Power components in a system with sinusoidal and nonsinusoidal voltages and/or currents

Definitions of power components are reviewed, and their disadvantages are analysed. New definitions of active, reactive, distortion and apparent power are discussed. It is attempted to find a clear physical interpretation, and to formulate this for each power component in systems with sinusoidal and/or nonsinusoidal voltage and current. Formulas for the straightforward calculation of each power component are obtained. It is shown that distortion power, consist of both active and reactive terms, and apparent power in a nonsinusoidal system must be represented as a many-dimensional vector. Examples are given to illustrate the application of the developed theory