PF is the product of the displacement PF and the

distortion PF, where displacement PF consider only the fundamental and
distortion PF consider higher order harmonics components of current wave form
Note:
General definition of PF proposed by IEEE Std 1459-2000 has complicated mathematics formula, applied for any type of signal.
All grid AC power supply has very low internal resistance, non-linear load has almost no effect on the voltage wave form. We can assume
voltage wave form has no distortion, pure sin wave. The assumption allow us to simplify the math & think intuitively about PF.
Single Phase Bridge Rectifier With a FWD

Single phase bridge rectifier with a FWD Diode

Input Power Factor Of A Rectifier

real power input

Power factor 
Vrms .I rms
Let Vin (t )  2.Vrms .sin wt

Iin (t )  I1.sin(wt  Q)   I n .sinn.wt  Qn 
n2
The real input power is then
2
 1
2 0   2.Vrms.I1.sinwt  Q .sin wt .dwt

1  2 
    2.Vrms .I n .sinwt  Q .sin wt.dwt 
2 n 2  0 
Input Power Factor Of A Rectifier

real power input

Power factor 
Vrms .I rms
Let Vin (t )  2.Vrms .sin wt

Iin (t )  I1.sin(wt  Q)   I n .sinn.wt  Qn 
n2
The real input power is then
2
 1
2 0   2.Vrms.I1.sinwt  Q .sin wt .dwt

1  2 
    2.Vrms .I n .sinwt  Q .sin wt.dwt 
2 n 2  0 
 P = Vrms.İ1rms.cosQ1 + 0 (1) where Q1 is the phase angle
between the input voltage waveform & fundamental
component of the current waveform.

DEFINITION: cosQ1 is defined as the displacement factor

11rms
since Ω  11rms  1rms. (2)
Irms
substitute (2) in (1)
P  Vrms . I rms .  . cos1

So p.f   . cos1 & Q  Vrms . I rms . .sin1

 𝑷
𝑷𝑭 = = 𝑷𝑭 𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 ∗ 𝑷𝑭 𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
Power factor – continue 𝑺

• Displacement PF is the phase shift between voltage & fundamental

component of current wave form:

• Distortion PF is calculated based on THD (total harmonics distortion)

√
∞

∑ 𝑰 𝟐𝒕
√
𝟐 𝟐
𝒕=𝟐 𝑰 𝒓𝒎𝒔 − 𝑰 𝟏𝒓𝒎𝒔
𝑻𝑯𝑫= =
𝑰𝟏 𝟐
𝑰 𝟏 𝒓𝒎𝒔
Power Factor – continue
• Both phase shift and distortion can reduce Power Factor:
Passive PFC
Active PFC
PFC comparision

Input characteristic of PC power

supplies with different PFC
type: None, Passive, Active
Input line harmonics compare to IEC61000-3-2
Practice Problems
For exams!
A load operates at 20 kW, 0.8 pf lagging. The
load voltage is 220∠0° V rms at 60 Hz. The
impedance of the line is 0.09+j0.3 Ohm.
Determine the voltage and power factor at
the input to the line.

S
S
Example: A single phase rectifier is supplied by 220
V, 50 Hz voltage source. The load is highly inductive
with resistance of 10 ohm. The firing angle is 60
deg.
a- Draw the output voltage waveform.
b- Draw the input current of rectifier
c- Find the displacement factor ( Cosф1 )
d- Find the distortion factor (DF)
e- Find the input power factor of rectifier.
Single Phase Bridge Rectifier With a FWD

Single phase bridge rectifier with a FWD Diode

Output voltage waveform
 a1= (2/π)ꭍis sinwtdwt= (2/π)*14.81(cos 60-cos 180)=16.33

rms value of input current fundamental component is = 16.33/1.41=11.55

rms value of (is) = 14.81*sqrt(2/3)=12.09
DF= (11.55/12.09)=0.955
Displacement factor= cos (60/2) =0.865
PF= DF*Dis.F=0.955*0.865=0.826