The present invention discloses a power apparatus with the output voltage thereof made variable, which allows harmonics to be suppressed while an enhanced power factor being maintained. The power apparatus comprises an alternating current power source, a bridge rectifier circuit to subject alternating currents from the alternating current power source to full-wave rectification, a reactor connected between the alternating current power source and the alternating current input end of the bridge rectifier circuit and a capacitor connected via a bi-directional switch between the alternating current input end and the direct current end of the bridge rectifier circuit, further comprising a smoothing capacitor, a zero-crossing detecting means, a bi-directional switch drive signal generating means and a bi-directional switch driving means.

A power supply unit for use in a measuring instrument at a plant. An output from a current transformer mounted on a power supply line is controlled so that the range of a primary current producing a stable output is increased. The invention includes a current transformer mounted on a cable for providing power to an electric motor, and a power supply unit. The power supply unit includes a rectifier circuit, a short circuit, a reverse current inhibit element, a condenser, a voltage watching circuit, and a constant voltage element. The voltage watching circuit outputs a command signal when the voltage of the condenser exceeds a first level and connects the short circuit 32.

A circuit for providing power factor correction in accordance with an embodiment of the present application may include a boost converter circuit and a control circuit receiving as inputs a rectified AC input voltage from a rectifier, a signal proportional to current through the boost inductor and the DC bus voltage across the capacitor of the boost converter. The control circuit provides a pulse width modulated signal to control the on time of a PFC switch. The control circuit further includes a voltage regulator and a current regulator. The current regulator includes a difference device operable to subtract a signal proportional to the inductor current from the current reference signal, a PI controller adapted to receive the output of the difference device and provide a first control signal, a feed forward device operable to receive the rectified AC input voltage and to provide a second control signal with a smaller dynamic range than the AC input voltage, and an adder operable to add the first control signal to the second control signal to provide a PWM reference signal for generating the pulse width modulated signal. A zero crossing detector and vector rotator may be provided to provide a clean sinusoidal reference to the current regulator. A partial PFC regulator may be provide to provide partial mode PFC if desired.

A power factor correcting power supply includes an input stage power converter and an output stage power converter. The input stage power converter includes a plurality of series connected boost switches and a power factor correction controller. The power factor correction controller may direct the operation of the boost switches with series interleave phasing to perform power factor correction and voltage regulation. The boost switches are supplied input voltage and input current from a power source. The input voltage is converted to a DC boost voltage by high frequency series interleaved switching of the boost switches. The DC boost voltage is converted to a DC output voltage by the output stage power converter. The DC output voltage is provided on a DC rail for a load of the power factor correcting power supply.