aelectricalman
Senior Member
- Location
- KY
Recently I decided to put together a spreadsheet that tracks CO^2 emissions reduction from the implementation of Power Factor Correction equipment. After I spent countless hours doing the math, expecting one result, coming up with another, it finally hit me....On the user end (not the power company end), there is no signicicant benefit from a Carbon Dioxide reduction standpoint. What is being delivered to the facility is theoretically 100%. The facility, through capacitors and inductors are the reason for the reactive loads on the system that create the inefficencies to start with (theoretically- assuming PoCo gives you 100 PF). So, through my research Im finding that even thought the KVA reductions total roughly 20%-30%, the REAL reductions in CO^2 gases comes from the reduction of I^R losses in a facility from correcting the PF. These seem to be in the low teens for 480 V systems and less than 1% at 12.470kV. That is not much at all for a 12.470kV system but it seems to be considerable at lower voltages (480V). Maybe its a mix up in my formulas but here is my question......Should I expect a greater percentage of KW reduction when looking at terminal voltages of 480 versus that of 4160 or 12.470kV? If this is correct what it tells me is that I can safely state that customers who have 480V systems will have a larger percentage of CO^2 reductions. This does not seem accurate but the data supports it. if that is the case, maybe customers who are subject to future cap and trade(assuming it comes) should then start to consider whether it is optimal to purchase primary sevice versus 480 V from the PoCo. Any thoughts.
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