Testing the performance of three-phase induction watthour meters using reproduced harmonically distorted actual recorded waveforms

The authors discuss a computer-based testing of a three-phase induction watthour meter in the presence of harmonic distortion. Two three-phase harmonic generators produce the distorted current and voltage waveforms. Each waveform consists of prespecified harmonic magnitude and phase, allowing balanced or unbalanced conditions to be simulated in the testing. A fiber-optic sensor converts the rotation of the disk of the meter into digital signals which are stored in an IBM PC/AT. A data acquisition system transfers the samples of current and voltage waveforms to compute the power and energy for comparison. The authors describe: the computer-based harmonic generator facilities used for testing, the testing procedure, the impact of the magnitudes and phase angles of the different harmonics on the meter´s registration error, and the registration error due to actual reproduced harmonically distorted data.<>