Diesel Power Plant with a Low Power Factor (Island)

J

Thread Starter

JarJar

Hello, greetings to all!

I recently took charge of a Cummins 15MW diesel power plant. One of the first things I noticed on the initial walk through was the extremely low power factor ranging between 0.65 and 0.75 (on a good day). The power factor seems too low to be the standard offenders (transmission lines, transformers, reactive loads, etc.) so I am thinking it could have something to do with the field current, possibly an improperly installed control system. The plant was installed by a Cummins rep who understood very little about the generators and electricity (or even the way the plant operates) so an improperly installed field control system is not a stretch by any means.

Any ideas?
Thanks!
 
Responding to JarJar's 18-Apr-09 (14:44) query:

Yes, but far more meaningful advice could be offered if you provided additional info:

1) Genset' parameters.

2) Engen parameters;

3) Load characteristics.

4) Actual readings, such as V, I, Hz or Rpm, kW, kVAr, kVAr, RPM, and if availavle, field V and A.

Regards, Phil Corso ([email protected])
 
G

GenControlDude

Remember the load sets the PF, not the genset. The gens need to produce the vars necessary to offset the vars of the load. There could be lots of reasons:

1. do you have PF regulators or just voltage? If PF, what is their setpoint?

2. Where is this PF reading? At the utility tie point? At one genset?

You may have high reactive (var) circulating currents due to Voltage regulators not being set correctly. Try raising he volts on one unit a little and see what happens. If VARs increase and PF gets better, you are going the right way, just bring all units up equally. If VARs increase and PF gets worse (more leading) this is already the high unit; try decreasing the volt ref.

Let me know how this testing goes and if you want more info. I see this post is a few days old and I don't want to spend anymore time if you already have a fix.
Good Luck!
 
How many generators are there?

Are the generators in Island mode or are they paralleled to the grid?

What control system are they using?

If in Island mode, are all the generators at the same power factor?
 
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