2020 International Conference for Emerging Technology (INCET)

Belgaum, India. Jun 5-7, 2020

Microcontroller based Automatic Power Factor

Correction System for Power Quality Improvement
Snehal Mane1, Rupesh Sapat2, Pragati Kor3, Jayesh Shelar4, R.D.Kulkarni5, Jayashree Mundkar6
1,2,3,4
B.E. Student, Department of Electrical Engineering, A.C. Patil College of Engineering, Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, India
5
Member, IEEE and Scientific Officer ‘H’,Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Dept. of Atomic Energy, Govt. of India, Trombay, Mumbai,
India
6
Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, A.C.Patil College of Engineering, Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, India
1
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],
6
[email protected]

Abstract— Power quality is a key factor in all industrial power utilized in AC system is called reactive power and is
and many more applications. An industry need to maintain measured in KVAR. PF is given by equation (1) below.
certain power quality standard during day-to-day work for
variety of applications. Power quality of electricity provided by
utilities is also vital aspect. The best power quality helps to
increase the overall production and gets rid of any sort of
technical problems reducing cost of energy. The mains power
factor is one of the important parameter which decides the
quality of power. When the need of reactive power becomes
more, power factor decreases, reducing the efficiency of power
system. Therefore, there is need to add capacitance of required
value when power factor goes below the specified value,
preferably 0.92. Addition of required capacitors reduces the Fig. 1. Power Factor Triangle
losses improving power factor. The paper proposes digitally
ୖୣୟ୪୔୭୵ୣ୰
controlled topology for performing Automatic Power Factor PF (Cos Φ) = …(1)
୅୮୮ୟ୰ୣ୬୲୔୭୵ୣ୰
Correction to improve power quality. The design and
simulation of Automatic Power Factor Correction system using In industries, most of the loads are inductive loads like
Arduino UNO microcontroller has been presented in the induction motors including Variable Frequency Drives
paper. The system power factor has been monitored using (VFD), incandescent lamps, induction furnaces, electronic
power factor transducer followed by Arduino microcontroller ballast, industrial heating appliances and electromagnets, etc.
which control the switching of capacitor banks in order to Also Light Emitting Diode (LED) lamp, Uninterruptible
compensate reactive power and bring power factor near to Power Supply (UPS) and various nonlinear loads causes poor
unity enhancing power quality. The simulation results are also PF. Due to poor PF, the I2R losses gets increased and power
presented in the paper.
system becomes less efficient.
Keywords—Power Factor, Power Factor Transducer, Power In industrial applications, most of the equipment/
Quality, Arduino Uno microcontroller, Capacitors machines have been coupled with various types of motors
viz. induction motors, DC motors, synchronous motors, slip
I. INTRODUCTION ring motors, etc. which draws lagging PF with the mains.
Power Quality (PQ) defines “Concept of powering and Because of lagging PF of the order of 0.6 to 0.7, the current
earthing electrical/electronic equipment in a way which is drawn by the mains increases which effectively increase the
appropriate to functioning of the equipment and compatible losses in power distribution system which finally contributes
with wiring system including other interfaced equipment [1]. to heating of the equipment including cable, contactors,
PQ indicates the ability of electrical equipment to consume terminals, bus bar, etc. Mostly non linear loads are coupled
the energy being supplied to it. PQ depends on several with power electronics system which induces harmonics in
factors like voltage sag, swell, interruption, transients, THD the system and degrades the overall PF by introducing
(Total Harmonic Distortion), variation in frequency, Power Distortion Factor (DF). In lieu of above discussions, the need
Factor (PF), etc. PF is one of the main parameter affecting of improving PF to a level at least 0.9 is recommended and
PQ hence motive is improvement in PF for enhancing PQ. can be achieved by connection of various rating of capacitor
banks to the mains. Besides, if PF is poor, the utilities charge
In electrical power distribution, PF is denoted as the ratio
heavy penalties from consumers/users which is undesirable.
of real power (kW) applied to the load to the apparent power
Hence, it is necessary to improve PF employing several
(kVA) of the circuit [1]. It may also define as the cosine of
methods like synchronous condenser, phase advancer, static
the angle between the voltage and current in AC circuit
capacitors, etc. [3]. Analog as well as digital techniques are
which is known as PF [2]. Fig.1 shows the PF triangle where
available for automatic improvement in PF in the system,
three powers i.e. active (kW), reactive (kVAR) and apparent
however, digital technique using microcontroller has been
(kVA) are employed. The real power is called active power
considered in this paper.
which is actual amount of power being used and is measured
in watts. The apparent power is the multiplication of voltage Automatic PF improvement has been one of the easiest
and current and is measured in Volt-Amp (VA). While method. In the proposed system, Microcontroller Arduino
UNO ATmega328 is used along with capacitor banks

978-1-7281-6221-8/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE 1

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interfaced with the load. The current drawn by the capacitor
leads the voltage. Thus, by connecting the capacitors, it
minimizes the value of reactive power and increase the PF to
unity. By using Microcontroller based PF improvement
schematic, PF gets boosted to the required value of better
than 0.9 up to unity.

II. DESIGN CONSIDERATION OF THE SYSTEM

The proposed circuit design is related with Automatic PF Fig. 2. (a) Synchronous condenser Fig. 2 (b) Phasor diagram
Correction (APFC) utilizing power capacitor banks and
becomes highly techno-economical. The PF transducer has B. Phase Advancer:
been used for detection of PF rather than using conventional Phase Advancer circuit is used to improve the PF in
combination of Current Transformer (CT) and Potential induction motor only. The induction motor cause poor PF
Transformer (PT) along with Zero Crossing Detectors because its stator winding draw exciting current lagging
(ZCD). The input from CT and PT has been fed to PF supply voltage by 90°. In phase advancer exciting ampere
transducer which derives the PF and provides isolated signals turns are provided from different AC source which overcome
in terms of either voltage (0-5 Volts DC) or current (4-20 the exciting current from the stator of induction motor. The
mAmp DC) proportional to PF. The isolation between input phase advancer circuit is mounted on rotor shaft of motor
and output is around 1500 Volts RMS. The analog signal and connected to rotor circuit and provides extra ampere
from PF transducer can be used as feedback to the closed turns at slip frequency to motor during starting period or low
loop control circuit. load period and improve PF. The disadvantage of the system
It has been preferred to use capacitor bank connected in is it only used for induction motor PF improvement [7].
delta rather than single individual capacitors. It is required to C. Static Capacitor Bank:
design the capacitor banks of adequate KVAR capacities
which can be switched ON to meet the PF demand, however, A capacitor (basically termed as condenser) is a passive
element electrical device having two-leads and is utilized to
the leading PF should be avoided [4]. As the capacitors are
hold/store electrical energy. It is made up of two metallic
sensible to over voltages, hence, while calculating the KVAR
parallel plates/surfaces separated by sheets of electrical
ratings of capacitor banks, the design voltage of system is
insulating materials known as dielectric. The function of
taken 25-30% more than its rated value. For protection of
condenser is storage of electrical energy in dielectric material
capacitor banks from over voltages/surges, an over voltage
relay has been considered with suitable settings. Discharge by the process of electrostatic field. A parallel plate capacitor
resistors are connected across each capacitor for discharge is shown in Fig.3 [7].
the capacitor safely without flashover after switching OFF its
power supply [5]. The appropriate power capacitors with
suitable dielectric has been chosen. An LED display is used
for indicating the present PF of the system and improved PF.
The PF improvement results into several advantages like
increases efficiency of the system, reduces demand charges,
increases load carrying capability, reduction in power losses,
upgrade the power quality, etc. [6].
In proposed system schematic, PF gets evaluated using
microcontroller, then according to pre-set value, capacitor
banks have been introduced into system and PF is improved. Fig. 3. Parallel plate capacitor

III. METHODS OF POWER FACTOR Static capacitors are connected across the system or
IMPROVEMENT device which works on low PF. The static capacitors gives
Following are some of the methods of PF improvement. leading current which neutralize the lagging component of
current and the PF of system is improved. The major merit of
A. Over Excited Synchronous Motor: the schematic is that it is techno-economical.
Synchronous motor when operates at no load condition in
over-excited state, then it is called as synchronous condenser. IV. PROPOSED SYSTEM DESIGN
Whenever synchronous motor runs in over-excited situation, The proposed design accepts 3 phase 415 V, 50 Hz mains
leading current is drawn from the source and eliminates the supply and current and voltage signals are obtained from PF
reactive component and PF is improved. By changing the transducer corresponding to system PF. The output of PF
field excitation, the magnitude of current drawn can change. transducer is fed to microcontroller. The Arduino UNO
The main advantage of using synchronous condenser is that microcontroller is heart of the system which reads the value
the PF improvement is smooth. The synchronous condenser and takes action by giving signals to relay if the PF is less
is more advanced technique of improving PF, but PF than pre-set value. Initially relay contacts are normally open,
improvement below 500 KVAR is not economical. when relay gets signal from microcontroller, electromagnetic
Therefore, it is generally used in large industries. Fig. 2(a) field forces the solenoid to move up and contacts of power
indicate PF improvement using synchronous condenser and contactor are made. Once the contact is made, the capacitor
Fig. 2(b) indicate corresponding phasor diagram [7]. gets connected in parallel with the load and PF is improved.

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The value of actual and corrected PF are displayed on LCD The circuit required 12 Volts DC supply for working of
screen. Functional circuit schematic is indicated in Fig.4. micro-controller and LCD. This is achieved using AC to DC
converter using semiconductor [9].
C. Arduino UNO microcontroller:
The Arduino Uno is an open source microcontroller IC
device built on microchip Atmega 328P microcontroller
board which is evolved by Arduino. The device has groups
of analog and digital Input/Output (I/O) pins. The board has
14 nos. of digital I/O pins out of which 6 nos. are for PWM
(Pulse Width Modulation) output. It also has 6 nos. of analog
I/O pins which may be used for programming with Arduino
IDE (Integrated Development Environment) through USB
cable or battery. Along with analog and digital I/O's, the
Fig. 4. Circuit schematic of Microcontroller based APFC system device comprises A16 MHz ceramic resonator, USB ports,
RST (Reset) facility, biasing supply/AC to DC adapter and
The APFC unit consists of various modules which works an ICSP (In Circuit Serial Programming) header. They all
together to get desired PF. The modules are as follows: supports microcontroller chip/IC board for the functional
a) PF transducer working/operation by interfacing microchip IC device to
b) DC supply computer work station.
c) Arduino UNO Microcontroller
d) Capacitor bank The ATmega 328 microcontroller board is single-chip
e) Switching circuit controller configured with Atmel inside mega AVR
f) Power contactor infrastructure. The customized Harvard architecture has
g) LCD been implemented for Arduino Uno microcontroller with 8
bit RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) processor
A. Power Factor Transducer: core. Fourteen digital input and output pins on the board
A PF transducer measures the PF in 3 phase system. The may be utilized as input and output with support of
output of PF transducer is proportional to PF of system functional operations e.g. pin Mode, digital Read/Write.
which is fed directly to microcontroller [8]. It's important
feature is that it can be connected to controller, data-loggers, x Pin1 Transmitter (TX) & Pin0 Receiver (RX)
PLC`s, Analog/Digital indicators. The circuit diagram of PF (Serial): It is utilized for transmitting & receiving
TTL serial data, and are interfaced to ATmega 8U2
transducer is shown in Fig.5.
USB to the corresponding pins of TTL Serial chip.
x Pin 2 and 3 (External Interrupts): It may be
interfaced to activate interrupt for lower and change
in magnitude.
x Pins 4, 5, 6, 9, 10 and 11 (PWM): These pins gives
8-bit PWM output by the function of Analog
Read/Write.
x SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) Pin: Pin-10 Slave
Select (SS), Pin-11 Master Out Slave In (MOSI),
Pin-12 Master In Slave Out (MISO), Pin-13 (SCK):
They maintain SPI-communication.
x Pin-13 (LED): Inbuilt LED may be interfaced to
digital pin-13. For HIGH-value pin, LED gets
activated and vice versa when pin is LOW.
Fig. 5. Power Factor Transducer
x Pin-4 Serial Data (SDA) and Pin-5 Serial Clock
Technical Specifications of PF transducer are given below: (SCL) (I2C): Helps TWI (Two Wire Interface)
communication with support of Wire Library.
¾ Type - 3 phase 3 element 4 wire AC input x REF (Reference Voltage): It is for analog inputs with
¾ Input AC voltage – 440 Volts analog reference.
¾ Input AC current – 5 Amps
¾ Input supply frequency - 50 Hz x Reset Pin: It is useful for Reset (RST)
¾ Input PF range - 0.5 (Lag) to 1.0 (Unity) to 0.5 (Lead) microcontroller [10].
¾ Proportional DC output voltage - 0 to 5 Volts
¾ Proportional DC output current - 4 to 20 mA Memory: The memory of Atmega 328 Arduino Uno
¾ Auxiliary power supply – 230 Volts AC microcontroller consists of 32 KB flash memory for storage
B. DC Supply : of codes, 2 KB Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) and
The Integrated Circuit (IC) technology conventionally 1 KB Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only
works on 12 Volts and 5 Volts DC as their biasing potential. Memory (EEPROM).

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 Communication: The Arduino Uno ATmega 328 PF of the system. The capacitor bank comprises number of
microcontroller gives UART (Universal Asynchronous power capacitors that gets switched ON and OFF based on
Receiver Transmitter) TTL-serial communication which may the demand of reactive power (kVAR). Capacitor banks may
be accessible on digital pins i.e. Pin 1 (TX) and Pin 0 (RX). be switched ON/OFF either automatically or manually.
The software designed for Arduino Uno is having serial Usually a delta connected capacitor bank is preferred
monitor which allows easy data. Two LEDs on the because at start the capacitor with capacitance value 3 times
microcontroller IC board i.e. RX and TX which blinks higher is required than that delta connected capacitor [5].
whenever data is being sent using USB.
Sample calculation for capacitance value is given below:
x Highlights of Arduino Uno Device: Features of PF 0.65-unity (load -1.5 KW)
Arduino Uno ATmega 328 are given below.
Biasing voltage is 5 Volts DC. However, the allowable COSø1=0.65 ø1= 49.4583
voltage may be from 7 Volts to 12 Volts DC. The input COSø2= 1 ø2 = 0
biasing voltage ranges from 6 to 20 Volts DC. The chip have
14 digital and 6 analog I/O pins having 40 mA DC current Required VAR = KW × (tan ø1-tan ø2) (2)
for each pin. A DC current for 3.3 Volts pin is 50 mA. An IC =1.5×ͳͲଷ ×1.169 =1753.5 VAR
is having Flash Memory of 32 KB, SRAM of 2 KB and Ic =ୖୣ୯୳୧୰ୣୢ୚୅ୖ = ଵ଻ହଷǤହ = 4.22 A (3)
EEPROM of 1 KB. A 16 MHz is Clock (CLK) speed for IC ୚ ସଵହ
board. Xc ୚ ସଵହ (4)
= = = 98.21 Ω
୍ୡ ସǤଶଶ
Arduino Programming: The Arduino Uno IDE software
tool is to be installed into Personal Computer (PC)/Computer C =ଶ஠୤ଡ଼ୡ
ଵ
=
ଵ
ଶగൈହ଴ൈଽ଼Ǥଶଵ
= 32.40 μf (5)
Workstation by interfacing Arduino board to PC with USB
cable. Follow the instructions like open Arduino IDE to
With the help PF above equations (2), (3), (4) and (5), the
choose right board by selecting Tools–>Board>Arduino Uno
value for capacitor can be found out [11]. Similarly,
and find out right Port by choosing Tools–>Port. This board
capacitance value for various PFs which is to be corrected to
may be programmed with the help of Arduino programming
unity is calculated and given in Table 1.
language based on wiring.
For activating Arduino chip and flashing the LED on the TABLE I. CAPACITANCE VALUE FOR IMPROVING PF TO UNITY
microcontroller board, dump the program code by choosing PF Capacitance Value (in μF)
Files–>Examples.>Basics.>Flash. When the programming 0.65 32.40
codes gets dumped into IDE then press the button ‘upload’ 0.7 28.27
on top bar. Once the above procedure gets completed, 0.75 24.45
observe LED flash on the Arduino Uno board. 0.8 20.79
0.85 17.19
High Voltage Protection of USB: Arduino Uno board is 0.9 13.42
having a re-arrangable poly fuse which protects USB port of
workstation from over-voltages. As the PCs/computer E. Switching circuit:
workstations have built-in inner protection, the poly fuse The circuit consists of relay, relay drivers and power
offers an extra coating of safety from high voltage. In case of contactors. As the microcontroller is not able to self regulate
more than 500 mA is fed to USB port, then poly fuse will the switching of capacitors, the switching circuit is used for
routinely crack the connection until over-voltage gets switching power circuit as well as control circuitry [12].
rejected. Fig. 6 shows Arduino Uno microcontroller board.
F. Electromagnetic relay:
Relay is basically a switch which open and close circuit
electromechanically. Relay controls one electrical circuit by
opening and closing contacts in another circuit. As shown in
Fig.7, there is an open contact when the relay is not
energized is known as Normally Open (NO). There is a
closed contact when the relay is not energized is known as
Normally Closed (NC) contact. In both cases, when electrical
current flow through the contacts, it will change their state.
Relays are normally used for switching of smaller currents in
a control circuit. Relays are also used to switch motors of
small rating. Electromechanical relay or Solid-State relay is
the types of relays. In electromechanical relays, magnetic
force is responsible for opening and closing of contacts.
While in Solid-State relays, there are no contacts present and
electronic switching is done. The use electromechanical relay
Fig. 6. Arduino Uno ATmega328 [10] or Solid-Sate relay depends upon the application, cost and
life. Although Solid-State relays are more popular, electro-
D. Capacitor Bank: mechanical relays are commonly used shown in Fig.7.
Power capacitor banks have been utilized to enhance the

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 electrical loads. Power contactors in particular have typical
arrangement for arc-extinguishers to permit them to safely
isolate large currents e.g. motor inrush current during
starting. Power contactor schematic is shown in Fig.8.

Fig. 7. Electromagnetic Relay

G. Relay driver:
Relay driver circuit acts as a bridge between relay and
microcontroller.
Fig. 8. schematic of Power Contactor
H. Power Contactor:
A contactor is a switch which is controlled electrically to I. LCD (Liquid Crystal Display):
switch ON/OFF electrical power and control circuit. A The most general component/circuit part connected with
contactor is conventionally controlled by circuit schematic micro controller is LCD. Most conventional LCD’s are 16X2
that has comparatively less power level than the switching and 20X4 display units. The LCD 16X2 unit continuously
circuit like relays. Contactors are directly connected to high- shows the system PF.
current load devices. Contactors are exclusively fitted with
NO contacts. Contactors are of various types with variety of V. CIRCUIT SIMULATION
ratings and specifications. Contactor is not intended to design Simulation have been performed for measured and
for interrupting Short Circuit (SC) current as in case of improved PF. Results are shown in Fig.9 and 10 respectively
circuit breakers. Contactors may be utilized to operate
electric motors, lighting fixtures, heating appliances,
capacitor bank switching, thermal evaporators and other

Fig. 9. Simulation of Measured PF without capacitor

Fig. 10. Simulation of Improved PF with capacitor

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 Simulation model of a three phase system indicating PF VI. CONCLUSION
of the system with the help of simulating tool is presented. In this paper, the most important power quality parameter
The three phase RL load (more inductive) is connected to the like PF improvement has been introduced and discussed in
three phase source. By using three phase VI measurement detail. Important methods available for PF improvement
block the instantaneous value of voltage and current are have been described giving relevant details. Paper presents
obtained which are given to instantaneous three phase power one of the topologies used to overcome power losses due to
block. Its output is obtained in terms of Active Power (P) and low PF. Paper describes the design considerations of PF
Reactive Power (Q). Then the PF of electrical system is correction equipment using digital techniques like
calculated using math operation blocks. As the load is more incorporating microcontroller for measurement and
inductive, the PF of the system is poor, therefore delta monitoring of modelled electrical load. Paper highlights AC
connected capacitor bank of appropriate values is put across load voltage and load current measurement by precision PF
the load and presented and PF of the system is improved. transducer and its isolated output signal is proportional to the
Waveform of measured PF is shown in Fig.11 and waveform system PF. Due to the use of sophisticated PF transducer, the
of improved PF is shown in Fig.12. The capacitor value system becomes more flexible, simple and linear.
obtained by manual calculation and by simulation are found
slightly different as shown in Table 2. An Arduino Uno microcontroller based automatic PF
improvement/correction circuit design has been successfully
simulated using simulation tool. In simulation software tool,
PF has been calculated/estimated using math operation block
and indicated in display. The simulation and measured PF
results are found quite close and gives satisfactory results.
The simulation results presented in the paper are encouraging
and hence hardware implementation of microcontroller based
automatic PF improvement/correction is proposed to validate
the simulated result. With the help of purposed digitally
controlled APFC system, the overall power quality up
gradation/enhancement has been achieved systematically.
The PF has been successfully improved to 0.9 and above
with the methods. Such system can be implemented in
industrial applications.
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0.9 13.42 13.40

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