Harmonics & its impact on power factor

Power factor correction capacitors meet the reactive power requirement of inductive loads in an electrical system and improve the power factor by reducing the lag between the voltage wave and current wave.

In harmonic rich environments, there might be cases where power factor never achieves the unity figure, even after installing appropriate capacitors. This is because capacitors correct only the displacement power factor and not the distortion power factor. Hence, the true power factor never manages to reach unity.

This article discusses about three different types of power factors and different approaches for dealing with each of these three types.