automated power factor acquisition and correction a senior design project idea by emanuel tavares...
DESCRIPTION
Problem : Poor PF can be found in Industrial, commercial and residential buildings. Most equipment consume inductive reactive power rather than capacitive. Solution : Design, Build and Test an Automatic Power Factor Correction system or device capable of: 1.Recording values of PF over an extensive period of time for future analysis and economic viability studies. 2.Correcting the PF in real-time (Dynamic PFC) using bank of capacitors in parallel with the load.TRANSCRIPT
Automated Power FactorAcquisition and Correction
A Senior Design Project ideaBy
Emanuel TavaresUniversity of Massachusetts Boston
Fall 2015
W h a t is P F ?
The angle ϕ is the phase difference between Voltage and Current on a Load.
Goal: minimize PF (PF Correction) by making cos(ϕ) closest possible to 1.
Problem: Poor PF can be found in Industrial, commercial and residential buildings. Most equipment consume inductive reactive power rather than capacitive. Solution: Design, Build and Test an Automatic Power Factor Correction system or device capable of:1. Recording values of PF over an extensive period of
time for future analysis and economic viability studies.
2. Correcting the PF in real-time (Dynamic PFC) using bank of capacitors in parallel with the load.
A simplified schematic of PFC system
http://www.google.com/patents/US6462519
Potential uses and functionsBesides industrial and commercial applications, a potential use for an Automated Power Factor Acquisition and Correction system/device can be in the classroom as an educational tool. A Software can be developed to read the stored PF, and to help visualize the electrical parameters being sensed and conditioned by the system.