Electrical energy technology

Most electric utility companies only have the control of power factor at which the consumers take power at, and this is done by a penalty charge for those consumers who take power at low power factors. The consumers on the other hand usually install power capacitors for the correction of power factor to avoid these penalty charges, and minimise their electricity charges. The presence, and effects, of harmonic transients and surges are usually ignored by consumers at the expense of their equipment life and operations. This paper therefore looks into the various methods that can be used for power conditioning with special regard to: (1) how kW demand can be reduced without interruptions to machinery; (2) various methods of improving power factor; (3) how harmonics can be measured, analysed and filtered to increase equipment life; and (4) extracts on various consumers load consumption patterns and their effects on the power system