Generators, Leading PF and Capacitive reactance

The ability of a generator to handle leading power factor loads is often raised as a concern. Although it is true that excessive capacitive reactive power can cause voltage regulation, excitation control and other issues with a generator’s operation, they can definitely tolerate a leading power factor at certain levels. All generator manufacturers publish reactive power capability curves for their generators from which a user can determine the acceptable levels of reactive power for the generator, both capacitive and inductive.

There are many benefits for a power system to have a high power factor but that doesn’t necessarily mean that a low leading power factor at light loads is a problem. Harmonics generated by non-linear loads introduce distortion reactive power which will lower power factor. The conventional method of installing power factor correction capacitors however, is not an effective way of increasing power factor under these conditions. In fact, power factor correction capacitors can often make the situation worse if they happen to resonate with the power system inductance. Our engineers have the necessary experience and expertise to simulate conditions and provide optimum solution. We have a wide range of harmonic mitigating solutions to provide ideal and cost effective solutions. One needs to note that some solutions can be worse than the problem hence due care needs to be taken when arriving at solutions.