Microcontroller based power factor improvement
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Date
2010
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Abstract
Power factor correction (PFC) is a technique of counteracting the undesirable effects of electric loads that create a power factor (p.f.) less than 1.power factor correction may be applied either by an electrical
transmission utility to improve the stability and efficiency of the transmission network or correction may be installed by individual electrical customers to reduce the costs charged to them by their electricity supplier. The most practical and economical power factor correction device is the capacitor. Incorporation of a micro-controller into a static capacitor device facilitates a sort of an automatic control action where by the power factor is always kept a fixed value, irrespective of the load power factor conditions. It improves the
power factor because the effects of capacitance are exactly opposite those of
inductance. The micro-controller determines the power factor of the system at any instant of time and determines the reactive power to be supplied and the value of capacitance to be switched in to make the power factor unity. The capacitor is switched in parallel to the load through a relay controlled by the processor. The circuit is capable of correcting the power factor for any inductive load within the rating of the system.
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Keywords
BS-Thesis, Electrical Engineering, Power Factor, Microcontroller