The use of power definitions and correlation in the identification of nonlinear loads for the purposes of revenue

This article examines some of the methods currently used to quantify power distortion, specifically, total harmonic distortion, power factor and harmonic adjusted power factor. These values are computed for a nonlinear load based on simulated and measured data, after which they are compared to the values obtained from the IEEE Working Group Definitions of Power. It is shown that while these definitions can be used to a certain extent to quantify a disturbance, identification of the load is not always possible, as the values obtained for the various power components can to a large extent be influenced by loads parallel to the primary load. This article shows further that it could be possible to identify loads contributing to the voltage distortion at the point of common coupling by means of correlation.