- #1
rollingstein
Gold Member
- 646
- 16
Typically the power factor penalty that a utility charges is only for inductive lagging power factors or leading ones too? i.e. is the penalty for all PF differences from unity or only on the inductive side?
e.g. Say I have a lot of motors which bring the PF down & I add a static capacitor bank to correct the PF & now say, at night, 30% of the motors are idle but the capacitor bank is still fully online and hence the PF is now leading. Is that a problem?
I can imagine it is a problem for capacitor life but are there other concerns? Is overcorrection as bad as having an uncorrected inductive PF?
e.g. Say I have a lot of motors which bring the PF down & I add a static capacitor bank to correct the PF & now say, at night, 30% of the motors are idle but the capacitor bank is still fully online and hence the PF is now leading. Is that a problem?
I can imagine it is a problem for capacitor life but are there other concerns? Is overcorrection as bad as having an uncorrected inductive PF?