From steinmetz to currents' physical components (CPC): History of power theory development

The paper presents a short draft of history of the development of the power theory of systems with nonsinusoidal voltages and currents. It starts from the Steinmetz experiment run in 1892 and ends with the development of the Currents' Physical Components (CPC) - based power theory. A draft of the CPC and the major contributions to the power theory and methods of compensation are presented as well. The time-domain and frequency-domain as well as the instantaneous and the averaging approaches to the power theory and compensation are compared.