POWER FACTOR CORRECTION OF 6.6KV DISTRIBUTION LINE IN LC11 RMHS DEPARTMENT, JSW STEEL

Nandish B M, S Gopalakrishna, Jiby C Jose

Abstract: This paper discusses the design, implementation and analysis of a three phase (6.6kV, 50Hz) capacitor bank controller unit. Power factor correction using capacitor banks reduces reactive power consumption which will lead to minimization of losses and at the same time increases the electrical system’s efficiency. Most of the industrial installations have large electrical loads which are inductive in nature, which results in a lagging power factor. Power factor is the value of a system that reflects how much power is being borrowed from the power company for the system. Many power companies regulate industrial power factors to make sure that they do not fall below a certain level and charge the customer more on their utility bills if the power factor falls below a certain level. Power factor correction serves to correct low power factors by reducing the phase difference between the current and voltage at the distribution point for a company.In case of rapidly varying and scattered load it becomes difficult to maintain a high power factor by manually switching on/off capacitors in proportion to variation of load. Current transformer is used to measure the load current for sampling purposes. The most common way to correct the power factor is to switch capacitor banks at the source to generate reactive power. This work is to make a system that will switch capacitor banks when the power factor drops below a certain point to avoid power company charges.PLC is used to control of switching on/off capacitor bank to improve power factor.

Keywords: Power Factor, Reactive power, PLC

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2014.0315044