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Electrician Red Seal · Question

A plant technician is installing a new bank of AC capacitors for power factor correction. After installation, the plant's power factor shifts from 0.85 lagging to 0.98 leading. What is the most likely problem with this installation?

Shifting to a leading power factor (when starting from lagging) indicates that the installed capacitive reactive power is higher than the inductive reactive pow

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Question: A plant technician is installing a new bank of AC capacitors for power factor correction. After installation, the plant's power factor shifts from 0.85 lagging to 0.98 leading. What is the most likely problem with this installation?

Answer options:

  • The capacitors are incorrectly wired for three-phase operation.
  • The capacitors are rated too low for the inductive load.
  • The plant's overall load has significantly decreased. ✅ The total kVAr of the capacitors is excessive for the inductive load.

Correct answer: The total kVAr of the capacitors is excessive for the inductive load.

Explanation: Shifting to a leading power factor (when starting from lagging) indicates that the installed capacitive reactive power is higher than the inductive reactive power of the load, or put differently, too many capacitors were installed for the given inductive load. This overcorrection can lead to overvoltages and resonance issues.

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