SCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

POWER DISTRIBIUTION (MSC)

POWER FACTOR CORRECTION FOR A SINGLE

PHASE LOAD
LITERATURE REVIEW

AUTHOR: OLUWATOSIN AKINWUMI

STUDENT ID: 130660734

SUPERVISOR:

DATE: 12/12/2014

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ABSTRACT

This project aims to looks at ways to improve power factor of large companies with high
harmonics generation, as well as analyse them for technical and financial feasibility.

A brief explanation of the causes and effect of low PF have been presented. Moreover, of
description of different options, topologies and architectures were also reviewed and
compared to develop the optimum solution for power factor correction. This project aims to
develop a circuit with high power output for power factor correction using active PFC
solutions. This is due to its high power factor, smaller size and high efficiency. Among
varieties of control techniques identified, nonlinear control was chosen as the viable solutions
due to its simplicity and high performance.

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1 TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 5
1.1 Problem Statement ................................................................................................................ 5
1.2 Power Factor ......................................................................................................................... 5
1.2.1 Effects of Low Power Factor ........................................................................................ 6
1.2.2 Causes of Low Power Factor........................................................................................ 6
2 POWER FACTOR CORRECTION ........................................................................................... 7
2.1 Passive Technique ................................................................................................................. 7
2.2 Active PFC methods.............................................................................................................. 8
2.2.1 Single phase active power faction correction .............................................................. 9
2.2.2 Dc-Dc Converters ........................................................................................................ 11
2.2.3 Buck converters ........................................................................................................... 11
2.2.4 Boost converters PFC. ................................................................................................ 12
3 Boost Active power factor control techniques .......................................................................... 13
3.1 Continuous conduction mode ............................................................................................. 13
3.1.1 Hysteresis current control (HCC).............................................................................. 14
3.1.2 Average current mode control. .................................................................................. 14
3.1.3 Non carrier control ..................................................................................................... 15
4 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 16
5 REFERENCE .............................................................................................................................. 17
6 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 18

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Table of Figures
Figure 1 Power factor angle and equation .............................................................................................. 5
Figure 2 Series parallel resonant filter .................................................................................................... 7
Figure 3 Block diagram of Active power factor correction .................................................................... 8
Figure 4 the basic Active power factor correction .................................................................................. 9
Figure 5 Two stage active PFC converter ............................................................................................. 10
Figure 6 Single stage PFC converter..................................................................................................... 10
Figure 7. Basic buck converter PFC ..................................................................................................... 12
Figure 8 Basic active boost PFC circuits .............................................................................................. 13
Figure 9 Average current mode control base on unity power factor rectifier ....................................... 14
Figure 10 Nonlinear carrier control base unity power factor rectifier .................................................. 15

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1. SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Problem Statement
The widespread usage of nonlinear loads are causing various undesirable effect in the
operation of power systems. Therefore, many government agencies around the world, driven
especially by western government are setting a performance regulatory standard for power
consumption to improve efficiency of the network. This constitutes a marked shift in the
direction compared to more traditional approaches for supplying high power loads and
stricter limit were applied to the level of harmonics that can be injected into the transmission
line. The implication is companies with large power electronics and computer usage are
coming under increasing pressure to reduce their harmonics injection into power system
network.

Thus, nonlinear loads with poor power factors are getting increasing attention, as they are
liable to generate harmonics which are responsible for degrading the power factor [1]

1.2 Power Factor

The concept of power factor(PF) are widely understood, and as shown in figure 1, it can be
defined as the ratio between the real A.C power consumed by the load to the apparent power
in the circuit, and it is mathematically a dimensionless number between 1 and 0. In essence,
Power factor indicates how efficient the load draws power from the utility, and a poor PF
causes the load to draw more current than what is needed for effective usage.

Figure 1 Power factor angle and equation

An ideal power factor can be said to be at unity, where the loads consume the same amount
of real power as the apparent power, which translate to a current waveform with a perfect
sine wave in phase with the A.C voltage of the grid. While some electrical load devices do
have unity power factor, most does not behave this way as they tends to draw a pure sine

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wave current out of phase with the voltage, or draws current in a non-sinusoidal waveform
thus creating a power factor less than 1 [2]

1.2.1 Effects of Low Power Factor

These effects are undesirable and can cause electrical as well as economic penalty as
explained below:

Limitation to the amount of load current that can be used, especially as each office is
usually provided with a fixed power rating. For instance in England, with a typical
medium size office load current rating of 10A and a power of 0.5, that means the
maximum current the house can use is 5A while the other half will be wasted as heat
in the premises wire.
Typically most offices with lots of electronics with switch mode power supply like
computers generate a low frequency harmonics (2nd -13th) capable of degrading PF, of
which if not suppressed can cause overvoltage, cables overheating, fire, mechanical
stress and protection failure. This can be expensive for the distribution companies and
are passed on to customers in the long run.
For utilities companies, low power factors means distribution grids and generators are
not fully realised to their potential.
Companies with a power factor below the limit set by the regulatory body, are
charged a penalty for every kilovolts/Amps used [3].

1.2.2 Causes of Low Power Factor

The main cause of low PF are categorised into two main section, namely;

1. Displacement power factor: This happens when the current and the voltage is out of
phase, it is normally caused by linear loads such as induction motors which exhibit
lagging current. This problem can be minimised by the use of capacitors and
synchronous motors used to compensate for the reactive power.
2. Distortion power factor: This is the components linked with the presence of harmonic
current and voltages as a result of nonlinear loads like fluorescent, arc regulators and
computers with switch mode power supplies [4].

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2 POWER FACTOR CORRECTION
In order to minimise the effects above, particularly distortion, power factor correction system
are employed. There are two main forms of power factors correction (PFC) technique which
can be used on nonlinear loads;

1. Passive power factors

2. Active power factors correction

2.1 Passive Technique

Passive PFC as the name implies employ the use of passive device for power factor
corrections. In most application it uses a harmonics filter which is basically a low pass filter,
and it is placed at the AC input to remove the characteristics harmonics of the current
consumed from the supply. Shown in Figure 2 is a typical passive PFC called series parallel
resonant converters. The series component are designed to block the harmonics and allow the
fundamental frequency components, the parallel components on the other hand are designed
to act as a low impedance path to the harmonics components, thereby eliminating the
harmonics before getting to supply. The downside however, is that a separate tuned L-C
branch are needed for each harmonic frequencies for example 7th, 11th, 13th and so on.

Figure 2 Series parallel resonant filter

Ideally it requires that the AC input voltage be set manually. These passive method like
others, rely on reactive element for PFC, as such they are only ideal for low power ( 100W)
where there is a constant voltage, at which they are relatively cheap and efficient [5].

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Using passive PFC, the power factor can be increased tremendously, however the main
drawback are:

Lower power factor: Passive PF performance are between the range of 0.70-0.75
[6], therefore it becomes arduous to achieve a PF close to 0.99, especially when used
to correct the excessive harmonics generated from switch mode power supply found
in computers and TVs
Size of filter: In view of the operating line AC supply frequency which is 50Hz,
couple with high current and voltage the size of the suitable inductor and capacitor
will be too bulky for the intended application.
Cost of filter components: Keeping in mind the performance and size concern, it
can be really expensive especially compared to the active power factor.
Inability to regulate voltage and a narrow input allowable input voltages

2.2 Active PFC methods

As described earlier in the previous section, passive PFC technique may not be suitable for
medium and high power applications. For the intended application, active is the most
effective approach in correcting the power factor of the electronic supplies. Figure 3 shows
the block diagram of Active PFC. One power electronic converter is used in conjunction with
the diode bridge rectifier and output capacitor for current waveform shaping. It operates by
keeping a constant DC output bus voltage, while also keeping the current drawn in phase with
the line voltage at the same frequency.

Figure 3 Block diagram of Active power factor correction

Some of the advantages over passive PFC are described below:

Smaller size: Due to high operating frequency(7-15kHz) the size of the reactive
element tends to be significantly less than passive PFC

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 Ability to regulate the output voltage over wide range of frequencies through the use
of feedback control network
Feedback detection of the source current for waveform control
Active wave shaping of the input current.
Filtering of the high frequency switching.

Figure 4 the basic Active power factor correction

2.2.1 Single phase active power faction correction

Conventional active PFC shown in Figure 4 have a distorted input current waveform with
high harmonic content. It does not meet the European line-current harmonic regulations
defined in the IEC 1000-3-2 document. Therefore, not viable for the required application [7].
In order to meet the regulation for a single phase, isolated DC-DC converter is needed
together with the PFC stage to ensure a high input PF is maintained together with a good
output voltage.
There are two approach for a single phase active PFC:
1. Two stage scheme
2. Single stage scheme

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2.2.1.1 Two stage active PFC approach

Figure 5 Two stage active PFC converter

As shown in Figure 5, there are two independent power stages controlled by two separate
controller. The PFC stage can either be boost or buck converters, an isolated DC-DC
converter form the output stage, it is used to regulate the output voltage by the pulse width
modulation (PWM) controller acting as a feedback loop control to monitor the output voltage
thus adjusting the switching accordingly for regulation [8]. The resulting advantage of two
controllers, is fast response output voltage together with high PFC, this makes it suitable for
high power applications. These control however are more expensive than a single control, in
addition they are also more complex and the resulting drawback is an increment in size.

2.2.1.2 SINGLE STAGE SCHEME

Figure 6 Single stage PFC converter

Figure 6 shows a single phase PFC converter with an output electrolytic capacitor used to
store the energy from the converter, to free the output from line ripple. However, the

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implication of single stage is that the bus VB is not a regulated constant voltage as a result of
controller busy regulating the output voltage thus resulting in a varying value of VB for
universal line input. The voltage range between the low and the high line can be so wide thus
causing undesirable effects and making it hard to optimise the DC-DC stage and at the same
increasing the size of the capacitor required to withstand the hold-up time.
The obvious advantages are the simplicity in power stage and control of the circuit in
addition to cheaper cost compare to two stage PFC converter. However, this project deals
with medium to high power and the price of the capacitor can get expensive high thus
pushing the overall price closer to two stage.

2.2.2 Dc-Dc Converters

From explanation in previous section, it is obvious converters are at the heart of active PFC.
There are different topologies normally used, but the basic ones are boost, buck, buck boost
and fly-back converters [9].

A detailed discussion of different topologies, architectures and options are beyond the scope
of these literature, but some of the most common approach are discuss here. The most
commonly used topology are the boost and buck converters, because of their less complex
control couple with their relative cheap and high power PFC characteristics. It is worth noting
active PFC cannot improve the efficiency of the system, therefore designing a high efficient
converters together with a low total harmonic distortion (THD) and high PFC, are the design
approach.

2.2.3 Buck converters

Figure 7 shows the basic buck converter connected to an AC source through a bridge
rectifier. The whole principle of the circuit is to step down the output voltage with respect to
the input line AC voltage. The circuit is set so that the PFC stage becomes forward bias when
the input line voltage is higher than the output bus voltage and so power can be transferred to
the load. Conversely, when the line voltage becomes lower than the output bus voltage the
PFC stage is reverse bias and no power can be drawn from the input.

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 Figure 7. Basic buck converter PFC

Buck converter PFC offers some advantages over boost converter of which the relevant ones
are:
Improved reliability and robustness as a result of lower voltage downstream. This also
mean the bus voltage can be optimise with the use of more efficient design using
lower voltage device with better specifications .
Improvement in efficiency, as buck has to work harder at the input with higher
voltage and low current and thus, less mechanical stress compare to boost converter.
Easy to control with more flexibility, this helps to achieve a THD and PF.
Disadvantage of using Buck converter PFC over boos converter also includes:
Higher percentage output voltage ripple compared to boost converters and required
voltage control with narrow bandwidth
Lower PF

2.2.4 Boost converters PFC.

The principle of Boost converter is to step up the output voltage with respect to the input line
voltage. It works by setting the output PFC stage to become forward bias when the input line
voltage is less than the output bus voltage. In addition the PFC stage is set to become
backward bias when the input line voltage is greater than output bus voltage.

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 Figure 8 Basic active boost PFC circuits

Using boost converter for this project, the following advantage can be realised are:

Achieves very low THD and a very high PF up to 0.998

Easier control of the gate drives of the as a result low side boost
Availability of optimised control ICs and design analysis to aid designs [10]

3 BOOST ACTIVE POWER FACTOR CONTROL TECHNIQUES

The control of active boost PFC can be divided into three categories:

1. Continuous conduction mode (CCM),

2. Critical conduction mode (CrCM)
3. Discontinuous conduction mode (DCM).

The mode of control are typically influenced by the power stage which they control and the
power level of the rectifiers. At power above 1kW, the peak current and rms current of both
CrCM and DCM becomes too large for efficient use of semiconductors and magnetic devices.
As a result CCM is the only viable control technique for this project.

3.1 Continuous conduction mode

As the name implies, it maintains a constant flow of current in the inductor at 100% duty
cycle, this gives the advantage of using an inductor with lower rms current, saturation rating
and current handling due to less peak current. The other advantage is a lower switch off
losses, this aid increase in efficiency of the Active PFC. The disadvantages is the complexity
in its control technique, due to constant current passing through the conductors [11]. Some of
the control techniques that utilises CCM are explained below;

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3.1.1 Hysteresis current control (HCC)
This method is used to generate a switching signals from the comparison of the current error
within a fixed window called hysteresis band. The switch is turned ON whenever the inductor
current reaches the lower hysteresis limit. Conversely, the controlled switch is turned OFF
when the inductor current reaches the upper limit of the hysteresis. Though this method have
the advantage of simplicity in implementation, but the pulse width modulated frequency
varies within the hysteresis band which makes it difficult to achieve a constant output voltage
[12].

3.1.2 Average current mode control.

The diagram shown in Figure 9 is the average current mode control base on unity power
factor. This controls gives an improve performance compared to HCC by maintaining a
constant voltage waveform as well as causing the input to appear resistive, thus forcing the
input current and voltage to maintain the same shape. The advantage is a very high
power factor and a very low harmonic current over a wide voltage range. One of the
drawback is the complicated control systems, as it requires a current sensor, voltage
multiplier and input voltage sensor [13].

Figure 9 Average current mode control base on unity power factor rectifier

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3.1.3 Non carrier control
Figure 10 shows another control method called Non carrier control that can be operated in
CCM. Unlike average current mode control, it doesnt sensed the input voltage to generate a
reference input current, as this it is generated by an analytical calculations.

Figure 10 Nonlinear carrier control base unity power factor rectifier

The works with the use of comparators comparing the input current to the output of carrier
signal, of which the resulting the signal is used to generate a gate drive for switching. This
method offers the advantage of simplicity, and sensor less control [14].

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4 CONCLUSION
From the literature survey, varieties of solutions have been presented in order to achieve the
optimum power factor correction design. Active boost PFC was identified as the most viable
solutions, as it is capable of achieving close to unity power factor with a very low total
harmonic distortion when design properly. The downsides is the increased complexity
particularly with the control technique due to CCM operation. However, novel solutions like
Non carrier controls are found to offer simplicity together with the advantage of a very low
THD and high power factor.

The research presented in this paper comprised of the review of basic standards to achieving
the optimum PFC therefore a much more efficient solutions need to be conducted to achieve
a close to unity power factor and a low THD in addition to high efficiency. An example is to
look into soft switching techniques which offers robustness and the lowest switching losses in
high power applications at the expense of increase complexity and cost. Therefore their
respective performance, cost and complexity need to be research to find the best solution.

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5 REFERENCE

[1] K. R. K. A. Z. N. Majid Pakdel, Three Topologies and a Control Strategy for Harmonic
Suppression in Single-Phase Systems Using a Shunt Active Power Filter, IEEE Trans,
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[2] Apps support, VICOR, 4 February 2013. [Online]. Available:

http://powerblog.vicorpower.com/2013/02/what-does-power-factor-mean-and-why-
must-we-correct-it/. [Accessed 7 December 2014].

[3] R. Elliott, Elliott Sound Products, 28 January 2012. [Online]. Available:

http://sound.westhost.com/lamps/pfc-active.html. [Accessed 09 December 2014].

[4] L. Cividinho, Power Factor, Harmonic Distortin; Causes, Effects and Considerations,
IEEE, vol. 21, pp. 506-507, August 1992.

[5] Nuvation, Power Supply Design Basics: Passive PFC Design, [Online]. Available:
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[6] CUI, Power Factor andPower Factor Correction, CUI, OREGON, 06/2013.

[7] G. Finlay, HARUONICS: BACKGROUND AND IMPLICATIONS, London, 1991.

[8] K. M. C. P. K. V V. Vijetha Inti, A New Topology for Power Factor Correction using
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[9] R. Mamano, New developments in high power factor circuit topologies, Conference
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[10] B. Keoghv, Power Factor Correction Using the Buck technology-Efficiency benefits
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[11] M. F. U. Temesi Ern, Active Power Factor Correction Principle of Operation,

Vincotech, pp. 1-2, 26 January 2004.

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[12] M. Milosevia, Hysteresis Control in Three Phase Voltage Source Inverter, pp. 1-2,
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[13] D. Mr.S.Naganjaneyulu, Linear Peak Current Mode Controlled Non-inverting Buck-

Boost Power Factor Correction Converter, International Journal of Computational
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[14] R. Z. a. D. Maksimovi, Nonlinear-Carrier Control for High-Power-Factor Rectifiers

Based on UpDown Switching Converters, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER
ELECTRONICS, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 213-218, March 1998.

6 BIBLIOGRAPHY

[1] A. L. V. M. A. Dell Aquila, Fuzzy controlled Active filter driven by an innovative

current reference for cost reduction, IEEE, pp. 0-7803-7369, 3/02/2002.

[2] P. S. Y. C. L.H. Tey, Improvement of Power Qaulity Using Adaptive shunt Active
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[3] K. M. S. a. F. M. Chongming Qiao, A Comprehensive Analysis and Design of a Single

Phase Active Power Filter with Unified Constant Frequency Integration Control,, IEEE
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[4] L. U. A. Suma Umesh, Active Power Factor Correction Technique for Single Phase Full
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