The IEEE standard 1459: What and why?

This contribution presents the main ideas of the IEEE Standard 1459 on definitions for the measurement of electric power quantities under sinusoidal and nonsinusoidal, single-phase and poly-phase, balanced and unbalanced situations. The motivation of the Standard is discussed. The problems encountered in trying to generalize the well known concepts of active power, reactive power, apparent power and power factor, very well established for single-phase sinusoidal systems, are pointed out. The IEEE Standard 1459 is compared with the related DIN Norm 40110.