Why Are MVAR Generated and MVAR Sent Out Values Different in Power Plants?

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Physicist3
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Hi,

Apologies if the answer to this is quite simple but I recently went on a visit to a power generating plant and when in the control room, noticed that the operator screens had two values for MVARs? There was a value for MVAR generated and a value for MVAR sent out, both were different from each other. How are these values different and what causes the difference? I would imagine the MVAR generated is that from the terminals of the generator which is controlled via Excitation changes etc.? No-one in the control room from the plant could seem to give me an answer?

Many Thanks
 
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Just guessing here,,
Generated versus "sent out" will differ by inhouse consumption
Plants have lots of transformers and motors that consume quite a few vars.Was this a plant with several generators ? If so, each would be metered .

it's important for you as an operator to know generated vars so that you can verify you're not approaching your generator capability curve limit, and it's handy to know what is going out into the system because that is what the system dispatcher asks you to produce for him.
 
I guess this is a good guess:)
jim hardy said:
Just guessing here,,
Generated versus "sent out" will differ by inhouse consumption
Plants have lots of transformers and motors that consume quite a few vars.