POLYENERGY utilizes ETAP software for the Power Factor Correction Studies.
In general, capacitor banks are installed in power systems for voltage support, power factor correction, reactive power control, loss reduction, system capacity increase, and billing charge reduction. This process involves determining capacitor size, location, control method, and connection type (Wye or Delta). The main effort usually is to determine capacitor size and location for voltage support and power factor correction. Secondary considerations are harmonics and switching transients.
Methods
There are different methods for determining capacitor size and location.
- The most common method (intuitive) is based on rules of thumb followed by running multiple load flow studies for fine-tuning the size and location. This method may not yield the optimal solution and can be very time consuming and impractical for large systems.
- The second method is to use the ETAP Optimal Power Flow (OPF) analysis module to optimize the capacitor sizes based on the candidate locations selected by the user. This method requires per-selected locations, since OPF can optimize the capacitor sizes but not the locations.
- The most effective method is to use the ETAP Optimal Capacitor Placement (OCP) analysis program to optimize capacitor sizes and locations with cost considerations. OCP employs a genetic algorithm, which is an optimization technique based on the theory of nature selection. OCP uses the
