What is the deference between reactive power and power factor?

Answer 1

Note that this is an engineering convention, not a concept from pure physics. When you multiply voltage by current, the total "power" in volt*amps can be a combination of two types of "power". 1. active power = V*I*cos(theta) and 2. reactive power = V*I*sin(theta) where (theta) is the phase angle between the voltage and current. A physicist would say that V*I*sin(theta) is NOT power since it is performing zero work.

Answer 2

Active power is the power which is actually generated by generator. Reactive power is opposing power of active power ,which is created by load. For inductive loads reactive power is more, so we are using capacitor banks in system to improve power factor then reactive power decreases.

Answer 3

'Real', 'active', or 'true' power describes the rate at which a load does work or dissipates energy by heat transfer. This represents a permanent loss of energy from the supply.

'Reactive' power describes the rate at which energy is alternately stored in a load's magnetic or electric field, and returned to the supply every quarter cycle.

True power is measured in watts, and reactive power is measured in reactive volt amperes.

Answer 4

The power factor of an alternating-current load may be defined in several ways:

1. It is the cosine of the phase angle.

2. It is the ratio of the load's resistance to its impedance.

3. It is the ratio of the voltage across the load's resistive component to its supply voltage.

4. It is the ratio of the load's true power to its apparent power.

The reactive factor is simply the ratio of the reactive power Q and apparent power S. It is the sine of the phase angle.

Answer 5

Reactive power is the rate at which energy is alternately stored in a magnetic or electric field, and returned to the supply, every quarter-cycle. Power factor is the ratio of true power to apparent power, or the cosine of the phase angle.

Answer 6

In a simple alternating current (AC) circuit consisting of a source and a linear load, both the current and voltage are sinusoidal. If the load is purely resistive, the two quantities reverse their polarity at the same time. At every instant the product of voltage and current is positive, indicating that the direction of energy flow does not reverse. In this case, only real power is transferred.

If the load is purely reactive, then the voltage and current are 90 degrees out of phase. For half of each cycle, the product of voltage and current is positive, but on the other half of the cycle, the product is negative, indicating that on average, exactly as much energy flows toward the load as flows back. There is no net energy flow over one cycle. In this case, only reactive energy flows-there is no net transfer of energy to the load.

Practical loads have resistance, inductance, and capacitance, so both real and reactive power will flow to real loads. Power engineers measure apparent power as the vector sum of real and reactive power. Apparent power is the product of the root-mean-square voltage and current.

Engineers care about apparent power, because even though the current associated with reactive power does no work at the load, it heats the wires, wasting energy. Conductors, Transformers and generators must be sized to carry the total current, not just the current that does useful work.

Another consequence is that adding the apparent power for two loads will not accurately give the total apparent power unless they have the same displacement between current and voltage (the same power factor).

If a capacitor and an inductor are placed in parallel, then the currents flowing through the inductor and the capacitor tend to cancel out rather than adding. Conventionally, capacitors are considered to generate reactive power and inductors to consume it. This is the fundamental mechanism for controlling the power factor in electric power transmission; capacitors (or inductors) are inserted in a circuit to partially cancel reactive power 'consumed' by the load.

Answer 7

The active power refers to the power that causes a given machine to operate. Reactive power on the other hand refers to the imaginary part of the complex power.

Answer 8

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