POWER FACTOR AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE

 POWER FACTOR 

- Power factor plays very significant roll in electrical power system.

- It comes in a picture of when we consider AC system that means when there is inductor and capacitor with resister or as individuals.

- It gives the information about how much power we are using actually to do needful work.

Definition of Power Factor- Power factor can be defined as follows-

(1). Power factor can be defined as the ratio of R (resistance) to Z (impedance).

(2). Power Factor can be defined as ratio of true power (active power) to the apparent power.

 (3). Power Factor can also be defined as Cosine of angle between voltage and current in a given circuit. 

- Power Factor of system shows how efficient system works.

-Ideally Maximum value of power factor would be one (1) but it is not possible to achieve it, because 70% of loads are inductive in nature.

Lets understand actual meaning of Power Factor-

Let us consider a system which is under balanced condition and taking 440 volt and suppose it is taking current of 10 Ampere and Power rating of this system is 3.50 kW. So its power factor would be equal to 

we know that

From above calculation we can say that Power Factor gives the relation between active and apparent power as well as reactive power.

From above equation 1, we also say that

 "If we give 4430.37 watt of power to a system then system takes only 0.79 factor of total given power (Apparent Power) as actual useful power (true or active power) and 0.31 factor of energy is dissipated as Reactive Power which does not do useful work in system.''

''Suppose we give 100 watt of apparent power to system and which is having 0.80 power factor that means system use 80 watt as active power and 20 watt as reactive power, or system does useful work with 80 watt and 20 watt is used to energies the system.''