Use of smart metering for resolving harmonic issues

The necessity of measurement of total harmonic distortion has become indispensible due to the extensive use of power electronic devices like SMPS (Switch Mode Power Supply), adjustable speed drives, arc furnaces, inverters, converters etc. Such inductive loads and other non-linear loads inject high levels of harmonic currents into the electrical power system affecting its stability and performance. The farther the current signal deviates from the fundamental frequency more the amount of harmonics will be generated which critically affect power quality. The THD
_I
(Total Harmonic Distortion-Current) can be measured by the Plugmeter, a non-billing metering application based on ARM (Advanced RISC Machines) Cortex-M0 by NXP. This paper presents implementation of energy metering design based on the same ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Chip) of ARM Cortex-M0 family. A control action can further be fed into the application to keep a check on harmonic generation.