Design a Practical Simulator for Testing Capacitor Banks Panel

Abstract

Power factor correction is needed on the electrical installation in the way to reduce the usage of electrical consumptions. Technology which commonly used to do power factor correction is using several Capacitor Banks with Power Factor Regulator (PFR) module to control them. However, there is a problem for panel makers when they manufacture a Capacitor Banks Panel and need to test it. They need Load Banks with the minimum capacity as same value as Capacitor Banks capacity to make sure that the Capacitor Banks are working well as controlled by their PFR. In this paper, we will design a practical simulator which will be useful for the panel makers do testing the setting of PFR module so it can control the Capacitor Bank to work properly without needing of any Load Banks. The result shows that the prototype is able to be used to simulate the operation of PFR module for controlling 12 steps of Capacitor Bank with different capacity rating by setting the variable resistor on its step.