POWER FACTOR CORRECTION

Once you have established the P, S, Q and pf of a load you can then calculate the values of the
components required to correct the power factor (pf).

S
Q
Φ

P
Figure 1 Initial Power Triangle

The purpose of power factor correction is to minimise the Reactive power in the load, with the ideal
power factor being 1 which would mean zero Reactive power. In most cases we are given a specific
power factor to which we should correct. Once we have the required power factor value then there
are a number of steps required to find out the value of the components required to achieve the
required power factor.

1. Establish the New reactive power (Qn) that will be in the system
2. Calculate the reduction required in reactive power to go from the initial Q to the new Qn
• If the initial load is inductive then we need to add capacitive reactive power to
reduce overall reactive power (QC)
• If the initial load is capacitive then we need to add inductive reactive power to
reduce overall reactive power (QL)
• We will assume an inductive load and therefore a QC correction for the rest of this
description
3. The power factor capacitor is placed in parallel with the load therefore the capacitive
𝑉
reactance can be calculated using the formula 𝑄𝐶 = 𝑋
𝐶
1
4. With XC established we can calculate the capacitance required using the formula 𝑋𝐶 = 2𝜋𝑓𝐶

S Q

Φ Sn
Φn Qn

P
Figure 2POwer triangle showing pf correction