Reason for power companies .95 power factor?

[Ccollisions]

I tried to get a hold of an engineer for the DUKE power company out here in North Carolina to ask for the reason to their transformers only having a .95 power factor.

In THEORY it is possible to have a 1 for the PF, and my electricity class has asked me to figure out why Duke Power co. doesn't have the perfect transformer.

So not being able to contact Duke power, I am asking the alleged electrical engineers here at physicsforums.

Danke

 

[dlgoff]

Is the 0.95 power factor "leading" or "lagging"?

 

[Ccollisions]

Is the 0.95 power factor "leading" or "lagging"?

crime in Italy!

I have no clue.

Why would either be .95?

 

[triden]

Think of a transformer being a large bundle of wrapped wires. What normally leads to a power factor in a circuit?

 

[russ_watters]

Inductors have a lagging power factor.

Perhaps the answer is simply that theory does not equal practice?

I'm a mechanical engineer though...

 

[Floid]

In theory a very thin wire can carry a very large current also. But if you wired up a power system to carry 20 amps through a 22 gauge wire you would have a problem.

Most "in theory" questions ignore the fact current generates heat which is lost power. Among the many side effects that causes is power loss in transformers because the windings carrying the current will heat up.

 

[Enthalpy]

Of course it's because of the inductance, yes.

Small tranformers are worse than 0.95, big ones are better.