Power Factor Correction using Boost Converter Circuit consisting Reactive

Power Generation using Simulation

Mansi Bhadouria 1* , Aastha Bhatt 2**
1
Student, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, V.V.P. Engineering College, Rajkot, India

*Corresponding Author: 21ec191.mansi.bhadouria@vvpedulink.ac.in

2
Student, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, V.V.P. Engineering College, Rajkot, India

**Corresponding Author: 20ec035.aastha.bhatt@vvpedulink.ac.in

Abstract

Power Factor Correction can make significant cost savings in electrical installations with low power
factors. These savings are largely due to the way electrical utilities bill their customers. A review of high
– performance, state of the art, active power- factor- correction (PFC) techniques for high – power,
single phase applications is resented. The merits and limitations of several PFC techniques that are used
in today’s network server and telecom power supplies to maximize their conversion efficiencies. This
technique includes various zero – voltage – switching and zero – current – switching, active – snubber
approaches employed to reduce recovery related switching losses, as well as techniques for the
minimization of the conduction losses. Finally, the effect of recent advancements in semiconductor
technology, primarily silicon – carbide technology, on the performance and design considerations of the
PFC Converters are also discussed.

Keywords: Power, Filter, Rectification, Simulation, Power Factor

1. INTRODUCTION

Any end equipment powered from AC supply represents a complex load where the input current is not
always in phase with the instantaneous line voltage. And so, the end equipment consumes both real
power as well as reactive power from the supply. The ratio between real, usable power and the total real
plus reactive power is known as Power Factor. Laptop Adapters can be the perfect example of end
equipment.

PFC (Power Factor Correction) circuit intentionally shapes the input current to be in phase with the
instantaneous line voltage and minimizes the total apparent power consumed. Power Factor is a
parameter to measure the energy efficiency of the circuit. [15] It shows the efficiency of the circuit and
power losses and power consumption of the same.
 1.1 POWER FACTOR

The classical definition of Power Factor is defined as the ratio of real power measured in watts (W)
consumed by a load divided by the total apparent power measured in Volt – Amperes (VA) circulating
between the power source and load.
For a DC input, the input current and input voltage is always in phase and as such maintains a power
factor of 1 or an electronic application that is powered from the AC supply, the input current does not
naturally follow the instantaneous AC line voltage.
Power Factor (PF) defined as the ratio of Real Power to Apparent Power. Where,

𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑙 𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟(𝑊𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑠) = 𝐼𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑉 × 𝐼

𝐴𝑝𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 (𝑉𝐴) = 𝑉𝑟𝑚𝑠 × 𝐼

Fig 1: Power Factor

But this is only applicable to sinusoidal waveforms. Plus power factor can be leading or lagging.

1.2 BEER ANALOGY

To understand what Power Factor is, the common example used is Beer Analogy. It is used to represent
the Power consumption at a site. There are different types of power present like – Reactive Power, Real
Power and Apparent Power.[1]

Reactive Power which is measured in KVAR is a kind of complex power that doesn’t do any work. It
corresponds to storage, retrieval of energy and magnetizing.[3] Example it enables transforms to
transform or generators to generate.

 Real power is the power which actually does work. It is actual power that is consumed due to the
load. It is measured in Watt.
 Apparent Power is the culmination of Reactive Power and Real power in a line. Or, it is the
power, the grid must be able to withstand. It is measured in VA (Volt – Ampere).
 Fig 2: Ratio of Real power, Apparent Power and Reactive Power

As we can see in Fig 3, that is Beer Analogy of Power Factor.[1]f According to this figure-

1. The glass is Apparent Power. Vectorial Summation of Real and Apparent powers.
2. The Foam on the top is Reactive Power. It is wasted power, and customer additionally pays for
it.
3. Beer that is actual power or we can say Real Power. The actual power used at the site.

Fig 3: Beer Analogy and Power Factor

1.3 CAUSES OF LOW POWER FACTOR

When the current waveform is not sinusoidal, as is the case for switching power converters, the PF can
also be less the unity. The current in a switching power converter contains a frequency element that
multiplies with switching frequency. This results into distortion power factor. Low power factor means
when P.F. is not equal to or near to 1. There are several causes of low power factor:

1. Induction Motors: For full load motor works at PF between 0.8 – 0.9. For small load motor
works at PF lying between 0.2 – 0.3. And if no load is available the PF may come to 0.
2. Varying load in Power System: As load is varied so when there is low load period, supply
voltage is increased which will increase the magnetizing current and so power factor will be
decreased.
 3. Electrical Discharge Lamps: High Intensity discharge lighting lamps operate at a very low power
factor.
4. Transformers: It operates under no-load conditions has a low power factor because the circuit is
almost purely reactive. But as the load on a transformer increases, the reactance decreases, and
power factor increases.
5. Industrial Heating furnaces
6. Harmonic Currents

1.4 REQUIREMENT OF PFC

By improving the power factor one can improve the energy efficiency, reduce losses on the distribution
system and also reduces cost. It improves the work output and lessens the instability and failure of the
system elements.

Adding capacitor in the simple converter circuit leads into the power factor correction circuit, which will
provide reactive power. Reactive power is the leading current which helps to compensate the lagging
current to increase the energy efficiency.[4]

Capacitors used will also neutralize the magnetizing current. The power factor should basically the near
to unity so if it even reaches the range of 0.92 to 0.95 then also it can be counted as better. There are
many systems in which energy is been wasted in the distribution system itself. Power factor correction
will reduce this wasted energy.

For DC Supply we calculate power as product of voltage and current for a fixed resistance, where
current is proportional to the applied voltage. So power dissipated will be linear. But in AC Supply the
reactance will affect the behavior of the circuit, also AC voltage us a form of line wave and it
continuously keeps on changing its magnitude and direction with time at a rate which is decided by the
source frequency.

Fig 4(a): Before PFC means when no capacitor for correction is used then voltage and current are
out of phase and so there will be low power factor.

Fig 4(b): After PFC means when capacitor is connected in the circuit, then both voltage and
current are in phase so the power factor in the circuit will be equal to or near to 1 (unity).
 Fig 5: Resistive load PFC circuit (left) ; RL Load PFC circuit (right)

2. CORRECTION OF POWER FACTOR

The main intent of Power factor correction (PFC) is to ameliorate power factor, and also reduces the
load acts on the distribution system, increases energy effectively and reduces costs of electricity. It also
decreases the unstableness and failure of system constituents. Power Factor correction is nothing but
connecting the capacitors which produce reactive power. [11]

Electrical Energy in opposition to the electrical energy is absorbed by loads like motors, nearly close to
the load. It improves the power factor where the reactive power is connected.

Fig 6: Waveforms of voltage and current with respect to time in different circuits
 Fig 7: PFC circuit with RLC load

3. ADVANTAGES OF PFC

 Reduction in electricity bill due to reduced maximum demand.

 Improved voltage regulation in the system.

 Reduction in system losses

 Efficiency of plant increases, Overall cost per unit decreases.

 KW capacities of prime motors, alternators, transformers improve

4. ACTIVE AND PASSIVE PFC

The simplest form of PFC is passive PFC. Passive PFC uses a filter at the AC input to correct the
low power factor. The Passive PFC circuitry uses only passive components – an inductor and
some capacitors like in Fig 8. Although pleasantly simple and robust, a passive PFC infrequently
circuit operates at the low line power frequency of 50 Hz or 60 Hz, the passive elements or
components are typically bulky and big.[6]

Fig 8: A passive PFC circuit requires only a few components to increase

efficiency, but they are large due to operating at the line power frequency [5]
Active PFC offers better Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) and is significantly lower and lighter than a
passive PFC circuit (Fig 9). To reduce the size and cost of passive filter elements, an active PFC
operates at an advanced switching frequency than the 50 Hz - 60 Hz line frequency. Active PFC
functions include:

1. Active wave shaping of the input current

2. Filtering of the high frequency switching
3. Feedback sensing of the source current for waveform control
4. Feedback control to regulate output voltage

Buck, boost, fly back and other converter topologies are used in active PFC circuits. The DC- DC
converter input capacitor also benefits from active PFC. The capacitor can be sized to filter the high
frequency ripple of the active PFC circuit rather of a much larger capacitor that would be required to
smooth the 50- 60 Hz input. The regulated input of the DC- DC converter also demands a lower range of
duty cycle from the DC- DC converter. Other benefits of active PFC include increased “hold-over-time.”
Hold over (brownout protection) benefits from always starting at the maximum voltage; the capacitor
can be much lower than a capacitor in a converter without Active PFC.

Fig 9: An active PFC circuit produces low THD and uses relatively small
passive components.

5. MATLAB SIMULATION MODEL

There are two configurations of power factor correction circuit for MATLAB.[9] First circuit will
not consist capacitor bank that is similar to the Before PFC section covered in Fig 4(a) and
another circuit would consist capacitor bank just like the concept of After PFC, covered in Fig
4(b). The following MATLAB Simulation model consist of a block diagram and circuit
implementation. It compares the circuits with and without capacitor bank usage.
 Fig 10: MATLAB Simulation Block Diagram

5.1 SIMULATION MODEL WITHOUT CAPACITOR BANK

Fig 11: Simulation Model without capacitor bank

 It contains generation system and output of the generator is connected to the 11kV/ 415v, 25MVA and
the secondary of the transformer is transmitted through the transmission line and the output supply is
connected the R- L load of 10kw, 5 KVAR which drawing the power factor the0.8944 to ameliorate the
power factor of the system the computation the capacitor bank should be needed. In the below system
there's no capacitor bank in between load and transmission line.

5.2 SIMUALTION MODEL WITH CAPACITOR BANK

After calculating the capacitor value it will be connected in between the line and load the power
factor of the system will be improved power factor. The below numbers of filter forms will gives the
values of terminal voltage and current.[9]

Fig 12: Simulation Model with Capacitor bank

 Fig 13: Input Current

Fig 14: Output Voltage generated

VI. CON
Fig 10: Input Current
6. CONCLUSION

If the input voltage is 230V, the output voltage of the regulator shall be 400V that corresponds to the
desired value. Due to the bulky capacitor used between the conversion stage of the PFC to ACDC and
the conversion stage of the boost regulator, the disadvantages of the double stage approach are higher
costs. . This drawback is a one stage approach is available to overcoming this problem, the AC to DC
and boost regulator stages of the PFC are integrated in a single stage, whereas the capacitor is replaced
and exchanged by a single switch.

7. REFERANCES

[1] Osama A. Al-Naseem and Ahmad Kh. Adi, Impact of Power Factor Correction on the Electrical Distribution
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[2] Gagari Deb, Partha Sarathi Saha and Prasenjit Das, A Method of Finding Capacitor Value for Power Factor
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913- 922, © International Research Publication House, 2011
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[4] Wang Zhaoan,Yang Jun,Liu Jinjun,Wang Yue,harmonics suppression and reactive power compensation the
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[6] Chen Zhe,Boost APFC device design[J],Electrical Technology,2010.

[7] Qi Lei,Xi Ziqiang,Xin Zhanqiang,Huang Wencong, Research on single phase APFC with method of hysteresis
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[8] Jovanovic,M.M.,Jang, Y.,State-of-the-art, single-phase, active powerfactor-correction techniques for high-

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[9] Lin Fei , Du Xin , The MATLAB simulation of power electronics application technology [M],China Electric
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[10] DixonL.H, “High power factor preregulators for off-line power supplies,” presented at the Unitrode
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[15] Aarohi Embedded Systems, Rajkot, Gujarat (Internship); Guide: Dhaval Kapupara