This result is approximate for initial engineering guidance. Selecting the actual bank should account for standard available ratings, staged switching, harmonics, and network conditions — consult a detailed study before implementation.
Equation Used
Where φ₁ is the angle of the current power factor and φ₂ is the angle of the target power factor. The bracketed term is the "multiplier" that well-known practical tables condense into a single value.
A 400 kW load with a power factor of 0.8 that we want to improve to 0.95 — multiplier ≈ 0.421:
The apparent power drops from 500 kVA to about 421 kVA — freeing up ~79 kVA of capacity on the supply transformer.
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