PF Correction Savings???

[StephenSDH]

I have a customer who had a company (http://www.correctioncontrols.net) come into their plant and claim they could add a dozen Capacitors around their plant and save greater then 6% off their electric bill. There is NO incentive/fines from the power company for bad PF(which would make it worthwhile). To my knowledge providing power factor correction will only save you money line losses(I2R), but this savings rarely offsets the cost off installing capacitors, so you would more likely do it to reduce KVA for equipment sizing or reduce voltage drop. The website doesn't come out and say they are installing Capacitors, they call it SRCS, which to me means they are selling you magic beans with capacitors. I did some generic calculations below to determine savings based on line loss corrections I^2*R losses and I come out to a maximum of 1% savings with perfect PF correction which is unlikely. Can anyone provide some insight before I put my foot in my mouth by telling the customer this company is a fly-by-night. Thanks ahead of time.


Generic 3 Phase Power Savings Calculator

Voltage 480 V
Conductor Impedance 0.0265 ohm/1000ft (500 MCM)
Sets of Conductors 2 Sets (Common for 800A Service)
Feeder Distance 500 feet
Conductor Resistance 0.006625 3 Sets of 500MCM Copper
Power Factor 0.75
Current 600 A


Apparent Power 498.24 KVA
Real Power 373.68 KW
Reactive Power 329.55 KVAR

Current 600 A
Real Current 450 A
Reactive Current 396.86 A

Power Loss(I^2*R*3) 7.155 KW (@ Noncorrected PF)
Power Loss(I(Real)^2*R*3) 4.0246875 KW (@ PF == 1)
Maximum Power Savings 3.1303125 KW
Percentage Power Savings 0.84% Percentage Savings

 

[don_resqcapt19]

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