Calculate reactive power and the correction needed to reduce it.
Reactive power circulates without doing work but still occupies supply capacity. Capacitors supply leading reactive power that cancels the lagging reactive power of motors, which is why correction is sized in kVAR. Correcting from 0.75 to 0.95 releases about a fifth of the apparent power, often deferring a transformer upgrade entirely.
Reactive Power
Q = P tan φ; correction = P (tan φ₁ − tan φ₂)
Q = P tan φ; correction = P (tan φ₁ − tan φ₂) Reactive power circulates without doing work but still occupies supply capacity. Capacitors supply leading reactive power that cancels the lagging reactive power of motors, which is why correction is sized in kVAR.
Correcting from 0.75 to 0.95 releases about a fifth of the apparent power, often deferring a transformer upgrade entirely.
This calculator takes 3 inputs: Real power, Present power factor, Target power factor. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.