Power Electronics

Lecture # 24

 Contents of Today`s Lecture:

 Power Factor improvement
 Techniques for power factor improvement
a) Extinction angle control
b) Symmetric angle control

1. Power factor improvement:

The power factor of an AC electrical power system is defined as the ratio of the real
power flowing to the load to the apparent power in the circuit. Power factor improvement
brings the power factor of an AC power circuit closer to 1. Ideally PF is 1. Practically, the
value of PF ranges from 0 1. When the value of PF is not 1, it means that harmonics
are there in the signal.
Harmonics:
Harmonics are unwanted signals which occur at frequencies other than the desired
frequency. These harmonics result in distortion of the shape of the desired signal, hence
introducing losses in the system.

Why Harmonics occur in the output waveform:

1) When the supply is not pure AC. For perfect AC,supply voltage and current are in
phase.
2) When load is attached to the system, it may introduce harmonics, as most of the loads
are inductive.

Distortion Factor:

Due to harmonics, the waveform is distorted from the original or desired waveform. The degree
of difference between actual and desired waveform is defined as distortion factor.
For this reason, power factor improvement is done in order to reduce harmonic levels.
PF improvement applications:

1) PF improvement is very important when we do conversion from DC to AC because

converters introduce harmonics into the supply, so for this reason PF improvement is done.
2) It is also done in rectifiers.

Techniques for power factor improvement:

Forced commutation techniques can improve the input power factor and reduce harmonic levels.
We will discuss the following basic techniques of forced commutation for dc-ac converters.

1) Extinction angle control

2) Symmetric angle control

1) Extinction angle control:

We use IGBT’s or MOSFETS in order to do forced commutation for this control which is
not possible in case of thyristors because there is natural commutation in thyristors and we
have to do forced commutation in order to do power factor improvement. The circuit
diagram is as under.
Working:

 During Positive half cycle, S1,S2 are on for ωt= 0 to ωt =π-β and supply power to
load.
 Similarly, during negative half cycle, S3,S4 are on for ωt = π to ωt= 2π-β and supply
power to load.

Waveform:

 As, the direction of current through load remains constant, so output current will be a
constant line. It can be verified from the waveform below.
 By forced commutation we are switching off S1and S2 at π-β. In this way, the supply
current leads the output voltage. It can be seen in waveform below, the supply current is
leads the output voltage Vo. At ωt =0 , output voltage is zero, but source current has some
positive value (marked in blue circle in waveform below). In this way power factor is
improved.
 Vdc = Vm

√ ( )
 Vrms = Vm
√

2) Symmetric angle control:

 In symmetric angle control, during positive half cycle S1,S2 are turned on at ωt = (π-β)/2
and turned off at ωt = (π+β)/2.
 Similarly, during negative half cycle, S3 and S4 are turned on at ωt = (3π-β)/2 and turned
off at ωt = (3π+β)/2. Hence the output voltage is controlled in this way by varying
conduction angle β. The fundamental component of input current is in phase with the
input voltage and the distortion factor (DF) is unity. Therefore, the PF is improved.
 It can be seen below in the waveform that the peak of supply current and input voltage
occur at π/2 and are zero at ωt= 0. It is marked in blue circles in the waveform. Hence the
waveform of current becomes in phase with that of voltage.

`
Waveform:

(π-β)/2 (π+β)/2

In symmetric angle control, we are controlling both starting point and end point of waveform.
 Vdc = 2/2π ∫

 Vdc =

 Vrms = √ ∫

 Vrms = (Vm/√ √