What is Active and Reactive power (in case of synchronous motors and generators)?

What is the significance of

reactive power?

Active power is power that does final work: in a motor, magnet, heating, radiating electromagnetic waves, in
electronic devices (heating them up, unwanted but inevitable), creating power losses in any appliances, etc..

Active power always produces a transformation into another type of energy (motion, heat, chemical, etc.), or is
caused by electromagnetic radiation along the grid or in sending antennas (radio, radar, etc.), or does store up for
longer time for later withdrawal (loading a super magnet, or a super capacitor, etc.). And it springs from another
type of energy (in generators, solar cells, receiver antennas, etc.).

Reactive power is tossed back and forth between inductive and capacitive reactances, much like a pendulum
oscillating up and down. Reactive Power is the out of phase component of the current flow when compared with
the voltage component. Electrical loads like motors and most common lighting (aside the now out of date
incandescent lamp) are the major contributors to inductive reactive power. This causes the current to lag behind
the voltage component in AC. If this is not corrected the effect is that the power generating companies do not get
paid for all the energy they supply because the KWH meter used to measure the power used by the consumer only
measures the in phase component. The other side effect is that transmission lines and electrical wiring have to be
a larger size because the resultant current is higher than it would need to be for the same energy (or wattage )
transmitted.

Capacitive reactive power tends to correct the inductive reactive power because the current leads the voltage in a
capacitive load. But it is in the generating authority’s interest to maintain a slightly inductive reactive component
for stability.

The effect of reactive power is to add additional current, superimposed to the active current, adding to the current
flowing in the lines. This causes additional, unnecessary and unwanted losses in the conductors, and in the
transformers, and adds to the load currents of the line.

To minimize those, grids have compensation stations along their lines, to minimize inductive effects.

Can a synchronous generator produce reactive power? When and why?

In power systems, the reactive power flows from the higher voltage to the lower voltage, imagine one generator,
your house, and a transmission line:

E1 = 130V<0 (generator)

V2 = 100 <0 (your house)

X = j1 (transmission line)

I1 = (E1-V2)/X = 20<-90 (current delivered to your house)

And the power delivered to your house would be S = VI* = 100 times 20<90,

S = j2000VA, or 2000 VAr, (positive reactive power)

In other words, when you increase the excitation of your synchronous generator, you are increasing the field
through the windings, which increases the internal voltage due to faraday’s law, thus increasing the reactive power
produced!

A synchronous generator is capable of producing active as well as reactive power. When the rotor is over excited, a
synchronous Generator delivers reactive power. In general a synchronous generator works at 0.9–0.97 lagging
power factor.
If we consider a synchronous motor, the motor consumes active power but can deliver deliver reactive power
when rotor circuit is overexcited with DC current. In general if a synchronous motors rotor is overexcited it works
at leading power factor. If the motor is under excited, then it consumes reactive power in addition to Active power
for its operation.

Reactive power is inherent in motors (an inductive load) because it has winding that causes the rotation to
produce the required mechanical power. It cannot be ignored, but it must be cured within the system by installing
capacitor bank (capacitive load) of proper size and specification to offset its effects. If you ignore it, you will end up
using oversized power distribution system (electrical equipment, wires, etc.) because you have to compensate and
carry the unnecessary additional reactive power induced to the system.

The Significance of Reactive Power in Power System

Importance of reactive power is increasing with growing demand for electrical power by many domestic and
industrial utilities, in power system network. Stability and reliability of electrical power system depends on reactive
power management.

It is required to generate energy in a more efficient, reliable and cost effective way. Effective way of delivering
electrical energy utilizes technologies like FACTS (Flexible AC transmission system), SVC (Static voltage
compensation), etc to maintain voltage stability, high power factor and less transmission losses. Reactive power
plays crucial role in the power system network.

AC power supply system produce and consume two types of powers; active and reactive power. Real power or
active power is the true power given to any load. It accomplishes useful work like lighting lamps, rotating motors,
etc.

On the other hand reactive power is the imaginary power or apparent power, which does not do any useful work
but simply moves back and forth in the power system lines. It is a byproduct of AC systems and produced from
inductive and capacitive loads. It exists when there is phase displacement between voltage and current. It is
measured in units of volt-ampere reactive (VAR).

Reasons why reactive power is important:

1. Voltage control

Power system equipments are designed to operate within ±5% of the nominal voltages. Fluctuations in voltage
levels lead to malfunctioning of the various appliances. High voltage damages the insulation of windings where as
low voltage causes poor performance of the various equipments like low illumination of blubs, overheating of
induction motors, etc.

If the powers demand is more than that supplied by transmitting lines, current drawn from supply lines increases
to a higher level, which causes voltage to fall drastically at the receiving end side. If this low voltage is decreased
further, it leads to the tripping of generator units, overheating of motors and other equipment failures.

To overcome this, reactive power should be supplied to the load by putting reactive inductors or reactors in
transmission lines. Capacity of these reactors depends on amount of apparent power to be supplied.
If the power demand is less than reactive power supplied, the load voltage rises to a higher level which leads to
automatic tripping of transmission equipments, low power factor, insulation failures of the cables and windings of
various mechanical devices.

To overcome this, additional reactive power available on the system must be compensated. Various compensation
equipments are synchronous condensers, shunt capacitors, series capacitors and other PV systems. These devices
inject the capacitive reactive power to compensate inductive reactive power in the system.

From the above discussion, we can say that apparent power is required to maintain voltage levels within limits for
stability of the transmission systems.

2. Electrical Blackouts

Several electrical blackouts, like that at France during 1978, northeast countries in 2003, many parts of India during
2012, have noticed insufficient reactive power on electrical power system is the main reason for blackout
situations. This is raised because demand for apparent power is unusually high due to long distance transmission.

This ultimately leads to shut down of various equipments and generation units due to low voltages. So to ensure
proper working of the electrical system, sufficient amount of reactive power must be present in it.

3. Proper working of various devices/machines

Transformers, motors, generators and other electrical devices require reactive power to produce magnetic flux.
This is because generation of magnetic flux is necessary for these devices to do useful work. In the above figure
reactive power, indicated by red color, helps to create magnetic field in motor but it leads to decrease the power
factor. This is why a capacitor is placed to compensate the inductive reactive power by supplying capacitive
reactive power.