Working and reflected active powers of harmonics generating single-phase loads

Harmonics generating loads when supplied from a common source of a sinusoidal voltage cause reflection of a part of the energy delivered to the load back to the supply. Such a load has to be supplied therefore, with a power which is higher than the active power, even if the load is purely resistive, and consequently, the energy provider delivers more energy to such a load than that measured by an energy meter. This power is called “a working active power” of the load. The paper explains the concepts of the working and reflected active powers and presents results of measurement of these powers for common single-phase harmonics generating loads.