CAPACITOR BANK:
A Capacitor Bank is a group
of several capacitors of the same rating that are connected in series or
parallel with each other to store electrical energy. The resulting bank is then
used to counteract or correct a power factor lag or phase shift in an alternating
current (AC) power supply. Increasing
the number of capacitors in a bank will increase the capacity of energy that
can be stored on a single device. In short capacitor banks are used to improve
power factor for an electrical system.
WHY WE NEED CAPACITOR BANKS IN A SYSTEM:
Capacitor banks are used to improve power factor for an electrical system.
WHAT IS POWER FACTOR:
The power supplied by generating system is known as active power and is expressed in kW or MW. However in reactive power always there in AC system. This reactive power is expressed in kVAR or MVAR. There are three types of power in electrical system
- Real or active power does the useful work.
- Reactive power is normally non working power to create magnetic field which in turn is used to facilitate useful work.
- Total or apparent power is combination of real and reactive power, which is the useful power used by facility.
The main reason of this reactive power is inductive load connected to the system. Electric motors, induction furnaces, fluorescent lighting, transformer etc are main reason of this reactive power. In order to make good electrical system this reactive power to be compensated i.e the ratio of actual power consumed by the load to the total power to be reduced as much as possible.
The ratio of real power to apparent power is known as power factor. For ideal electrical system the power factor is 1. A lower ratio indicates a poor power factor system. In other words power factor measures the percentage of power that is being used for useful work.
If the power factor of the system can cause the equipment overloads, voltage drop and make the system less efficient, putting undue strain on this equipment and hence reducing service life. And also utility may charge penalty if the power factor is less than standard value.
BENIFITS OF IMPROVING POWER FACTOR:
There are many benefits of improving a low power factor including below:
- A low power factor causes greater loss of power in electrical distribution system. So improving power factor will minimize power losses.
- By improving power factor we can reduce reactive power needed to run the facility. As a result utility bill will be lowered. Also potential penalty from utility can be avoided.
- Inefficient system with power losses can result in equipment overloads, overheating and a shorter service life. So improving power factor can make the system more efficient.
Low power factor can cause in increase plant system and also decreases efficiency of system. Several step can be taken to improve power factor.
- Minimizing the operation of idling or lightly loaded inductive equipment, particularly motors.
- Replacing defunct motors with energy efficient ones and operating these near their rated capacity
- Avoiding operating equipment above its rated voltage
- Replacing fluorescent lighting with led lights
- Installing capacitor banks to decrease the amount of reactive power used.
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