2022 the 12th International Conference on Power and Energy Systems
The Principle and Prospect of AC Power Standards
Bai Jingfen
China Electric Power Research China Electric Power Research
Institute Co., Ltd
Beijing, China
jfbai@epri.sgcc.com.cn mengj@epri.sgcc.com.cn
Li Shisong
Department of Electrical Engineering State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power co.,
Tsinghua University LTD Marketing Service Center
Beijing China
leeshisong@sina.com
Abstract—As the core element for electrical energy
traceability, AC power standards play a crucial role in
ensuring fair and equitable electrical energy trade settlement.
This article summarizes the methods commonly used to
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construct high-precision AC power standards, including the
related traceability paths. The major measurement uncertainty
components during the calibration of the electric energy
meters via different the AC power standards are analyzed. By
reviewing the technical aspects in existing AC power standards
and the new requirements of power system measurement, the
future development trends for electric power and energy
standards are prospected.
Keywords—metrology, AC power standard, thermoelectric
converter, PJVS, JAWS, standard electric energy meter
I. INTRODUCTION
The power generation, transmission, distribution and
consumption of the power system are inseparable from the
electric energy measurement. At present, the power system
mainly uses sine/cosine voltage and current with a frequency
of 50 Hz or 60 Hz to transmit electric energy, so the electric
energy measurement is mainly AC electric energy. As the
basis to ensure the accuracy and reliability of AC electric
energy measurement, AC power standard plays a key role in
electric energy trading. Therefore, it is necessary to develop
AC power standard with high accuracy.
AC power value P =UI cos M is relevant with effective
value of the input voltage U and input current I, also with the
phase angle between the voltage and the current φ. Generally,
the ratio of voltage or current can be measured more
accurately by ration standard with sampling comparison
method, and the phase difference between them can be
determined by using frequency domain analysis tools [1-2].
However, in order to obtain AC power with high accuracy, it
is necessary to determine the effective value of voltage or
current.
The traditional method to achieve high accuracy AC
voltage and power conversion is the AC/DC converter
method [3]. The principle of this method to measure AC
voltage (current) accurately is to connect AC voltage (current)
and DC voltage to the AC/DC converter respectively, and
ensure that the AC/DC converter is at the same working
point in both cases. That is, the AC voltage (current) and DC
voltage generate the same amount of heat and other signals
in the AC/DC converter, so as to realize the traceability of
the former to the latter. In this scheme, the AC/DC converter
The work described in this paper was supported by the Research on
precision measurement technology of broadband electric energy based on
quarter square method and thermoelectric transformation (5108-
202218280A-2-165-XG).
978-1-6654-5145-1/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE
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Meng Jing Zhao Dongfang
Department of Electrical Engineering
Institute Co., Ltd Tsinghua University
Beijing, China Beijing, China
zdf18@ mails.tsinghua.edu.cn
Duan Meimei
Nanjing, China
cbadmm@163.com
can be regarded as a standard, which is called AC/DC
conversion standard. Its typical implementation scheme is to
use a thermoelectric converter [4].
Thanks to the research and application of Josephson
effect and quantized Hall effect [19-20], the DC voltage
standard and resistance standard with uncertainty as low as
10-10 can be realized at present [5]. In the construction of AC
power standard using the AC/DC converter method, the AC
voltage can be traced to the DC quantized voltage standard,
and the AC current can be traced to the DC quantized voltage
standard and resistance quantized standard, so that the AC
power value can be traced with high accuracy.
With the continuous progress of quantum measurement
technology, the quantum signal generator can be used to
directly generate AC quantum voltage signals, and then
calibrate the voltage or current signals forming AC power,
which has become the main school of AC power standard
development [6]. Major national metrology institutes in the
world, such as the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) [7], the German Federal Institute of
Physics and Technology (PTB) [1], the Chinese Institute of
Metrology (NIM) [8], and the National Research Council of
Canada (NRC) [9], have carried out research on the AC power
standard based on quantum voltage waveform synthesis.
At present, there are two methods to realize quantum AC
voltage synthesis: one is to use programmable Josephson
Voltage Standard (PJVS) to synthesize step voltage
waveform [10]. The other is to use pulse driven Josephson
Arbitrary Waveform Synthesizer (JAWS) to generate smooth
AC voltage waveform [11]. The two technologies differ in the
amplitude and bandwidth of the synthetic voltage signal. See
Part 3 below for specific differences.
II. AC POWER STANDARD BASED ON THERMOELECTRIC
CONVERTER
As shown in Fig. 1, the thermoelectric converter is
mainly composed of a heater and a temperature sensor. With
the electric heating effect, it can realize the calibration of the
AC voltage (current) to the DC voltage standard under the
condition that the AC and DC power can generate an equal
amount of heat. According to the different heaters and
temperature sensors used, thermoelectric converters include
unit thermoelectric converters, three-dimensional
multicomponent thermoelectric converters, thin-film
multicomponent thermoelectric converters and
semiconductor root mean square thermoelectric converters
[12-13].
Under power frequency, the uncertainty of AC/DC
conversion of thermoelectric converter can be lower than 1
271
h10-6. It also has good conversion performance in a very KU
wide frequency range, and has been used as the main AC  I U  A  jB  UY  
K I ZS
voltage standard by many national standard laboratories
around the world [14].
Finally, it can be obtained that the calculation formula of
each power reference value in the device is
DC 2
Sref UI | (U1 / K U˅ Y|
Voltage
meter  Pref Re{UI * } | (U1 / K U˅2
Re{Y * }|
Re 
Heating and * 2 *
temperature Qref Im{UI } | (U1 / K U˅Im
Im{Y }|
AC sensor
Where, Sref represents the reference value of apparent
power, Pref represents the reference value of active power,
Fig. 1. The schematic diagram of the thermoelectric converter.
and Qref represents the reference value of reactive power,
Dual channel AC represents the absolute value; Re ^ ` and Im ^ `
voltage source MUT T1 SS
UGU KU UDC respectively represents the real part and imaginary part of the
A
D
A U U1 1
High complex number, and * represents the conjugate.
speed TC

γ
switch
T2
UGI
I
KI
I1
D U1ǃU2
A
G ZS U2 2
SDVM Ratio &
phase error
Fig. 2. The schematic diagram of power standard construction based on
thermoelectric converters.
Fig. 2 shows a typical construction scheme of AC power
standard based on thermoelectric converter [15]. In this
scheme, according to the set amplitude of the voltage and
current, and the phase difference between them ¤, the dual
channel AC voltage source outputs the analog voltage UGU
and UGI with low amplitude reflecting the tested voltage and
current after digital to analog conversion. After being
amplified by voltage amplifier A and transconductance
amplifier G respectively, the voltage test signal U (e.g.120 V,
with any adjustable phase) and current test signal I (e.g. 5 A,
with any adjustable phase) are obtained. They are used as the
input signals of the Meter Under Test (MUT) to obtain the
electrical energy value of the MUT. In order to determine the
error of the MUT, it is necessary to determine the reference
value of the standard power. The specific procession is as
follows.
First, the test voltage signal U and test current signal I are
reduced to a lower magnitude level respectively by using the
mutual transformer T1 and T2, and the current signal is
converted into voltage signal through the parallel impedance
ZS, so that the time-domain sampling values of voltage U1
and U2 can be obtained by using the digital g sampling
voltmeter SDVM. Then, the phasors U 1 and U 2 are obtained
by Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT), and the ratio of the
two is recorded as:
U2
 A  jjB
According to equation (5), the measurement accuracyy of
this standard power value depends on KU, KI, A+jB, U 1 and
ZS. Wherein, KU is the proportion of voltage transformer T1,
and KI and ZS are the proportion and load of current
transformer T2. Under the excitation of power frequency
voltage and current, the ratio accuracy voltage transformer
and current transformer can reach the order of 10-7.
The ratio A+jB of U 1 and U 2 will be affected by factors
such as the noise of the sampler (SDVM), AD bits, trigger
signal jitter, etc. However, the measurement accuracy of
A+jB can reach the order of 10-7 when a high-precision
sampler ((such as 3458A) is used. The effective value of
U 1 and U 2 is determined by comparing the transfer switch SS,
thermoelectric converter TC and DC voltage UDC. Generally,
in order to effectively eliminate the influence of
thermoelectric potential on the measurement results, it is
necessary to switch the DC voltage polarity. In addition, the
AC/DC difference at the output end of the thermoelectric
converter has a certain voltage coefficient and fluctuates with
the change of frequency. After careful calibration, the
AC/DC difference an be better controlled within 1h10-6.
In short, for the AC power standard realized by the
thermoelectric converter method, each uncertainty
component near the power frequency can reach the order of
10-7, and the combined measurement uncertainty is generally
about the order of 10-6.
III. AC POWER STANDARD BASED ON QUANTUM AC
VOLTAGE
Fig. 3 shows a typical technical implementation scheme
of constructing AC power standard based on quantum AC
voltage [16]. The biggest difference between the AC power
standard based on quantum AC voltage and the AC power
standard based on thermoelectric converter is the method of
B 
measuring the effective value of voltage or current (U1 or U2).
U1
The thermoelectric converter uses the equivalence of AC
In addition, according to Fig. 2, voltage and DC voltage electrothermal conversion to realize
the tracing of AC voltage to DC voltage. For quantum AC
 U1 UK U   voltage synthesis, the Josephson voltage reference is used to
directly synthesize a quantum waveform UJ that is in phase
 U2 Z s I1 Zs KI I   with U1 or U2 to calibrate U1 or U2, that is, to directly trace
the AC voltage signal to the source of the quantum AC
Substitute Eq. (1) and Eq. (2) into Eq. (3) , then voltage waveform.

272

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 Dual channel
ACV source MUT T1
UGU KU
A
D
A U U1
γ waveform to be synthesized into a series of digital codes; 2)
T2
UGI
I
KI
I1
D
A
G ZS U2
Control Bias
unit circuit
PJVS UJ
Fig. 3. The schematic diagram of power standard construction based on
AC quantum waves.
At present, there are two methods that can be used to
generate quantum AC voltage signals, namely, the
Programmable Josephson voltage PJVS and the pulse driven
quantum arbitrary waveform synthesizer JAWS.
As shown in Fig. 4, the PJVS method is an extension of
the DC Josephson voltage reference. Its basic principle is to
generate different voltage values at different time to form a
stepped voltage waveform to approximate the measured sine
wave voltage, which is similar to the DA conversion
principle. In the process of calibrating the measured voltage
waveform Um with the stepped voltage waveform UJ
generated by PJVS, differential sampling method is used,
which is shown in Fig. 4. First, subtract the measured sine
wave voltage Um from the stepped approximate sine wave
voltage UJ synthesized by PJVS, and then use a digital
sampling voltmeter to sample the differential voltage signal
ΔU , and finally, the differential voltage signal ΔU is added
to the stepped approximate sine wave voltage UJ to recover
the measured sine wave voltage signal.
There are three points worth noting in the above process:
1) It refers to the differential voltage signal ΔU instead of
sampling the measured voltage signal Um, so that the
amplitude of the measured signal can be kept low, the gain
error and nonlinear effect of the digital sampler can be
effectively reduced, and the measurement error can be
reduced; 2) Influenced by parasitic parameters, the initial
segment of each voltage step in the stepped approximate sine
wave voltage signal UJ has obvious oscillation. To improve
the accuracy of measurement, only the difference between
the flat part of each voltage step and the measured sine wave
voltage at the corresponding time can be used as effective
sampling data; 3) By adjusting the phase of Um and UJ
voltage signals, the phase difference is zero, so that the
differential voltage signal obtained is the smallest, and the
corresponding measurement error is also the smallest[17].
U
UJ
Um
∆U
0 t
Fig. 4. The schematic diagram of differential sampling.
For quantum AC voltage, it can also be synthesized by
pulse driven Josephson voltage reference JAWS. The basic
principle of JAWS is that when the Josephson junction array
in the quantum state is driven by the current pulse, no matter
how the amplitude of the current pulse changes, the quantum
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SS
magnetic flux with the same time integral area will be
generated. The process of using JAWS to generate standard
1 sinusoidal voltage waveform includes four steps as shown in
Fig. 5: 1) Using -› A modulation tool that modulates the
Using pulse code generator, digital code is converted into
2 SDVM Computer high-speed pulse; 3) The Josephson array is driven by a high-
speed pulse, and the quantum voltage pulse sequence
containing the waveform information to be synthesized is
3
obtained; 4) The required standard sinusoidal voltage
waveform can be obtained by time integration of quantum
voltage pulse sequence and low-pass filtering [11].
1 ∆-∑ Modulation 00001 0001000100 0100100100 1010101
2 Pulse pattern generator
Output voltage of
3
JVS
U
Output voltage after
4 time integration and
filtering t
Fig. 5. The processes when using JAWS to synthesize standard sin voltage
waveform.
The differences between using JAWS and PJVS to
construct AC quantum voltage waveform are as follows: 1)
PJVS is affected by the oscillation at the beginning of the
voltage step, and the frequency application range is about
kHz, while the AC quantum voltage waveform synthesized
by JAWS does not have transient oscillation, and its
frequency range is wider, up to MHz [11]; 2) Because the
quantum voltage waveform synthesized by JAWS is smooth,
and after precise phase adjustment, the differential voltage
sampling signal can be much smaller than the differential
voltage signal of PJVS, so JAWS has the potential to achieve
higher measurement accuracy; 3) At present, the effective
value of PJVS synthetic quantum AC voltage is about 7 V at
most, which is higher than that of JAWS synthetic voltage
(about 2 V at most).
Uncertainty sources of PJVS AC quantum voltage
waveform mainly include gain correction error, temperature
coefficient, common mode rejection ratio, phase locking
error of digital sampling voltmeter, and thermoelectric EMF
of reverse polarity relay switch [18]. The uncertainty sources
of JAWS AC quantum voltage waveform mainly include
high-frequency quantization noise and reference clock error
when generating quantum voltage, induced voltage from
compensation current and pulse sequence, transmission line
distributed parameter effect and thermoelectric effect.
When the frequency of the quantum AC voltage
synthesized by JAWS is relatively low (such as 2 kHz), the
uncertainty mainly comes from the thermoelectric effect of
the transmission line; After the frequency increases to the
high frequency range (such as 100 kHz), the induced voltage
and transmission line distribution parameter effect caused by
the compensation current become the main error source [11].
The AC power standard based on PJVS and JAWS has no
significant difference within the power frequency (50 Hz or
60 Hz) range. For example, for 60 V, 5 A, 50 Hz sinusoidal
active power signals, the accuracy of the two methods is
273
about 10-6, and the deviation between them is less than 1h
10-6[6].
The AC power standard construction scheme based on
quantum AC voltage shown in Fig. 3 requires only the
stability of the amplified signal source, and its accuracy is
determined by the signal transformation, sampling unit and
reference signal (UJ) at the back end. This scheme is
equivalent to using transformer, sampler and standard signal
to build a "standard power meter" to calibrate the MUT. In
the field of measurement, another calibration method
commonly used is the standard source method, that is, to
calibrate the measured signal by generating a high accuracy
standard signal. In terms of AC power standard construction,
NIST has adopted the "standard power source" method.
The principle structure of the 120 V, 5 A, (50-400) Hz
AC power standard device of NIST [7] is shown in Fig. 6. It
uses a two channel digital signal generator to generate a
standard test voltage signal UGU (effective value 1.2 V,
adjustable phase) and a voltage signal UGI (0.5 V, adjustable
phase) reflecting the standard test current. After being
amplified by voltage amplifier A and transconductance
amplifier G respectively, it obtains voltage signal UT (120 V)
and current signal IT (5 A), which are provided to the meter
under test MUT to measure the electric energy value.
Bias UJ
JAWS +IN SDVM
circuit
-IN #1
GUARD
SW
UGU U fU UT
A
(×120)
(×10S)
UGI
G
IT
ZS
Dual channel
signal U fI
0.1Ω
generator
GUARD
-IN
SDVM
+IN #2
Fig. 6. Construction of NIST AC quantum power standard.
In the NIST "standard power source" construction
scheme, the voltage and current test signals input to the MUT
are calibrated by the quantum AC voltage signal UJ. The
process is similar to the method of accurately measuring U1
or U2 in the "standard power meter" scheme, that is, first
determine the ratio value and phase difference by sampling,
and then calibrate the amplitude or effective value of any
signal with the quantum AC voltage signal.
The scheme needs to ensure the amplitude and phase of
the voltage and current test signals input to the electric
energy meter under test, namely UT, IT ˈ θTU ˈθTI shall be
consistent with the setting parameters of AC power source.
For the voltage signal, use the AC quantum voltage signal UJ
generated by PJVS and the digital sampling voltmeter
SDVM # 1 to verify the standard test voltage signal UGU
generated by the digital signal generator with synchronous
differential sampling technology. For the current test signal,
first use the parallel impedance ZS and the current-voltage
converter T to convert to a voltage signal UfI, and then use
the AC quantum voltage signal UJ generated by PJVS and
the digital sampling voltmeter SDVM # 2 for verification;
With the aid of the dual channel switch SW, the verification
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of the voltage and current test signals is alternately realized,
and the relevant parameters of the two channel digital signal
generator are adjusted according to the verification results, so
that the test signals UT and IT input to the electric energy
meter under test are as consistent as possible with the values
of the parameters set by the AC power source [7].
In terms of measurement accuracy, the error sources of
the "standard power meter" method shown in Fig. 3 and the
"standard power source" method constructed in Fig. 6 are not
very different. Therefore, there is no essential difference
between their overall measurement uncertainty levels, which
are currently 10-6 levels.
IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the basic principles of two kinds of AC
power standards are summarized, and the development trend
of AC power standards is analyzed. The first is to trace the
AC voltage to the DC voltage standard by using
thermoelectric converters, and then build the AC power
standard. The AC power standard based on thermoelectric
converter is applicable to steady state measurement with low
cost. It has good measurement performance in the wide
frequency range from power frequency to MHz, and is
applicable to building general standard energy meters. The
other is to build AC power standard based on quantum AC
voltage synthesis waveform. For this, this paper introduces in
detail the technical implementation scheme of building AC
power standard using programmable Josephson voltage
reference PJVS and pulse driven AC Josephson voltage
JAWS, and analyzes the source of its uncertainty. Finally,
from the complexity, cost, limitations and other aspects of
MUT
generating the quantum voltage signal waveform, the
advantages and disadvantages of the existing AC power
standard construction schemes are compared, aiming to
provide a reference for how to meet the traceability
requirements of dynamic and broadband electric energy
T measurement and achieve the quantity flattening traceability
as soon as possible to continue to carry out AC power
standard research.
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