IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO.
1, JANUARY 2010
New Resolution of the Unbalance
Power According to Std. 1459
Salvador Orts-Grau, Member, IEEE, José Carlos Alfonso-Gil, Francisco J. Gimeno-Sales, and
Salvador Segui-Chilet, Member, IEEE
Abstract—Harmonic distortion and load unbalances have been
an important issue in the last few years, motivating a large number
of studies in active power compensators used for the power net-
work quality improvement. Following an approach similar to the
one used in IEEE Std. 1459 for the non-fundamental effective ap-
parent power, a new resolution of the unbalance power is presented
in this paper. The proposed power magnitudes allow explanation
of the results obtained when shunt active power compensators are
used in customer installations to improve the power quality. Re-
lated to the new unbalance power resolution, new merit factors are
introduced in this paper to provide a measure of the quality level in
the installation. Simulated and experimental results are analyzed
in the paper by using the proposed resolution.
Index Terms—Active power filters, electrical power-quality in-
dexes, IEEE Std. 1459, revenue power quantities, unbalance power
resolution.
I. INTRODUCTION
I N a highly industrialized and technological society, the in-
crease in energy demand is a worrying issue for govern-
ment and energy utility companies [1]–[4]. The increase in the
electrical energy demand all around the world is producing an
increase in the prices of fossil fuels and a big interest in the
production of electricity from renewable power sources such as
wind or photovoltaic [1], [2]. Simultaneously, electrical power-
quality problems are a very important issue for engineers who
try to attain the maximum efficiency of the electrical system
[5]–[13].
Electrical power-quality problems are analyzed from dif-
ferent points of view. Some recent topics under development
are the following: electrical power definitions [5], [6], [14],
[15], definition of electric power-quality indexes [14], [16],
[17], evaluation of electric energy quality [18]–[21], electrical
energy billing [22]–[24], identification and location of non-ef-
ficient loads [21], and active compensators [5]–[9], among
others.
IEEE Standard 1459 [16] includes new definitions for the
measurement of electric power quantities under sinusoidal, non-
Manuscript received May 06, 2009. First published December 11, 2009; cur-
rent version published December 23, 2009. This work was supported in part by
the Generalitat Valenciana under grant GVPRE/2008/343. Paper no. TPWRD-
00295-2008.
S. Orts-Grau, F. Gimeno-Sales, and S. Segui-Chilet are with the Departa-
mento de Ingeniería Electrónica, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Valencia
46022, Spain (e-mail: sorts@eln.upv.es; fjgimeno@eln.upv.es; ssegui}@eln.
upv.es).
J. C. Alfonso-Gil is with the Departamento de Ingeniería de Sistemas Indus-
triales y Diseño, Universidad Jaume I de Castellón, Castelló de la Plana 12071,
Spain (e-mail: jalfonso@esid.uji.es).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2009.2033964
0885-8977/$26.00 © 2009 IEEE
341
sinusoidal, balanced, or unbalanced conditions. IEEE Std. 1459
is intended to evaluate the performance of modern equipment
or to design and build the new generation of instrumentation for
energy and power quantification [16], [25]. Some studies and
explanations about definitions included in IEEE Std. 1459 are
developed in [25]–[27] while in [14] some IEEE Std. 1459 terms
are formulated following an instantaneous power approach.
Examples of instrumentation compatible with IEEE Std.
1459–2000 are developed in [28]–[30]. The core of all these
instruments is a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) that carries out
advanced algorithms over the three-phase load currents and
the line to neutral voltages [30]. IEEE Std. 1459 states that the
new definitions were developed to give guidance with respect
to the quantities that should be measured or monitored for
revenue purposes [22]–[24], engineering economic decisions,
and determination of major harmonic polluters [19]–[21], [31],
[32].
The charge for the different power magnitudes depends on the
governmental regulations in some countries and the electrical
utility tariffs [22], [24]. In [21] it is suggested that for a cor-
rect electrical energy billing, it is necessary to determine the re-
sponsibility for the existence of some power quantities between
end customers or electrical utilities. It is also asserted that new
indices are needed “for the evaluation of harmonic distortion
levels at the metering section and for the determination of loads
and supply polluting contributions”. The purpose of the “Toll
Road” model described in [20] and [31] is to attribute and allo-
cate the cost and expenses of the circuits needed to maintain the
power network with the minimum available harmonic pollution.
The presence of loads demanding fundamental positive-se-
quence reactive power , unbalance power , and non-
fundamental effective apparent power produce quality
problems to the electric power systems [9], [10]. Reactive power
is traditionally compensated by means of capacitor banks [5],
[19]. Unbalance power and harmonic distortion are mitigated
by means of the use of passive and active compensators or hy-
brid arrangements [5], [33], [34]. Shunt active compensators
are preferred in low-voltage distribution networks, near the end
non-linear load that demand harmonic currents [5], [9], [33].
Shunt active power compensators (SAPCs) are connected
to the customer installation at the point of common coupling
(PCC) between power network and customer installation.
The addition of an SAPC to the customer electric installation
improves the power quality of its installations and has effects in
the electric bill. The SAPC presented in [6] operates supplying
the load current components that are responsible for the exis-
tence of the power quantities different from the fundamental
positive-sequence active power . The results included in
342 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO. 1, JANUARY 2010

the paper show that with the use of the SAPC, it is impossible and the harmonic effective voltage . quantifies
to cancel completely some power terms related with and the part of produced by the voltage distortion
. This motivated a further analysis of the power quantities
described in the IEEE Std. 1459 in relation with the unbalance (3)
and harmonic phenomena. The results of the analysis are
exposed in this paper. • The harmonic apparent power . It is calculated in (4)
The organization of the paper is as follows. In Section II, from the product of the effective harmonic current
the power magnitudes defined in IEEE Std. 1459 are summa- and the effective harmonic voltage . quantifies
rized, especially the power terms included in . In Section III, the part of produced by the product of voltage and
is decomposed into new magnitudes following an ap- current harmonic components
proach similar to the one used by IEEE Std. 1459 with .
In Section IV, a balanced resistive load is fed by a power supply (4)
that includes fundamental voltage asymmetries. The system is
is resolved into and the residual harmonic distortion
simulated and analyzed before and after the operation of an
power , being defined as follows:
SAPC. Section V analyses the experimental results of an instal-
lation that includes an SAPC connected to a power network with (5)
high-voltage asymmetries at the PCC and a load that demands
all kinds of useless powers. The last section includes the con- (6)
clusions of the performed study.
(7)
II. IEEE STD 1459 QUANTITIES
The important electrical quantities recognized by IEEE Std. where is the PCC rms harmonic voltage, is the load rms
1459 for three-phase electrical systems are as follows. harmonic current, and is the phase shift between the current
• The fundamental powers, which are quantified all together and the voltage of the same harmonic order .
by means of the fundamental effective apparent power quantifies the whole load effective harmonic power de-
. includes , , and . manded to the power network at the PCC. This magnitude is
• The non-fundamental powers, quantified by means of . used to evaluate the level of the power network pollution due
quantifies the whole load apparent power produced by to harmonic components and also to define the apparent power
the flow of the harmonic components of the load current rating of the active compensator that can reduce upstream
and the PCC voltage harmonic components. the PCC [28].
• The effective apparent power obtained from the effec- Some ratios are defined in relation to the presence of har-
tive voltage and current , such as is defined in the monic components in the installation: the equivalent total
standard. harmonic distortion of the effective current and the
Only is considered a useful power quantity while the equivalent total harmonic distortion of the effective voltage
rest ( , , and ) are recognized as useless powers be- . Their definitions and relations with and
cause they are not associated with the transfer of useful energy are shown as follows:
from generators to loads [6], [16], [25], [28]. The term “useless
powers” is preferred with respect to the most common “non- (8)
active powers” because active fundamental negative-sequence
power and active fundamental zero-sequence power (9)
are included in , and harmonic active power is in-
cluded in . The power demand of small industries and commercial and
Attending to the IEEE Std. 1459 resolution of the PCC volt- residential customers is significantly smaller than the power ca-
ages and load currents, is resolved as it appears in (1) while pability of the electric distribution network to which they are
resolution is not performed in IEEE Std. 1459 connected. Under this operating condition, the phase to neutral
voltages are forced by the power network and quantifies
(1) some power magnitudes that are not caused by customers. Ref-
erence [24] states that it is necessary to distinguish between cus-
The power magnitudes that appear in (1) are as follows.
tomers who are harmonic sources and harmonic sinks. It is also
• The current distortion power . It is calculated from
necessary to distinguish between the part of useless powers pro-
the product of the fundamental effective voltage and
duced by the customer and the part that is imposed by the power
the harmonic effective current , as it appears in (2).
network at the PCC.
quantifies the part of produced by the current
If a consumer connected at the very end of the feeder uses an
distortion. This is usually the dominant component of
SAPC in its installations, the use of for the measurements
(2) of the customer pollution looks like the most correct option, as
it is demonstrated in the performed tests. The other two quan-
• The voltage distortion power . It is calculated in (3) tities ( and ) are directly influenced by the PCC har-
from the product of the fundamental effective current monic voltages, which are imposed by the power network. For
ORTS-GRAU et al.: NEW RESOLUTION OF THE UNBALANCE POWER ACCORDING TO STD. 1459 343

with voltage asymmetries and harmonic voltage distortion in the

PCC, an SAPC cannot cancel completely the useless powers. If
is directly used in this case for penalty purposes, the cus-
tomer is paying for something that is caused by the power net-
work.
Something similar happens with . With the SAPC con-
nected, the remaining is caused by the power network fun-
Fig. 1. Power magnitudes under ideal supply conditions. damental voltages asymmetries at the PCC. This residual power
magnitude is not defined in the IEEE Std. 1459 and is really im-
portant for customers because they cannot cancel or reduce this
the same reason, is preferred as a ratio for the evalu- term, so they must not be charged for it. A further decomposi-
ation of the pollution produced by customers that includes an tion of the unbalance power is necessary if utilities desire to bill
SAPC to compensate or reduce useless powers. With the unbal- adequate for customers that add an SAPC to their installation.
ance power resolution proposed in the next section, some of the The paper proposes a decomposition of similar to the one
new quantities are imposed by the power network while others done by IEEE Std. 1459 for . For the calculation of the new
must be charged to customers. power terms, is resolved using the fundamental positive-se-
quence , and the fundamental unbalance voltages,
while is resolved in the fundamental positive-sequence
III. UNBALANCE POWER DECOMPOSITION and the fundamental unbalance currents. Using the defini-
The unbalance power quantifies the effect of the load funda- tions included in [16], the resolution of and is as follows
mental current unbalances jointed with the PCC fundamental
voltage asymmetries. is a fundamental power that is cal- (12)
culated from the resolution of . can be expressed as a
function of and or as the quadratic sum of all the funda- (13)
mental power quantities as follows:
is calculated by using and , resulting in the fol-
(10) lowing expression of :
The value of is calculated from (10) as follows: (14)

Replacing the values of and from (12) and (13),

(11) is written as follows:

where is the fundamental positive-sequence effective ap- (15)

parent power. The calculation of using the fundamental
symmetrical components of the PCC voltages and line currents Resolving as a function of and and simplifying
is performed in [14]. If PCC fundamental voltages present terms is calculated as follows:
asymmetries, an ideal balanced resistive load will demand a set
of unbalanced currents. The main goal of an SAPC that follows (16)
IEEE Std. 1459 is to convert the customer load in its equivalent
balanced resistive load that only consumes [6], [16], [25], The first term in (16) represents the unbalance produced by
[28], as is indicated in Fig. 1. If PCC fundamental voltages the fundamental currents demanded by the customer unbalanced
present asymmetries, it is impossible to reach that goal because load. The second term in (16) represents the unbalance produced
all the unbalance power is not caused by the customer. With by the PCC fundamental voltage asymmetries. The third term
fundamental voltage asymmetries at the PCC, the SAPC can in (16) is produced by the load fundamental unbalances and the
only minimize certain powers. fundamental voltage asymmetries. decomposition includes
This fact was first detected during the analysis of the simu- the following power quantities.
lated and experimental results presented in [6]. The SAPC used • The current unbalance power . It is calculated from
in [6] delivers the load current components related with the exis- the product of the fundamental effective voltage and
tence of , , and . The SAPC can achieve a balanced the fundamental unbalance current , as it appears in
set of supply fundamental currents, with a small content of high (17). quantifies the part of due to customer fun-
frequency harmonics caused by the self-switched operation of damental current unbalance
the VSI inverter. The customer is demanding only the active part
of the fundamental positive-sequence current , the only (17)
one related with the presence of . With the normal operation
of the SAPC, some power terms related with and keep • The voltage unbalance power . It is calculated from
in the supply lines. The SAPC cancels correctly , so the product of the fundamental effective current and
and are nil but it is not possible to cancel . Therefore, the fundamental unbalance voltage , as it appears in
344 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO. 1, JANUARY 2010

quality of the installation from the point of view of the funda-

mental unbalances and asymmetries:
• The total current unbalance factor :

(23)

• The total voltage unbalance factor :

(24)
Fig. 2. Resolution of S including the new resolution of S .
and provide a global ratio of the voltage asym-
metry and the current unbalance, respectively. With these new
(18). quantifies the part of due to the PCC fun- factors, (17) –(19) can be written as follows:
damental voltage asymmetries
(25)
(26)
(18)
(27)
• The unbalance apparent power . It is calculated
These power magnitudes and their related factors are useful
from the product of and , as it appears in (19).
for revenue purposes, for engineering economic decisions, for
quantifies the part of produced by the funda-
the determination of the pollution source, and for the SAPC
mental voltage and current unbalanced components
sizing. Two different examples are analyzed in the next two sec-
(19) tions. The first one corresponds to an ideal three-phase balanced
resistive load that is connected to a power network that presents
With the use of these new power quantities, is calculated fundamental voltage asymmetries. The circuit is analyzed by
as follows: means of simulation using Matlab/Simulink and demonstrates
how an ideal load demands non-efficient power owing to power
(20) network disturbances. An experimental example is performed
in the second case. It consists of an unbalanced linear load in
includes the negative-sequence apparent power , parallel with a three-phase balanced non-linear load. The load
and the zero-sequence apparent power , between other is connected to the power network by means of a three-phase
power terms, as defined in [16]. The resolution of pro- transformer to force a high-voltage asymmetry during the ex-
posed in this paper distinguishes the following three power perimental test. The proposed power terms and factors are cal-
terms: the negative-sequence active power , the zero-se- culated from the samples acquired from the PCC voltages and
quence active power , and a residual unbalance power load currents. The power terms and factors obtained when the
designated as . includes between others, the neg- SAPC is connected demonstrate the validity of the proposed res-
ative-sequence reactive power , and the zero-sequence olution.
reactive power , as defined in [16]. The following relation-
ship is verified: IV. SIMULATED RESULTS
Some simulated results are shown here to validate the pro-
(21)
posed decomposition ( , , , and ) and
where and are defined in IEEE Std. 1459 and is the new merit factors ( and ). The values used in the
calculated using the previous definitions as follows: averaged model of the circuit of Fig. 3 are
; . In [35], the selection
(22) of the ac output inductances is presented. A further description
of the model used during the simulations, and the control algo-
Using [25, Fig. 6], the resolution of the effective apparent rithm used in the SAPC control are described in [6]. During the
power according to the IEEE Std 1459 and the proposed simulation, the PCC line to neutral voltages
resolution of are shown in Fig. 2 represented in Fig. 4 include fundamental voltage asymmetries,
With these power magnitudes, the different terms of are with the following rms voltages: 220 V, 230 V,
measured individually, with separate identification of the un- and 205 V. The fundamental frequency is 50 Hz. The
balance power due to fundamental current unbalances or due load used in the simulation is implemented by using a balanced
to fundamental voltage asymmetries. With the use of an SAPC linear load with the following values: .
in the customer installation, the supply currents contain mainly
and is nil, so and are canceled from the Fig. 5 shows the load currents (top plot) and the neutral cur-
supply lines. These power terms quantify the unbalance level of rent (bottom plot). The load currents
the load current. Using the previous definitions, new merit fac- are unbalanced due to the PCC voltage asymmetry, with an rms
tors are added to IEEE Std 1459 to measure the electric power neutral current equal to 2.18 A. Tables I and II show
ORTS-GRAU et al.: NEW RESOLUTION OF THE UNBALANCE POWER ACCORDING TO STD. 1459 345

Fig. 3. SAPC connection to the power network.

Fig. 6. Phase (top) and neutral (bottom) supply currents after SAPC operation.

TABLE I
LOAD VOLTAGE, CURRENT, AND POWER MAGNITUDES DURING THE
SIMULATION

Fig. 4. Phase-to-neutral voltages used in the simulations.

• Currents , , , , and are calculated from the

rms line supply currents and the rms
current through the neutral wire .
• Power magnitudes and related ratios are calculated fol-
lowing IEEE Std. 1459 and the new definitions proposed
in the paper. All of the values are calculated using the
voltages and currents detailed previously. The effective
Fig. 5. Phase (top) and neutral (bottom) currents for a pure resistive three-phase power factor , the fundamental power factor
balanced load. , and the fundamental positive-sequence
power factor are defined in the IEEE
Std. 1459.
the main magnitudes of the circuit. Table I includes the voltages, For the operating conditions of the simulation, only and
currents, power magnitudes, and merit factors of the three-phase exist because no harmonic currents are demanded by the
balanced linear load. load and the PCC voltage contains only fundamental compo-
The values included in the tables are grouped according to the nents. The value of the active power verifies in any kind of
magnitudes represented: electrical system the following relationship:
• Voltages , , , , and are calculated from
the rms line to neutral voltages . (28)
346 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO. 1, JANUARY 2010

TABLE II
SUPPLY VOLTAGE, CURRENT, AND POWER MAGNITUDES AFTER SAPC
OPERATION (SIMULATED RESULTS)

Fig. 7. SAPC output currents.

Despite that, the system unbalance is produced only by the

fundamental voltage asymmetries at the PCC, the main part of
is caused by , followed by .
After the SAPC is connected at , the line and neu-
tral supply currents change to the waveforms shown in Fig. 6,
which only contains . The small value of the ratios ,
and demonstrates that no current unbalance exists from
the point of view of the power network. The SAPC output cur-
rents represented in Fig. 7 are a set of unbalanced currents. With
these currents, the SAPC eliminates or reduces significantly all
useless powers different from , as is demonstrated with the
power magnitudes shown in Table II. Voltages not shown in
Table II remain equal to the values detailed in Table I. After
SAPC operation, the useless power term that still remains in a
similar value is , because the fundamental PCC voltage
asymmetries cannot be corrected by the use of an SAPC. A hy-
brid (series-shunt) active power compensator could cancel all Fig. 8. Experimental phase (top) and neutral (bottom) load currents.
useless powers, but its use is not so common in low distribu-
tion power networks owing to the high currents flowing through
the series circuit of the hybrid compensator. The values of part of the expenses corresponding to is not the customer
and the ratios , and before and after the SAPC responsibility.
is connected are the same due to the fact that PCC voltages are
forced by the power network. The values of and the ra-
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
tios , and drop to a value near zero with the
SAPC operation, not being exactly equal to zero due to the small To verify the validity of the proposed power quantities and
steady-state error of the SAPC current controller used in the factors, some experimental results are obtained with the small-
simulation model. The proposed powers before and after SAPC scale prototype described in [6]. The experimental test repro-
operation are compared in Fig. 8. duces different supply conditions and load values than in the
The simulated results demonstrate that the proposed reso- simulations, to increase the effect of the load unbalances and
lution of allows distinguishing between the different ap- voltage asymmetries. , and exist in
parent powers included in . The new power terms and fac- the experimental test. The SAPC operates reducing all the ex-
tors can be used, in combination with other magnitudes, to de- iting useless load powers as is described in [6].
termine the origin of the pollutions in the power network. As The load used in the test is implemented using an unbalanced
is demonstrated in the simulations, a perfect balanced resis- linear load in parallel with a balanced three-phase non-linear
tive load connected to a power network, which includes fun- load. Fig. 8 shows the load current waveforms, and the rms
damental voltage asymmetries, present a non-efficient behavior values of the load currents are detailed on the right of the scope.
even when an SAPC is connected to cancel load non-active cur- The waveforms are captured with a Yokogawa DL7100 oscillo-
rents because some useless power terms are not cancelled. If scope. The scale used in all oscilloscope current waveforms is
IEEE Std. 1459 is used for penalty purposes in this case, the . The per-phase non-linear load is built using a
ORTS-GRAU et al.: NEW RESOLUTION OF THE UNBALANCE POWER ACCORDING TO STD. 1459 347

TABLE III
EXPERIMENTAL LOAD VOLTAGE, CURRENT, AND POWER MAGNITUDES

Fig. 9. Experimental phase-to-neutral supply voltage waveforms.

Fig. 10. Main power magnitudes when the SAPC is connected.

single-phase uncontrolled rectifier with an LC filter and a resis-

tive load . The unbal- SAPC is connected. Fig. 10 shows the main power magnitudes
anced linear load is connected from phase terminals to neutral supplied by the power network and the SAPC. With the use of
wire and has the following values: the SAPC:
• ; • is reduced but not completely canceled from the
• ; power network. and are reduced significantly
• . while keeps in a similar value. and are
The supply current total harmonic distortion for the mainly supplied by the SAPC although remains in
three phases is included in Table III. Despite the non-linear loads the power network.
demanding the same harmonic currents in the three phases, the • In a similar way, is reduced but not completely can-
values of the are different due to the load fundamental celed. The most important reduction appears in and
currents being unbalanced. in , which are delivered by the SAPC. Only re-
During the tests, the rms PCC line to neutral fundamental mains equal because the SAPC cannot correct the voltage
voltages are approximately 125 V and asymmetries of the PCC. The modification of the new
80 V. The voltage asymmetry is obtained by means of a three- power terms with the SAPC operation is similar to their
phase Y–Y transformer, in which a different secondary terminal equivalent terms in .
is used for phase . The primary of the transformer is connected • , , and are reduced to values near to zero. is
to the power network, so some voltage distortion at the PCC is almost equal to , demonstrating that the installation is
included in the experimental tests due to power network normal near to its ideal conditions. The small increase in is
conditions 1.9%). The values of and the ra- produced by the self-supporting dc bus. The dc voltage
tios and are quite similar before and after the controller establishes the increase of the active power
SAPC is connected. Fig. 9 shows the line-to-neutral voltage needed to compensate the power losses in the SAPC
waveforms used during the tests. The SAPC control is imple- [36]–[38].
mented in a TMS320F2812 DSP, which executes all algorithms • The values of the different power factors are improved,
needed for the SAPC control: SVPWM with a switching fre- demonstrating that the power quality of the installation is
quency equal to 19.2 kHz, dc bus voltage control, analog-to-dig- increased.
ital conversion, current control, etc. [6]. Fig. 11 shows the SAPC output currents for the compensa-
As in the previous section, Tables III and IV show the main tion of all load useless powers. Fig. 12 shows the supply cur-
magnitudes of the circuit. Table III includes the voltages, cur- rents when SAPC is connected. These currents are almost bal-
rents, power magnitudes, and merit factor of the supply with the anced and mainly contains , with a small harmonic compo-
SAPC disconnected. Table IV shows the same values when the nent due to SAPC operation, as can be seen by the value of
348 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO. 1, JANUARY 2010

TABLE IV
EXPERIMENTAL SUPPLY VOLTAGE, CURRENT, AND POWER MAGNITUDES
AFTER SAPC OPERATION.

Fig. 12. Experimental phase (top) and neutral (bottom) supply currents after
SAPC operation.

Fig. 13. Comparison between new power terms before (left) and after (right)
SAPC operation.

reduction of after SAPC operation if the PCC voltage con-

ditions are imposed by the power network. After the analysis is
realized using the new resolution, a customer who connects an
SAPC to improve the power quality of its installation must not
Fig. 11. Experimental SAPC output current: a–b–c phases and neutral (from
top to bottom, respectively). be charged with the part of corresponding to and with
the part of corresponding to because it is impossible
to cancel it by means of an SAPC.
in Table IV. A comparison between new power terms before
and after SAPC operation is presented in Fig. 13. Before SAPC VI. CONCLUSION
operation, the main part of corresponds to . After the IEEE Std. 1459 provides definitions for the electric power
SAPC is connected, is reduced around 90% of its initial quantities that can exist in any situation of the electric power
value, with a that varies from 58.4% to 5.9%. The values network. A new generation of instrumentation for energy and
of the ratios and are reduced to a value smaller power quantification following IEEE Std. 1459 is now under
than 3% with the SAPC operation, demonstrating the capability development. Simulated and experimental results obtained for
of the SAPC to minimize the unbalance of the fundamental cur- unbalanced loads that use an SAPC to compensate all useless
rent components. powers motivated a further analysis about . Following an
The SAPC operation does not modify as is demon- approach similar to the one used in IEEE Std. 1459 for ,
strated by the value of , which remains in the same value a new resolution of is presented in the paper. The new
during the test. power magnitudes and factors introduced in the paper are used
The experimental results confirm that the proposed resolution in the simulations and in the experimental tests performed in
of allows the calculation of the different power terms in- the paper. The results obtained demonstrate that the proposed
cluded in . With the use of these power terms, the residuals resolution of allows distinguishing between the different
and after SAPC operation are completely identified apparent powers included in . The proposed power magni-
and quantified. The new power terms allow calculation of the tudes allow explaining the results obtained when SAPC are used
ORTS-GRAU et al.: NEW RESOLUTION OF THE UNBALANCE POWER ACCORDING TO STD. 1459
in customer installations to improve the power quality. The new
power terms and factors can be used for proper electrical energy
billing and, in combination with other magnitudes, to determine
the origin of the pollutions in unbalanced power networks.
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Salvador Orts-Grau (M’06) was born in Valencia,
Spain, in 1972. He received the M.E. and Ph.D. de-
grees in electronics engineering from the Universidad
Politécnica de Valencia (UPVLC), Valencia, Spain,
in 2000 and 2008, respectively.
He is an Assistant Professor in the Elec-
tronics Engineering Department in the UPVLC
(EED-UPVLC), where he has been since 2001. His
research work is focused on the improvement of the
electrical power network quality by means of digi-
tally controlled shunt active power compensators.
350 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO. 1, JANUARY 2010

José Carlos Alfonso-Gil was born in La Cañiza,
Spain, in 1974. He received the M.E. degree in au-
tomation and industrial electronics engineering from
the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPVLC),
Valencia, Spain, where he is currently pursuing the
Ph.D. degree in electronic engineering.
From 2005 to 2007, he was a Researcher at the
UPVLC and since 2007, he has been a Visiting
Teacher in the Department of Industrial Systems
Engineering and Design, Universitat Jaume I
(Castellón), Castelló de la Plana, Spain. His research
work is focused on digital signal processors applied to the control of power
converters and to the design of instrumentation that measures electric quantities.
Salvador Seguí-Chilet (M’01) was born in Va-
lencia, Spain, 1962. He received the B.E. degree in
industrial electronics, the M.E. degree in electronic
engineering, and the Ph.D. degree in electronics
engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de
Valencia (UPVLC), Valencia, Spain, in 1986, 1999,
and 2004, respectively.
Since 1990, he has been lecturing in the Elec-
tronics Engineering Department, UPVLC. His major
fields of interest are power electronics, renewable
energy systems, and active power compensators.

Francisco J. Gimeno-Sales was born in Valencia,

Spain, in 1958. He received the Ph.D. degree in elec-
tronics engineering from the Universidad Politécnica
de Valencia (UPVLC) in 2004.
From 1986 to 1993, he worked in several R&D de-
partments, developing industrial products (hardware
and software). Since 1993, he has been teaching
power electronics and C applied to power converter
control in the Electronics Engineering Department,
Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Valencia,
Spain. His research field of interest is the control of
power-electronics converters and grid quality.