Responding to my statement that 1000VA and 1000W are similar in terms of losses in the wires feeding the load
I agree with your example above, with different load currents being served, you will see different losses.
What I was trying to say was that for the _same_ load current but different power factor, the losses in the wires will be roughly the same.
This is different from saying that kVAr directy means power 'lost'. In principal, the kVArs mean energy that is flowing back and forth without being consumed. kVArs are associated with _increased_ losses, but are not losses themselves.
I am uncomfortable with your use of 'impedance mismatch', but don't have a good enough understanding of the implications to say that your use is wrong.
In RF work, the goal is to match impedance because impedance mismatch results either in reduced power output or standing waves on transmission lines. But in 60 Hz power distribution you have different goals. You want a 'stiff' low impedance supply, you don't worry about the 'characteristic impedance' of the wires, and you don't match the load to the supply, and you don't match the impedance of the wires to the load. The closest thing you do is to match capacitive and inductive loading, without matching the resistive part of the impedance.
-Jon
there will always be a src Z and a load Z, for everything. post #1 describes classic impedance mismatch.
the kVAr's are indeed just lost power. kVAr has amps associated with it, you think those amps are created and flow free of penalty? its the exact reason why gen side needs to account for it, its capacity headroom based on the general understanding of what the load will be, but yet load characteristics will change, load is very dynamic in many terms (real power, Q, etc etc).
i build a gen station so i can bill for 20MW of power per month, great, thats all the $$ you get, but it will cost some $$ to deliver it, which is partially dictated by the very dynamic customer load.
here's another simple analogy. 1950's milk truck takes cold milk by truck, they create ice blocks at the milk plant, by the time delivery is done for the day the ice block has melted and is gone, not usable any longer, its the cost (penalty) for delivering the milk. milk co only charges for the milk though consumed by Mom, Pop, Kids, etc. in the end, both models account for the extra costs, built into kW and milk cost rate, both also adjust for equipment, bigger truck to accommodate ice blocks, bigger electrical gear to supply those extra amps, etc etc etc. then came along R22, so the ice blocks are no longer needed, so you can either downsize the truck and carry same milk, or keep bigger truck and carry more milk. R22 added some efficiency thus less waste, while at the same time the milk cost rate remains the same.
