© Florida Energy Conservation Advisors, Inc 2011 Power Factor Correction                                                                                 The Reactive Power                                                                         charge on your electricity bill is                                                                           directly targeted against those                                                                           companies who do not                                                                           demonstrate clear energy                                                                           efficiency use.                                                                             You will find this charge                                                                           itemized on your electricity bill.                                                                             Reactive power charges can                                                                           be  made significantly smaller                                                                         by the introduction of Power                                                                         Factor Correction Capacitors                                                                            which is a widely recognized                                                                          method of reducing an                                                                            electrical load and minimizing                                                                           wasted energy , improving the                                                                            efficiency of a plant and reducing        the electricity bill. It is not always necessary to reach a power factor of 1.      A cost effective solution can be achieved by increasing your power factor to greater than 0.95                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      What is Power Factor?             Power Factor is a measure of how efficiently electrical power is consumed.      In the ideal world Power Factor would be unity (or 1). Unfortunately in the real world Power Factor is        reduced by highly inductive loads to 0.7 or less. This induction is caused by equipment such as      lightly loaded electric motors, luminaries transformers and fluorescent lighting ballasts and welding        sets, etc.          What does it do to my electricity bill?             In a 3 phase supply, kW consumed is (VOLTS x AMPS x 1.73 x Power Factor) / 1000.      The Electricity Company supply you VOLTS x AMPS and they have to supply extra to make up for        the loss caused by poor Power Factor. When the power factor falls below a set figure, the electricity       supply companies charge a premium on the kW being consumed, or, charge for the whole supply as        kVA.          What causes Power Factor to change?             Inductive loads cause the AMPS to lag behind the VOLTS. The wave forms of VOLTS and      AMPS are then "out of phase" with each other. The more out of phase they become then the lower       the Power Factor. In 3 phase power supplies the "power" can be measured as a triangle.      ACTIVE Power is the base line and is the real usable power measured in kW. REACTIVE power is         the vertical or that part of the supply which causes the inductive load.      The reactive power in is measured in kilo volt-amperes reactive. APPARENT Power is the       hypotenuse. This is the resultant of the other two components and is measured in kVA.