Non-sinusoidal reactive power and its impact on smart meter infrastructure in the era of smart grid

This paper reports on the inadequacy of traditional var meters to monitor the reactive power and the varh under non-sinusoidal or unbalanced conditions. It is explained that the non-active components of power, the fundamental reactive power, or the positive-sequence fundamental reactive power, are the components that need be separated and treated as a significant component. The remaining non-active powers are distortion powers. They transfer zero net energy to the load, while causing additional supplying line power loss. However, the physical nature of the distortion powers founds its roots in the process of current harmonics generation and should not be confused with the reactive power, but separately monitored.