With a circuit of a lagging power factor of 0.5, what should be done?

• A. Add a capacitor to increase the power factor
• B. Increase the load
• C. Decrease voltage
• D. Increase frequency

Answer: (A)

Power factor correction for inductive (lagging) loads. When the circuit has a lagging power factor, the current is pulling ahead of the voltage due to inductive reactance, meaning a lot of reactive power is required. Adding a capacitor provides leading reactive power in parallel with the load, which cancels part of the inductive reactive power. This raises the overall power factor toward unity, so the same real power P is drawn with less total current, reducing losses and improving voltage regulation. The other options don’t effectively address the reactive power: increasing the load changes both real and reactive power and can worsen PF; decreasing voltage or increasing frequency doesn’t correct the phase relationship in a practical, reliable way.