What are the reasons for getting a negative reactive power in the

generator operations?

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3 Answers

Jim Phipps, Power Systems Engineer

Updated Jul 22, 2019 · Upvoted by Sambit Dash, M.Tech Electrical Engineering, International
Institute of Information Technology, Bhubaneswar (2019) · Author has 1.4k answers
and 1.6manswer views

Negative reactive power generated means that reactive power is flowing from the utility grid (source) to the generator.
This occurs whenever the generator field is under-excited or if an induction generator is being used.

Complex power for AC power systems is defined to be

S = P + jQ S=P+jQ

where,  S S  is the apparent power [VA],  P P  is the active (real) power [watts] and  jQ jQ  is the reactive power [vars] and  j j
 is the complex operator.

As shown in the figure below, for a power meter that is connected to register positive power as that flowing from the
generator to the utility grid, there are four quadrants of operation:
Negative reactive power  −jQ −jQ occurs in quadrants (3) and (4). For a generator application, only quadrant (4) applies
since the active power  P P  must be positive.

When a synchronous generator is under-excited, the generator becomes less stable and can be pulled out of
synchronism with the system. This is called "slipping a pole" and can be a very dangerous occurrence resulting in
substantial mechanical and electrical damage to the generator caused by very high transient torques in the shaft and
excessive overcurrent in the windings. This can be controlled by increasing the field voltage high enough to maintain
stability and remain within the reactive capability of the machine. Most large synchronous generators have protective
relaying to prevent pole slips from occurring.

For induction generators, they will always operate in quadrant (4) and negative reactive power is normal. Some induction
generators, which have slip-rings to a wound rotor winding, can control the reactive power provided that a slip-energy
power converter is used to produce an apparent negative rotor resistance. Large wind generators are good examples of
this. Some use what is referred to as a "double-fed induction generator" or DFIG.

That is probably more information than you were looking for. Bonus!
38.7k views · View 69 Upvoters · View Sharers
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Karl-Arne Markstrom, Senior consultant in electronics and system safety. Versed in

electrical safety
Answered Jan 24, 2017 · Author has 701 answers and 294.1k answer views

Jim Phipps wrote a very good answer. I would just add some practical applications. The power generating companies go
to great lengths to keep the power factors as good as possible in the grids. A low power factor means losses and lost
revenue. Traditionally, the power factors tended to be on the inductive side, due to leakage flux in transformers and
magnetising currents in motors.

Large scale use of flourescent lighting and switched power supplies in recent times shifted the angle at the capacitive
side.

There are several ways of generating reactive power of the right polarity, capacitor banks and switched active phase
compensation that generate or absord the proper amount of reactive power are the most recent.

A classical way is to use properly magnetised synchronous motors or generators. Many large plants "sell" reactive power
to the grids by adjusting the magnetising of their large machinery so it óperates with the proper polarity to improve the
overall power factor of the grid.

A very ingenious way that I came across when consulting for the Swedish State Railways in the early 80's was to operate
large rotary cycloconverters (50 Hz to 16 2/3 Hz) as power factor compensators. This improved the grids so much that
they got a discount on their kWh price large enough to almost offset the losses in the cycloconverters.
14k views · View 9 Upvoters

Andy Hu, EE major

Answered Apr 21, 2015 · Author has 95 answers and 398.8k answer views

Negative reactive power is not bad per se. It just describes transferring power to a capacitive load.

When the source and load are unmatched, the power flow becomes wonky, and usually less efficient, and causes
problems. (negative power factor?)

when you have a purely resistive source and a purely resistive load, you have 100% real power. However, due to the
nature of transformers being basically giant inductors, the source is often firmly planted in positive reactive power. 

So to get the most juice from an inductive source, the load should balanced to the impedance of the generator
(transformer).

Usually, you don't fix this from the power plant. Since there are usually many utilities connected to the power grid, it
would be difficult to match them all. Treating the whole thing as one giant load would cause weird power flowing
between utilities. Instead, the plant asks all utilities to balance their loads and match their impedances to specifications.
Failing to comply might result in a higher rate.

It's been a while since I cracked open a power textbook, If I got this wrong, please comment.
15.7k views · View 5 Upvoters · Answer requested by Quora User