I'm learning the concept of power factor and power factor correction, but I am having trouble to understand some points. Every book/article about power factor says something similar to:
Power factor can be an important aspect to consider in an AC circuit, because any power factor less than 1 means that the circuit’s wiring has to carry more current than what would be necessary with zero reactance in the circuit to deliver the same amount of (true) power to the resistive load.
So, I understand that when we are talking about a resistive load that is forced to receive the same amount of true power, increasing the load's power factor will indeed be a good improvement to the circuit, since the current that flows through the load will be reduced at the same time that the original true power doesn't change.
However, I draw a circuit where the power applied to the load is variable and, in that case, increasing the power factor made the circuit's total power be increased too. The circuit is below:
Original circuit:
Circuit with power factor correction:
So, it is easy to see that fixing the power factor made the circuit dissipates more true power.
However, the power that was being lost in the "transmission" was reduced. I understand that reducing the power loss in the transmission is maybe the most important point about power factor correction, but I always read that correcting the power factor is important to make the circuit more efficient and, also, reduce the price charged by electricty.
In that case, wouldn't the price charged be even higher? Even though the power is now being directed to the load instead of being lost in the transmission, I can't see how correcting the power factor would help when talking about reducing the eletricity bill.
I'm not sure if my question is clear, but any help is appreciated. Thank you very much!