PHS213

Power in AC circuit.
Reactive load do not dissipate power.

– - voltage drop across them suggests that they do.

- - the phantom power associated with them is called reactive power and
it is measured in volts –amps -reactive (VAR) rather than watt. In an AC
circuit the power is dissipated on the impedance Z.

True power, reactive power and apparent power.

True power, P, (dissipated by resistive elements) is the product of the
square of current and resistance or the ratio off voltage Squared to
resistance. It is measured in Watt.

E2
P  I 2R  (Watt)
R
Reactive power, Q, (this is power developed in inductors or capacitors) is
the product of the square of current and reactance or the ratio of voltage
squared to reactance. It is measured in volt –amp- reactive (or VAR).

E2
Q  I2X  (VAR)
X
Apparent power, S, (this is the power developed across all elements in an
AC circuit) is the product of the square of current and impedance or the
ratio of voltage squared 2 impedance.. It is measured in volt - amp (or
VA).

E2
S  I 2Z  (VA)
Z
Power factor (pF)
This is defined as the ratio of true power to apparent power .

true _ power
pF 
apparent _ power

for instance from the previous example (eg. 3), power equals 119.365 w
while apparent power equals 169.256 VA; therefore power factor

119.365
pF   0.705
169.256

.
the Cosine of power factor gives the angle between the vectors for true
power and apparent power on the power vector diagram.

Cos(0.705) = 45.152°..

pF in a resistive circuit equals 1 and the triangle collapses to a

horizontal.; this is a purely resistive circuit.
For purely inductive circuits, the power factor equals zero (pF = 0) and
triangle is vertical
F o r power factor less than 1 circuit wiring has to carry more current to
deliver the same power to resistive load.
From the above example if the circuit was purely resistive it would deliver
169.254W to the resistor at 1.410 amp rather than 119.365W.
Poor power factor leads to inefficient power delivery.
Poor power factor can be corrected by adding another element that will
draw current in the opposite direction to cancel out the effects of the
inductor in above example. In this case it has to be a capacitor.

Example: Calculate the capacitance of the capacitor to correct the power

factor for the above example.

E2 E2 120 2
Q therefore.......X 
..........   120.002
X Q 119.998

For a capacitor, X = Xc; therefore

1 1 1
.X C  ..........therefore.........C    22.1045F
2. . f .C 2. . f . X C 2. .60.120.002
 Three-Phase A.C. Systems
Consider the following figure:

MAGNETS
N
Coil

S Slip rings

R Load
Figure 1.

This is the basis a.c. generator. This type of generator has two terminals
for the output and it is referred to as a single-phase generator. The
voltage (or current ) waveform is a single sinusoidal pattern shown
below.

Figure 2.

The coil in figure 1 rotates in the space between the poles. In practice, the
coil winding is usually on a iron core while the source of the field rotates
and induces alternating e.m.f. in the coil. Suppose three coils are
arranged such that equal angular distance of 120° exists between them
as shown below;
 A B

Figure 3.

This will produce three waveforms each with a phase displacement of

120° as shown below.

Figure 4.

Such an arrangement would provide us with a 3 phase supply which

requires six conductors for proper operation. Note that the number of
turns in the coils is the same; this implies that the peak voltages of the
three phases will have the same value and same frequency.. Each coil can
be connected to other coils in particular manner such that we have
either a delta three-wire system or a star (aka wye) four-wire system.

Delta Connection (3 phase 3 wire system)

This method of connection is applied such that each of the three coil
winding is wound in such a way that each have a start point and an
end point to the winding. The end point of winding one is connected to
the start of winding two; the end point of winding two is connected to
the start of winding three while the end point of winding 3 is connected
to the start of winding one.
 L1

L2

L3

Figure 5

The supply is taken from the terminals where the coils are joined as
shown (L1, L2 and L3) above.

Star connection (3 phase, 4 wire system)

The three coils are also wound so that each has a definite start and end
point to the winding. For a star connection, the start of each winding
are all connected together to a common point known as the star point.
Phase supplies are then taking from the end point of each winding. The
star point is referred to as neutral and it is the fourth terminal. The
other three terminals (L1, L2 and L3) may be connected with respect to
the neutral N at the point of utilization..
 L1

L2
L3
N

Figure 6

Calculating voltages and currents in three face systems.

Voltages measured across any phase winding are known as phase

voltages (VP)

Voltages measured across any pair of lines is known as line villages (VL ).

Currents measured through any phase winding are known as phase

currents ( IP ).

Currents flowing along any line are known as line Currents ( I L )

Delta systems.
Voltage relationships

VL  VP .........therefore.........VP  VL
1
Current relationship

IL
IL  IP 3.........therefore.........I P 
3 2
Star systems
Voltage relationships

VL
VL  VP 3.........therefore.........VP 
3 3
Current relationship

I L  I P .........therefore.........I P  I L
4

Example The phase voltage and current of a star connected system is 320
volt and 20 amp. Calculate the line voltage and current.

Ans. 554.2volts; 20amp..

Application of three phase systems.

1 used to supply 3 phase load such as three phase motors. Loads such as
three phase motors have three lines which can be connected to delta or
star- delta systems.
2. Three-phase systems are used in public power supply utilities.

One advantage of three phase system is that they are more cost effective
compared to single phase systems. For the same total power, a three phase
generator is smaller in size when compared to a single phase generator..

Balanced and unbalanced systems

This refers to a situation where the impedance (load) across each phase
is considered. If the impedances across the phases are equal then this
system is balanced but where the impedances are not equal then the 3
face system is said to be unbalanced.
.
POWER IN 3 – PHASE SYSTEMS

Note that there will be some dissipation of power in three phase systems. If
the system is balanced, then all that is needed is to calculate the power
developed across one phase and multiply by three to obtain the power of
the 3-phase system.

The power per phase, PP . is:

Pp  VP .I P .COS ........where..COS  powerfacto r

5

If the system is balanced, the total power, P,is

P  3VP .I P .COS ........where..COS  powerfacto r

6

Alternatively, total power may also be calculated as follows:

P  3.VL .I L .COS ........where..COS  powerfacto r

7

These formula apply to both delta and star systems

Example: A delta connected balanced three phase system has phase

voltage 220v and line current 10A with power factor of 0.75. Calculate
the total power using both equations 6 and 7. Next, calculate the power
per phase.

Solution.

From equation 6

P  3VP .I P .COS ........where..COS  powerfacto r

For delta system IP.  IL  10  5.7737 A

3 3
Therefore

P  3VP .I P .COS .  3  220  5.7737  0.75  2858VA

From equation 7

P  3.VL .I L .COS ........where..COS  powerfacto r

For delta system VP .  VL

Therefore

P  3  220  10  0.75  2858VA

Both equations 7 and 8 yield same result.

The power per phase is

P 2858
PP    952.7VA
3 3