If your electricity bill carries a low-power-factor penalty, an APFC (Automatic Power Factor Correction) panel is usually the fastest-paying investment in your electrical system.
What power factor is
Power factor is the ratio of useful (real) power to the total (apparent) power your installation draws. Inductive loads like motors and transformers pull reactive power that does no useful work but still loads your cables, transformer and the utility's network — which is why utilities penalise a low power factor.
How an APFC panel fixes it
An APFC panel switches capacitor banks in and out automatically via a power-factor controller, holding the power factor near a target (commonly 0.95–0.98) even as your load changes through the day.
The savings
- Removes or reduces the utility's low-power-factor penalty.
- Reduces current draw, which lowers I²R losses in cables and transformers.
- Releases transformer and cable capacity for more load without new infrastructure.
How it's sized
The required capacitance (in kVAr) is calculated from your load in kW and the gap between your existing and target power factor. In harmonic-rich environments, detuned reactors are added to protect the capacitors. Avoid over-correction — going leading can raise voltage and, in some tariffs, incur its own penalty.
Send NIXCO a recent bill or load data and we'll recommend the total kVAr, step configuration and whether detuned reactors are needed, then build the panel to suit.