What Is Power Factor?
Power factor is the ratio of the real power that’s used to do work and the apparent power that’s supplied to the circuit. In simple words, it is a way of measuring efficient power usage, or how effectively the equipment at your site utilizes electricity. It is expressed as a numerical value between 0 & 1. The closer the power factor is to 1, the more efficiently your business is consuming electricity.
Some Common Reasons for Low Power Factor
- Inductive loading – Almost 90% of industrial load consists of single and three phase induction machines, which draw magnetizing current for producing the magnetic field and therefore work at low power factor.
- Harmonic currents – Harmonics increase the amount of power required by the system due to a reduction in electric power quality, and therefore contributes to a lower power factor.
- Variations in power loading – When the system is loaded lightly, the voltage increases and the current drawn by the machines also increases. This results in a low power factor.
- Improper wiring or electrical accidents – A condition called ‘3 phase power imbalance’ occurs as a result of improper wiring or electrical accidents that further causes low power factor.
When you have a low power factor, you aren’t able to fully utilize the electrical power you’re paying for. Utility companies often penalize the customers for low power factor to compensate for this inefficiency and that’s one of the reasons it is important to invest in power factor correction.
Icopower ESCO is one of the companies known for providing the best power quality solutions to businesses across Kenya and Seychelles. The company designs and installs capacitor banks tailored to a site’s specific requirements, and also troubleshoots and fine tunes existing power factor banks for maximum functionality. To know more, please visit https://icopower-esco.com/ or email @ fm@icopower-esco.com
