Power factor correction

Abstract

In recent years, energy auditing and the power quality of the AC system has become a great concern due to the rapidly increased energy demand and numbers of electronic equipments, power electronics, and high voltage power system. In order to reduce the energy consumption and harmonic contamination in power lines and improve transmission efficiency, power factor research became a hot topic. Power factor correction (PFC) is a technique of counteracting the undesirable effects of electric loads that create a power factor that is less than one. Power factor correction may be applied either by an electrical power 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 advances in the discrete semiconductors, coupled with lower priced control ICs have made the active PFC solutions more appropriate in a wide range of applications. Many control methods for the power factor correction (PFC) have been proposed, to provide power factor correction, three phase load balancing, voltage regulation, flicker control, harmonic elimination, increased network stability and better control of power flow. This project describes the design and development of the circuit for power factor using PIC (Programmable Interface Controller) microcontroller chip. This involves sensing and measuring the power factor value, voltage and current from the load using microcontroller and sensors, then using proper algorithm to determine and trigger sufficient switching capacitors in order to compensate excessive reactive components, thus bringing power factor (PF) near to unity; as a result acquires higher efficiency and better quality AC output hence energy saving by less utilization of power.