MEASUREMENT OF THE POWER-FACTOR OF 3-PHASE UNBALANCED LOADS

A need has been identified to introduce new power factor interpretatio ns for unbalanced loads in order objectively to characterize the quali ty of the electrical power and encourage power consumers both to reduc e reactive power and to balance the load. Only in this way can an appr opriate amount of active electrical power be transmitted from generato r to load with minimum loss in the transmission line or intermediate e quipment. Circuits of the most frequently used three-phase power facto r meters have been considered, and their errors arising from three-pha se current and voltage unbalance are given.