Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

In the present technological revolution, power is very precious and the power system is becoming
more and more complex with each passing day. As such it becomes necessary to transmit each unit
of power generated over increasing distances with minimum loss of power. However, with
increasing number of inductive loads, large variation in load etc. the losses have also increased
manifold. Hence, it has become prudent to find out the causes of power loss and improve the power
system. Due to increasing use of inductive loads, the load power factor decreases considerably
which increases the losses in the system and hence power system losses its efficiency.
Power factor is defined as the ratio of real power to apparent power. This definition is often
mathematically represented as KW/KVA, where the numerator is the active (real) power and the
denominator is the (active + reactive) or apparent power. It is a measure of how effectively the
current is being converted into useful work output. A load with a power factor of 1.0 result in the
most efficient loading of the supply and a load with a power factor of 0.5 will result in much higher
losses in the supply system. A poor power factor can be the result of either a significant phase
difference between the voltage and current at the load terminals, or it can be due to a high harmonic
content or distorted/discontinuous current waveform. Poor load current phase angle is generally the
result of an inductive load such as an induction motor, power transformer, lighting ballasts, welder
or induction furnace. A distorted current waveform can be the result of a rectifier, variable speed
drive, switched mode power supply, discharge lighting or other electronic load.
Automatic power factor correction techniques can be applied to industrial units, power systems
and also households to make them stable. As a result, the system becomes stable and efficiency
of the system as well as of the apparatus increases. Therefore, the use of microcontroller based
power factor corrector results in reduced overall costs for both the consumers and the suppliers
of electrical energy.
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.
Power saving issues and reactive power management has led to the development of single
phase capacitor banks for domestic and industrial applications. The development of this project
is to enhance and upgrade the operation of single phase capacitor banks by developing a micro-
processor based control system. The control unit will be able to control capacitor bank
operating steps based on the varying load current. Current transformer is used to measure the
load current for sampling purposes. Intelligent control using this micro-processor control unit
ensures even utilization of capacitor steps, minimizes number of switching operations and
optimizes power factor correction.
 Chapter 2

LITERATURE SURVEY

Pavg = VIcosφ

Where, φ is the phase angle between the voltage and current. The term cosφ is called the power
factor. Power factor is the ration between the KW and the KVA drawn by an electrical load
where the KW is the actual load power and the KVA is the apparent load power. It is a measure
of how effectively the current is being converted into useful work output and more particularly
is a good indicator of the effect of the load current on the efficiency of the supply system.

Fig: Power Triangle

A load with a power factor of 1.0 result in the most efficient loading of the supply and a load
with a power factor of 0.5 will result in much higher losses in the supply system. A poor power
factor can be the result of either a significant phase difference between the voltage and current
at the load terminals or it can be due to a high harmonic content or distorted/discontinuous
current waveform.
Poor load current phase angle is generally the result of an inductive load such as an induction
motor, power transformer, lighting ballasts, welder or induction furnace. A distorted current
waveform can be the result of a rectifier, variable speed drive, switched mode power supply,
discharge lighting or other electronic load.

2.1. Power Factor Correction

Capacitive Power Factor correction is applied to circuits which include induction motors as a
means of reducing the inductive component of the current and thereby reduce the losses in the
supply. There should be no effect on the operation of the motor itself. An induction motor
draws current from the supply that is made up of resistive components and inductive
components.
The resistive components are:
i. Load current
ii. Loss current

The inductive components are

i. Leakage reactance
ii. Magnetizing current

Fig: Current Triangle

The current due to the leakage reactance is dependent on the total current drawn by the motor
but the magnetizing current is independent of the load on the motor. The magnetizing current
will typically be between 20% and 60% of the rated full load current of the motor. The
magnetizing current is the current that establishes the flux in the iron and is very necessary if
the motor is going to operate. The magnetizing current does not actually contribute to the actual
work output of the motor. It is the catalyst that allows the motor to work properly. The
magnetizing current and the leakage reactance can be considered passenger components of
current that will not affect the power drawn by the motor, but will contribute to the power
dissipated in the supply and distribution system.
 Chapter 3

DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

3.1 BLOCK DIAGRAM

Fig: Block Diagram of Automatic Power Factor Correction Circuit

The above given circuit for Automatic Power Factor detection and correction operates on the
principal of constantly monitoring the power factor of the system and to initiate the required
correction in case the power factor is less than the set value of power factor
3.2 CIRCUIT DIAGRAM

Fig: Circuit Diagram of APFC

3.3 CIRCUIT DESCRIPTION

The voltage signal obtained is converted into the digital by comparator circuit since micro
controller accepts the digitized format only. This is given to the microcontroller as one input.
Similarly, for current signal, from the current transformer is converted into voltage signal by
rectification. As previously digitized the voltage signal, this current signal in the form of
voltage is also digitized by the comparator circuit.

These two digitized signals i.e. voltage and currents are sent to the microcontroller as the inputs.
According to the program written microcontroller calculates the time difference between the
zero crossings of these two signals. This time difference is indirectly proportional to the system
power factor. The information about this power factor and the power loss is displayed on the
LCD display. And according to the range calculated by the microcontroller program; this drives
the relays which switches the shunt capacitors across the load.
While increasing of the inductive load by connecting the other loads like motors to this circuit
results in reduced power factor. This will make the microcontroller to drive the more number
of relays resulting in more shunt capacitors to be connected.
In this project simple method of capacitor requirement calculation used based on the time delay
between the voltage and current to bring the power factor near to unity. But in real time
applications it will not be so. It requires the calculations like load current magnitude and KVAR
requirement etc. Number of capacitors requirements depends on the load on the particular
system. These parameters must be considered while dealing with the commercial power factor
improvement or compensating products.

3.3.1 Zero crossing detector

A zero crossing is a point where the sign of a mathematical function changes (e.g. from positive
to negative), represented by the crossing of the axis (zero value) in the graph of the function. It
is a commonly used term in electronics, mathematics, sound and image processing. In
alternating current, the zero-crossing is the instantaneous point at which there is no voltage
present. Ina a sine wave this condition normally occurs twice in a cycle.
A zero crossing detector is an important application of op-amp comparator circuit. It can also
be referred to as a sine to square wave converter. Anyone of the inverting or the non-inverting
comparators can be used as a zero crossing detector. The reference voltage in this case is set to
zero. The output voltage waveform shows when and in what direction an input signal crosses
zero volts. If input voltage is a low frequency signal, then output voltage will be less quick to
switch from one saturation point to another. And if there is noise in between the two input
nodes, the output may fluctuate between positive and negative saturation voltage ‗Vsat‘. .Here
IC LM358 is used as a zero crossing detector.

Fig: Zero Crossing Detector

3.3.2 Design of capacitor

Motor input = P, Original P.F = Cosθ1, Final P.F = Cosθ2
Required Capacitor
kVAR = P (Tan θ1 – Tan θ2)
We know that; IC = V/ XC
Whereas XC = 1 / 2 π F C
IC = V / (1 / 2 π F C)
IC = V 2 F C
And,
kVAR = (V x IC) / 1000 … [kVAR = (V x I)/ 1000]
We have already calculated the required Capacity of Capacitor in kVAR, so we can easily
convert it into Farads by using this simple formula
Required Capacity of Capacitor in Farads/Microfarads
C = kVAR / (2 π f V2) in microfarad
3.4 COMPONENTS AND THEIR DESCRIPTION

3.4.1 Potential Transformer

A potential transformer, a voltage transformer or a laminated core transformer is the most

common type of transformer widely used in electrical power transmission and appliances to
convert mains voltage to low voltage in order to power low power electronic devices. They are
available in power ratings ranging from mW to MW. The Insulated laminations minimize eddy
current losses in the iron core.
A potential transformer is typically described by its voltage ratio from primary to secondary.
A 600:120 potential transformer would provide an output voltage of 120V when a voltage of
600V is impressed across the primary winding. The potential transformer here has a voltage
ratio of 230:24 i.e., when the input voltage is the single phase voltage 230V, the output is 24V.

Fig:3.4.1 Potential transformer used as an Instrument Transformer

The potential transformer here is being used for voltage sensing in the line. They are designed
to present negligible load to the supply being measured and have an accurate voltage ratio and
phase relationship to enable accurate secondary connected metering. The potential transformer
is used to supply a voltage of about 12V to the Zero Crossing Detectors for zero crossing
detection. The outputs of the potential transformer are taken from one of the peripheral
terminals and the central terminal as only a voltage of about 12V is sufficient for the operation
of Zero crossing detector circuit.

3.4.2 Current Transformer:

The current transformer is an instrument transformer used to step-down the current in the
circuit to measurable values and is thus used for measuring alternating currents. When the
current in a circuit is too high to apply directly to a measuring instrument, a current transformer
produces a reduced current accurately proportional to the current in the circuit, which can in
turn be conveniently connected to measuring and recording instruments. A current Transformer
isolates the measuring instrument from what may be a very high voltage in the monitored
circuit. Current transformers are commonly used in metering and protective relays.

Fig: Current Transformer

Like any other transformer, a current transformer has a single turn wire of a very large cross-
section as its primary winding and the secondary winding has a large number of turns, thereby
reducing the current in the secondary to a fraction of that in the primary. Thus, it has a primary
winding, a magnetic core and a secondary winding. The alternating current in the primary
produces an alternating magnetic field in the magnetic core, which then induces an alternating
current in the secondary winding circuit.

3.4.3 Capacitor Bank

Capacitor banks may also be used in direct current power supplies to increase stored energy
and improve the ripple current capacity of the power supply. The capacitor bank consists of a
group of four ac capacitors, all rated at 400V, 50 Hz i.e., the supply voltage and frequency. The
value of capacitors is different and it consists of four capacitors of 2.5 farad. All the capacitors
are connected in parallel to one another and the load. The capacitor bank is controlled by the
relay module and is connected across the line. The operation of a relay connects the associated
capacitor across the line in parallel with the load and other capacitors.

Fig: Capacitor Bank

3.4.4 LM358

The abbreviation LM358 indicates an integrated circuit to 8 feet, containing two operational
amplifiers at low power. The LM358 is designed for general use as amplifiers, high-pass filters
and low, band pass filters and analogue adders.
One of the particularities of this integrated is to be designed to be able to operate with a single
static power that ranges from a minimum of 3 V to a maximum of 32 V although typically there
settles at levels between 5 V and 15 V. In fact, , while most of the integrated circuits containing
the operational needs two power supplies, a positive and a negative, the LM358 can be
connected to one positive supply while the negative supply is replaced by the mass . However,
depending on the needs, it can also introduce the negative power supply by connecting the leg
called ground to the appropriate generator. In feeding regime double the voltage range is ± 1.5
÷ 16 V.

Fig: LM358 Op-amp

3.4.5 Summer/Adder (X-OR) gate:

They provide the system designer with a means for implementation of the EXCLUSIVE OR
function. Logic gates utilize silicon gate CMOS technology to achieve operating speeds similar
to LSTTL gates with the low power consumption of standard CMOS integrated circuits. All
devices have the ability to drive STTL loads. The HCT logic family is functionally pin
compatible with the standard LS logic family.

Fig: X-OR gate

3.4.6 Relay Driver:

The ULN2003A are high voltage, high current Darlington arrays each containing seven open
collector Darlington pairs with common emitters. Each channel rated at 500mA and can
withstand peak currents of 600mA. Suppression diodes are included for inductive load driving
and the inputs are pinned opposite the outputs to simplify board layout. The four versions
interface to all common logic families:

Fig: ULN 2003A

These versatile devices are useful for driving a wide range of loads including solenoids, relays,
DC motors, LED displays filament lamps, thermal print heads and high power buffers. The
ULN2001A/2002A/2003A and 2004A are supplied in 16 pin plastic DIP packages with a
copper lead frame to reduce thermal resistance. They are available also in small outline package
(SO-16) as ULN2001D/2002D/2003D/2004D

Fig: Pinout of uln2003a

3.4.7 RELAY

The relays used in the control circuit are high-quality Single Pole-Double Throw (SPDT),
sealed 6V Sugar Cube Relays. These relays operate by virtue of an electromagnetic field
generated in a solenoid as current is made to flow in its winding. The control circuit of the relay
is usually low power (here, a 6V supply is used) and the controlled circuit is a power circuit
with voltage around 230V ac.
The relays are individually driven by the relay driver through a 6V power supply. Initially the
relay contacts are in the Normally Open ‘state. When a relay operates, the electromagnetic field
forces the solenoid to move up and thus the contacts of the external power circuit are made. As
the contact is made, the associated capacitor is connected in parallel with the load and across
the line. The relay coil is rated up to 8V, with a minimum switching voltage of 5V. The contacts
of the relay are rated up to 7A @ 270C AC and 7A @ 24V DC.

Fig: relay

3.4.8 LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)

LCD panel consist of two patterned glass panels in which crystal is filled under vacuum. The
thickness of glass varies according to end use. Most of the LCD modules have glass thickness
in the range of 0.70 to 1.1mm.
Normally these liquid crystal molecules are placed between glass plates to form a spiral stair
case to twist the light. These LCD cannot display any information directly. These act as an
interface between electronics and electronics circuit to give a visual output. The values are
displayed in the 2x16 LCD modules after converting suitably. The liquid crystal display (LCD),
as the name suggests is a technology based on the use of liquid crystal. It is a transparent
material but after applying voltage it becomes opaque. This property is the fundamental
operating principle of LCDs.
 Fig: Liquid Crystal Display

3.4.9 Microcontroller 8051

Fig: Microcontroller 8051

8051 microcontroller is designed by Intel in 1981. It is an 8-bit microcontroller. It is built with

40 pins DIP (dual inline package), 4kb of ROM storage and 128 bytes of RAM storage, 2 16-
bit timers. It consists of are four parallel 8-bit ports, which are programmable as well as
addressable as per the requirement. An on-chip crystal oscillator is integrated in the
microcontroller having crystal frequency of 12 MHz.

A microprocessor is a controlling unit of a micro-computer, fabricated on a small chip capable

of performing Arithmetic Logical Unit (ALU) operations and communicating with the other
devices connected to it. In this tutorial, we will discuss the architecture, pin diagram and other
key concepts of microprocessors.
Features of 8051 Microcontroller.

 64K bytes on-chip program memory (ROM)

 128 bytes on-chip data memory (RAM)
 Four register banks.
 128 user defined software flags.
 8-bit bidirectional data bus.
 16-bit unidirectional address bus.
 32 general purpose registers each of 8-bit.
 16 bit Timers (usually 2, but may have more or less)

Specifications of 8051 Microcontroller

Microcontrollers - 8051 Architecture. ... It is an 8-bit microcontroller. It is built with 40 pins

DIP (dual inline package), 4kb of ROM storage and 128 bytes of RAM storage, 2 16-bit timers.
It consists of are four parallel 8-bit ports, which are programmable as well as addressable as
per the requirement.

.
 Chapter 4

RESULT ANALYSIS
4.1 RESULT

The expected outcome of this project is to measuring the power factor value displaying it in
the LCD and to improve power factor using capacitor bank and reduce current draw by the load
using microcontroller and proper algorithm to turn on capacitor automatically, determine and
trigger sufficient switching of capacitor in order to compensate excessive reactive components,
thus bringing power factor near to unity ,there by improving the efficiency of the system and
reducing the electricity bill.
To verify the performance of the automatic power factor correction using microcontroller a
prototype is developed and tested. Figure shows the system setup for the automatic power
correction using microcontroller. The power supply is of 12-6V using step down transformer.
And it contains a microcontroller, LCD module which is displaying correct power factor and
relays which help to include capacitor banks to the circuit as per the necessity. Prototype is
verified using, an inductive load. Which initially gives a lagging power factor, which by than
gives an improved power factor close to unity by the proper working of the APFC unit.

Fig DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS, SCET

4.2 WORKING MODEL
4.3 PROTEUS SIMULATION

Fig Simulation
 Chapter 5

FUTURE SCOPE

The automotive power factor correction using capacitive load banks is very efficient as it
reduces the cost by decreasing the power drawn from the supply. As it operates automatically,
manpower is not required and this Automated Power Factor Correction using capacitive load
banks can be used for the industries purpose in the future

5.1 ADVERSE EFFECT OF OVER CORRECTION

1. Power system becomes unstable

2. Resonant frequency is below the line frequency

3. Current and voltage increases

5.2 ADVANTAGES OF CORRECTED POWER FACTOR

1. Reactive power decreases

2. Avoid poor voltage regulation

3. Overloading is avoided

4. Copper loss decreases

5. Transmission loss decreases

6. Improved voltage control

7. Efficiency of supply system and apparatus increases

 Chapter 6

CONCLUSION

It can be concluded that power factor correction techniques can be applied to the industries,
power systems and also house holds to make them stable and due to that the system becomes
stable and efficiency of the system as well as the apparatus increases. The use of
microcontroller reduces the costs. Due to use of microcontroller multiple parameters can be
controlled and the use of extra hard wares such as timer, RAM,ROM and input output ports
reduces. Care should be taken for overcorrection otherwise the voltage and current becomes
more due to which the power system or machine becomes unstable and the life of capacitor
banks reduces.
REFERENCE


 P. N. Enjeti and R Martinez, ―A high performance single phase rectifier with input
power factor correction, IEEE Trans. Power Electron.vol.11, No. 2, Mar.2003.pp 311-
317

 J.G. Cho, J.W. Won, H.S. Lee, ―Reduced conduction loss zero-voltage-transition
power factor correction converter with low cost, IEEE Trans. Industrial Electron.
vol.45, no 3, Jun. 2000, pp395-400

 V.K Mehta and Rohit Mehta, ―Principles of power system‖, S. Chand & Company
Ltd,
International Journal of Engineering and Innovative Technology (IJEIT) Volume 3,
Issue 4, October 2013 272 Power Factor Correction Using PIC Microcontrol.

 Design and Implementation of Microcontroller-Based Controlling of Power Factor

Using Capacitor Banks with Load Monitoring, Global Journal of Researches in
Engineering Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Volume 13, Issue 2, Version 1.0
Year 2013 Type: Double Blind Peer Reviewed International Research Journal
Publisher: Global Journals Inc. (USA) Online ISSN: 2249-4596 & Print ISSN: 0975-
5861

 Electric power industry reconstructing in India, Present scenario and future prospects,
S.N. Singh, senior member, IEEE and S.C. Srivastava, Senior Member, IEEE.