Power Factor Correction

Power Factor Correction Solutions for Industrial and Commercial Installations

Poor power factor doesn’t just lead to higher energy bills, it also increases your carbon footprint. At Power Quality Expert, we provide professional power factor correction solutions designed to optimise your electricity consumption, protect your equipment, and reduce your energy costs.

Understanding the Impact of a Poor Power Factor

When you run inductive loads—such as large motors, pumps, or heavy industrial machinery—your electrical current often “lags” behind the voltage. This is the source of reactive power, which means you are consuming energy without it doing useful work.

If your power factor is low, you are essentially paying for wasted electricity. For businesses on energy tariffs that include capacity charges (kVA) and reactive penalty charges, a poor power factor can be a massive financial drain. Our energy and power quality surveys can identify these inefficiencies and help with corrective strategies to eliminate unnecessary costs.

The Benefits of Power Factor Correction

By implementing power factor correction solutions, your business can potentially gain a significant operational and financial advantages:

Immediate Cost Reductions: We target specific charges—including excess reactive power charges and capacity charges per kVA—to significantly lower your monthly overhead.
Improved Infrastructure Performance: By reducing the total current in your system, you can minimise heat build up and reduce “copper losses,” leading to a more stable and reliable electrical installation.
Sustainability and Green Credentials: Power Factor Correction is a key component of Part L of the Building Regulations. Improving your power factor directly reduces greenhouse gas emissions, helping you demonstrate green credentials to shareholders, staff, and customers alike.
Enhanced Equipment Longevity: A corrected power factor reduces stress on your electrical components, potentially extending the lifespan of your most expensive equipment.

Our Tailored Power Factor Solutions

Every business has a unique load profile, and we can develop a bespoke action plan based on your specific needs.

Centralised vs. Localised Correction

We analyse your installation to help determine the best energy efficiency solution for your goals:

Centrally Controlled Equipment: Ideal for maximising payback by correcting the power factor of the entire site from a single point.
Locally Installed Equipment: Best suited for specific areas where reducing copper losses and improving local machine performance is the priority.

Comprehensive Assessment and Strategy

Our power factor correction solutions go beyond simply supplying the hardware. We provide a complete solution that includes:

Identifying specific “low power factor” loads within your facility.
Designing a custom capacitor bank configuration tailored to your maximum demand.
Establishing monitoring protocols to verify and report ongoing energy savings.

Our Process: How It Works

We follow a simple framework to ensure you get measurable results and a clear proposal of the solution.

Initial Audit and Baseline Analysis: We conduct a power quality survey and review of your current electrical installation.
Bespoke Engineering Design: Based on our findings, we develop a customised proposal. This includes choosing between centralised or localised correction and specifying the exact capacitor bank requirements for your site.
Implementation and Monitoring: We supply the power factor correction equipment to your preferred installer and provide support during the installation and setup of the system.