Correcting Your Power Factor

Correcting Your Power Factor

Some strategies for correcting your power factor are

Install capacitors in your AC circuit to decrease the magnitude of reactive power. Capacitors draw leading reactive power. That means their current is 180 degrees out of phase with inductive loads, so they are storing energy when inductive loads are releasing it back to the line and vice versa. The presence of both inductive and capacitive reactance in the same circuit results in the continuous alternating transfer of energy between the capacitor and the inductive lead, thereby reducing the current flow from the line. In a sense, energy is caught and reflected back by the capacitor instead of having to flow all the way back and forth from the power generator.

Replace over-sized motors with high efficiency motors of the right horse power. Any motor's power factor is dramatically worse when it is loaded significantly below the full nameplate horsepower rating.

Shut down idling motors, when totally unloaded, even uncoupled, a motor still draws over half its full-load reactive power.

Avoid operation of equipment above its rated voltage. Over-voltage increases reactive power.