Power factor definitions and effect on revenue of electric arc furnace load

The value of power factor generally is an important penalty factor in the revenue of electricity customers. However, the traditional power factor definition always assumes that the load condition is sinusoidal. The effects of load unbalance and harmonic distortion are neglected. It is suggested that a suitable power factor definition should be required for reflecting the fluctuant load characteristics. Therefore, the customers would be forced to improve the power quality disturbances. The transmission lines loss can be reduced and the system available rating is increased. In this paper, a 15-minute measurement data at the MOF of a 69-kV electric arc furnace user is used for analysis. Five definitions of power factor are investigated by considering the essence of power quantities. The effect on the billing of an electric arc furnace user is also studied.