Analysis of Reactive Energy Measurement Methods Under Non-Sinusoidal Conditions

The different methods of measuring the reactive power and energy for billing electricity consumers connected to medium and high voltage systems, presents different results in non-sinusoidal conditions. The purpose of the paper is to point out the imperfections of each method accepted by the legislation on measuring precisely the power absorbed by consumers. In this sense, the present work addresses the effect of the harmonic distortion of voltage and current in the measurement of reactive energy, considering the different existing measurement methods. Initially, the paper presents an analytical study covering modeling and computational implementations of each method available for the measurement of reactive energy. In addition, calibration tests were carried out considering different meter devices. Finally, considering a meter specifically developed in the context of the present work, a measurement campaign was applied in different medium and high voltage facilities in order to perform a practical comparison between the different reactive energy measurement methods. The results showed the need for a unification of reactive energy measurements methods in order to achieve isonomy in the billing process of electricity consumers.