Reactive Power

Reactive Power, The Least Understood Part of Electrical Operations
Reactive Power is a 4-hour class that explains the least understood part of electrical operations in electric utilities, in industrial plants and in large commercial customers. Reactive power is directly related to impedance, power factor, inductive loads and capacitive loads. Reactive power is also directly related to the difficulty circuit breakers, fuses and switches have in disconnecting capacitive loads.  Reactive power charges are the least understood portion of electric bills of industrial and commercial customers. Not understanding the reactive charges results in many customers not correcting the problem.

Topics Include

Generation Aspects of Reactive Power

• Relationship of generator megawatts and generator megavars.

• Generator governor control for megawatts

• AGC (Automatic generation control) for megawatts.

• Generator excitation control for megavars

• Relationship between shunt capacitors and shunt reactors versus generator VArs.

• Generator “D” curves and relationships of generator megawatts and generator megavars.

• Inlet air temperatures on “D” curves for air cooled generators

• Hydrogen pressure on “D” curves for hydrogen cooled generators

• Generator positive VArs

• Generator negative VArs

• Generator VArs out

• Generator VArs in

• Generator lagging VArs

• Generator leading VArs

• Why generator megawatts are assigned by economics and generator megavars are assigned by location

Transmission Aspects of Reactive Power

• Relationship of generator megawatts and generator megavars.

• Relationship between shunt capacitors and shunt reactors versus generator VArs.

• Why generator megawatts are assigned using economics and generator megavars are assigned using location

• Why circuit breakers, fuses and switches cannot interrupt highly capacitive current.

Energy Trading Aspects of Reactive Power

• Buying/selling reactive energy as an ancillary service

Inductive Loads & Reactive Power 

• Inductive loads consisting of Induction motors, induction generators and transformers

• Inductive power measured in inductive volt-amps reactive (inductive VArs), inductive kilovolt-amperes reactive (inductive kVAr) and inductive megavolt-amperes reactive (inductive MVArs

• Inductive power measured in lagging volt-amps reactive (lagging VArs), lagging kilovolt-amperes reactive (lagging kVAr) and lagging megavolt-amperes reactive (lagging MVArs)

• Inductive power measured in magnetizing volt-amps reactive (magnetizing VArs), magnetizing kilovolt-amperes (magnetizing kVAr) and magnetizing megavolt-amperes reactive (magnetizing MVArs)

Capacitive Loads & Reactive Power 

• Capacitive loads consisting of capacitors, shielded cable, lightly loaded transmission lines, synchronous motors, synchronous generators and synchronous condensers

• Capacitive power measured in capacitive volt-amps reactive (capacitive VArs), capacitive kilovolt-amperes reactive (capacitive kVAr) and capacitive megavolt-amperes reactive (capacitive MVArs

• Capacitive power measured in leading volt-amps reactive (leading VArs), leading kilovolt-amperes (leading kVAr) and leading megavolt-amperes reactive (leading MVArs)

Inductive Loads & Reactive Energy

• Inductive energy measured in inductive volt-amps reactive hours (inductive VArh), inductive kilovolt-amperes reactive hours (inductive kVArh) and inductive megavolt-amperes reactive hours (inductive MVArh)

• Inductive energy measured in lagging volt-amps reactive hours (lagging VArh), lagging kilovolt-amperes reactive hours (lagging kVArh) and lagging megavolt-amperes reactive hours (lagging MVArh)

• Inductive energy measured in magnetizing volt-amps reactive hours (magnetizing VArh), magnetizing kilovolt-amperes reactive hours (magnetizing kVArh) and magnetizing megavolt-amperes reactive hours (magnetizing MVArh)

Capacitive Loads & Reactive Energy

• Capacitive energy measured in capacitive volt-amps reactive hours (capacitive VArh), capacitive kilovolt-amperes reactive hours (capacitive kVArh) and capacitive megavolt-amperes reactive hours (capacitive MVArh)

• Capacitive energy measured in leading volt-amps reactive hours (leading VArh), leading kilovolt-amperes reactive hours (leading kVArh) and leading megavolt-amp reactive hours (leading MVArh)

Power Factor

• Volt-amps versus watts, kVA versus kW & MVA versus MW

• Power factor charges

• Power factor correction

• Sizing capacitors for power factor correction

• Locating capacitors for power factor correction

• Shunt capacitors & shunt reactors versus synchronous generators and synchronous motors versus static VAr compensators and Statcoms for power factor correction

• LTCs, TCULs & OLTCs

• Power factor adjustments for kW demand charges versus kVA demand charges

• Transition from measuring energy in kWh or MWh, to measuring in kVAh or MVAh.

Price
$4,320 for first 24 students and $180 for each additional student plus instructor expenses from Portland, Oregon and shipping of books.

If you are a smaller municipal utility or co-op without 24 people for a class, have a utility association to which your utility belongs sponsor the class. If the association cannot, we have two recommendations. One is to contact neighboring utilities and determine their interest in jointly sponsoring a class. The second is to email PTS@utilitytraining.net and request a list of other associations who are conducting a class. PTS will provide links to the associations for any classes that are currently scheduled.

Prerequisites
Students registering for the Reactive Power class should have a basic understanding of voltage and current, single-phase and 3-phase, voltage transformers and circuit breakers.

Pre-class Quiz
A 10-minute multiple choice quiz will be administered at the beginning of the class to determine each student’s understanding of the above prerequisites. We use the quiz results to determine the correlation of understanding the prerequisites to how each student evaluates the class.

Who Should Attend?

Engineers & Engineering Support

• Electrical engineers new to electric utilities

• Electrical engineers specialized in one area who want to expand their career opportunities

• Other engineering disciplines considering a transition into electrical engineering positions in order to enhance career opportunities.

• Engineering technicians

• Staking engineers

• GIS technicians

Generation

• Generator operators

• Generation auxiliary operators

• Generation schedulers

Transmission & Distribution

• Transmission & distribution operators

• Transmission schedulers

• Employees responsible for cost-of-service studies

Information Technology

• IT responsible for system control computer systems 

Line, Substation and Ground Crews

• Journey level

• Apprentice level

• Apprenticeship instructors

Rates & Billing

• Entry level metering engineers and metering technicians responsible for installing, testing and maintaining meters used for billing

• IT professionals responsible for writing code for accurate customer billing

• IT professionals responsible for implementing artificial intelligence for real time pricing and load control

Those working on strategic planning including:

• Planning for new peaking generation resources due to real-time pricing changing daily demand curves

• Planning for new transmission lines, or transmission upgrades, due to real-time pricing changing daily demand curves

• Planning for implementing artificial intelligence (AI) for load control and real time pricing

• Planning for communication systems upgrades due to AI for load control and real time pricing

• Planning for reimbursing large numbers of customers with in-house generation that exceeds consumption using daily demand curves and annual demand curves

Note: Other engineering disciplines transitioning into electrical engineering positions. 
Most engineering disciplines have more than enough mathematics to work as electrical engineers in an electric utility, particularly mechanical, nuclear, civil, structural and chemical engineers. Understanding the electrical side is simple compared to the math side that other engineers already have.

Southern Company’s Georgia Power
In the early 2000’s, Southern Company (Georgia Power, Alabama Power, Mississippi Power, Gulf Power (in Pensacola, FL) and Southern Nuclear) offered an early retirement package that resulted in many more electrical engineers taking the offer than had been projected. There were not enough electrical engineers available to fill the vacancies so a Georgia Power electrical engineer was given the task of developing a comprehensive in-house program to educate other engineering disciplines to work as electrical engineers. The program became, arguably, the best engineering educational program in electric utilities in North America. 

PTS’ 3-day Electric Utility System Operation (EUSO) class was selected as the first class in this multi-year education program. Participants in the  EUSO classes included mechanical engineers, civil engineers, structural engineers, chemical engineers, industrial engineers and one agricultural engineer. 

After attending the 3-day EUSO class, engineers performed hands-on training in a non-energized training substation that was built by Georgia Power. This included transformer testing, relay testing, and voltage regulator testing. Oil was drained from the power transformer in the training substation and a door installed to allow engineers to see the interior. Hands-on switching in the non-energized substation was followed by switching at an energized substation. 

The hands-on training was augmented by classroom training developed by Georgia Power that included all aspects of designing distribution systems including fault current studies and coordinating protective devices.

First Energy’s Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L)
A mechanical engineer at Jersey Central Power & Light attended PTS’s 3-day Electrical System Operation (EUSO) class five times between 1998 and 2001. Because this was the most times anyone had attended the class, at a subsequent class the EUSO instructor inquired about the mechanical engineer and was told that he had been promoted into an electrical engineering position working with JCP&L’s Key Account Executives. The Key Account Executives work with the largest industrial and commercial customers including resolving technical issues. The mechanical engineer was well versed in compressors, pneumatic and hydraulic systems, and other mechanical systems. His electrical knowledge, along with his personality, made him the ideal candidate for the position