IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 45, NO.

1, FEBRUARY 1996 293

Generalized Instantaneous Reactive Power

Theory for Three-phase Power Systems
Fang Zheng Peng, Member, IEEE, and Jih-Sheng Lai, Senior Member, IEEE

A b s t r a c t 4 generalized theory of instantaneousreactive power

for three-phase power systems is proposed in this paper. This
theory gives a generalized definition of instantaneous reactive
power, which is valid for sinusoidal or nonsinusoidal, balanced
or unbalanced, three-phase power systems with or without zero-
sequence currents and/or voltages. The properties and physical
meanings of the newly defined instantaneous reactive power are
discussed in detail. A three-phase harmonic distorted power
system with zero-sequence components is then used as an example
to show reactive power measurement and compensationusing the
proposed theory.

I. INTRODUCTION

F OR single-phase power systems with sinusoidal voltages

and sinusoidal currents, quantities such as active power,
reactive power, active current, reactive current, power factor, Fig. 1. Three-phase circuit structure.
etc., are based on the average concept. Many contributors have
attempted to redefine these quantities to deal with three-phase
systems with unbalanced and distorted currents and voltages
[ 11451.
Among them, Akagi et al. [I] have introduced an interesting
concept of instantaneous reactive power. This concept gives
v=
VC
,I:[ [I.
are expressed as instantaneous space vectors, v and i, that is,

i=
2,
(1)

Fig. 2 shows the three-phase coordinates which are mutually

an effective method to compensate for the instantaneous orthogonal, representing phase a, phase b, and phase e,
components of reactive power for three-phase systems without respectively. The instantaneous.active power of a three-phase
energy storage. However, this instantaneous reactive power circuit, p , can be given by
theory still has a conceptual limitation as pointed out in [2],
p=v.i (2)
that is, the theory is only complete for three-phase systems
without zero-sequence currents and voltages. To resolve this where . denotes the dot (internal) product, or scalar prod-
limitation and other problems, Willems proposed an attractive uct of vectors. Equation (2) can also be expressed in the
approach to define instantaneous active and reactive currents conventional definition
[2]. His approach, however, is to deal with the decomposition p = Uaia + U b i b v c i c . +
of currents into orthogonal components, rather than with power
Here, we define a new instantaneous space vector q as
components.
def
In this paper, a generalized theory of instantaneous reactive q =vxi (3)
power for three-phase power systems is proposed. The gener- where x denotes the cross (exterior) product of vectors or
alized theory is valid for sinusoidal or nonsinusoidal, balanced vector product. Vector
q is designated as the instantaneous
or unbalanced three-phase systems, with or without zero-
reactive (or nonactive) power vector of the three-phase circuit,
sequence currents and/or voltages. Some interesting properties
and the magnitude or the length of q, 4, is designated as the
of the theory developed are shown.
instantaneous reactive power, that is,
11. DEFINITIONS OF INSTANTANEOUS WACTIVE 4 = llqll = IIV x ill, (4)
COMPONENTS FOR THREE-PHASE SYSTEMS
where 11 . I) denotes the magnitude or the length of a vector.
For a three-phase power system shown in Fig. 1, instanta- Equations (3) and (4) can be rewritten as
neous voltages, U,, V b , U,, and instantaneous currents, i,, i b , i,,
Manuscnpt received June 6, 1994; revised April 27, 199.5.
F. Z. Peng is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-2100 USA.
J . 4 . Lai is with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Engineering Technology
Division, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-7258 USA.
Publisher Item Identifier S 0018-9456(96)00047-2.

0018-9456/96$05.00 0 1996 IEEE

294 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL 45, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 1996

we get

i, + i, =
(v . i)v + [-(i. v)v + (v . v)i]
v.v
- (v . v)i
-
v,v
= 1. 0
Theorem 1 shows that any three-phase current vector, i, can
always be decomposed into two components, i, and i,. The
following theorem will show that i, and i, correspond with the
instantaneous active power and reactive power, respectively.
Theorem 2: i, is orthogonal to v, and i, is parallel to v,
J namely, v . i, 0 and v x i, 0.
a
Fig. 2. Three-phase coordinates.

and
=v.('
vxi)xv
v.v
)
(using the formula of (9))

=v.
-(i . v)v (v . v)i +
v .v
- -(i . v ) ( v . v) + (v . v)(i v)
respectively. In turn, we define the instantaneous active current
+

vector, i,, the instantaneous reactive current, i,, the instania- v.v
= 0)
neous apparent power, s, and the instantaneous power factor,
A, as and

vxi,=vx
= 0.
(Av> 0
From Theorem 2, we can see that i, and i, are mutually
orthogonal, that is, i,.i, = 0. Therefore, we have the following
theorem.
def
+
Theorem 3: i23 if ii, s2 p2 q2, and i2 + py.
s = vi, and Prou$ Because i, i, 0 , it follows that
1

= -P
A def i2 = i . i = (i, + i,) . (i, + i,)
= i, . i, + i, . i, + 2(i, . i,)
S'

where 'U = I/v(( = dv;

+ v i + U : and i = llill =
+ i;,
Ji: + +
i," i$ are the instantaneous magnitudes or norms = i;
of the three-phase voltage and current, respectively. Similarly, we have

111. PROPERTIES AND PHYSICAL MEANINGS

p2 + q2 = (v . i)2 + IIv x ill2
= (v . i ) ( v .i) + (v x i) (v x i)
= (v . i,)2 + (v x i,) . (v x i,)
A. Properties
= v2i; + u22; = v2i2 = 52.
The new reactive components defined above have some
interesting properties, which are shown by the following From (7) and the above we get
theorems. .2 s2
=-=-
p2+q2
2 0
Theorem 1: The three-phase current vector, i, is always U2 v2 .
equal to the sum of the instantaneous active current vector, Theorem 4: If i, = 0 , then the norm llill or i becomes
i,, and the instantaneous reactivt 'current vector, i,, i.e., minimal for transmitting the same instantaneous active power,
i
. +.
I, I,. and the maximal instantaneous power factor is achieved,
Proof: From the definitions expressed in (21, (3), (5), and namely X = 1.
(6), we have Prooj? Since i = 2 i, and X = ! =
S
PV qxv
i, + i, = - <
~

v.v v.v 1, it follows that if i, = 0, then the norm

- (v . i)v + (v x i) x v
d m -
- //illor i becomes minimal, and q = 0, X = 1 to transmit the
v.v active power, p. 0
Using the following formula of the vector product From the above theorems, we can get the following con-
(a x b) x c = - ( b . c)a + (a'c)b, (9) clusions:
PENG AND LA1 GENERALIZED INSTANTANEOUS REACTIVE POWER THEORY 295

contribute to it, because v .i, = 0, and p = v .i = v .i,. 2 2

2) It needs no energy storage for a compensator to eliminate

the instantaneous reactive power, q. [C]=fi 0 q -a . 2

3) Using compensators without energy storage, the instan- 1 1 -

1

where Therefore, q a p o is identical to q a b c . Similarly, we can

Pap = vaiap = vavaq
Pa, define the instantaneous active and reactive components in
Pbp
Pcp
= Vbibp
= vcicp
and

Since p = v . i = v ' ip, v . i,

{pbq = vbtbq .
pc, = vcicq
= 0 , and g = v
(1 1)

x i,, we
ab0 coordinates as

can see that p a p r p b p and pcp contribute to the total power,

+ +
p , and they sum up to p , i.e., pap p b p pCp = p . Power
components Pa,, Pbq and pcq contribute to q and sum up to
+ + +
zero, i.e., pan p b q pc, = 0. Therefore, P a q p b q pc, + The properties and physical meanings mentioned in Section
corresponds to those powers that transfer or circulate between Ill are valid and are independent of coordinates. For three-
the three phases. The instantaneous reactive current, i,, does phase systems without zero-sequence components, i.e., 'UO and
not convey any instantaneous active power from the source to i o are equal to zero, the instantaneous active and reactive
the load (see Fig. l ) , but indeed it increases the line losses and powers can be simplified as
the norm of the three-phase current. If q or i, is eliminated
by a shunt compensator, then the norm of the source current p = v,po . iapo = vaia +vpip, (19)
will become minimum.

IV. DISCUSSION
and
qapo = v m p o x iapo =
I:
[Gp W a ], (20)

A. Alternative Expressions
4ap0 = llqapoll = v,ip - vpia. (21)
In Section 11, the definitions of the instantaneous reactive
components are all based on the direct quantities of three-phase Obviously, (19) and (21) are the definitions described in [l].
voltages and currents: v,, V b , vc, and i a ,i b , i,. If necessary, Therefore, the p q theory described in [ l ] is a special case of
these newly defined quantities can be expressed in any other the generalized p q theory described in this paper.
coordinates, e.g., ap0 coordinates. Here, let us express the
defined quantities, p , q, i,, i,, etc., in aD0 coordinates. B. A Practical Example
For three-phase voltages and currents, va,V b , vc , and
Here, we give a practical example to show how the pro-
i,, i b , ic the a , p, and 0 components are expressed as posed theory can be applied for measuring and compensating
for the instantaneous reactive power of a three-phase four-
(12) wire system. Fig. 3 shows the configuration in which three
single-phase rectifiers are connected to phases a r b , and c,
and respectively. A compensator consisting of a three-phase pulse
width modulation (PWM) inverter is connected in parallel
with the loads. The control circuit of the compensator is also
shown in Fig. 3, which includes computational circuits for
the instantaneous reactive power of the loads, q L , and the
instantaneous reactive components of the load currents, i L q ,
296 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL 45, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 1996

toads 2oov

-2 0 ov
lOOA

-100A
4OA

Compensator -40A
lOOA

-100A +..~...--.-.-....--...~.~...................~.....................~.....................~.....................~
0 Fig. 4. Waveforms o f the compensation system.
PWM
Current Control
zero-sequence current of the loads, iL0, only contributes to
the instantaneous reactive power, q L . The above example also
Fig. 3. System configuration of instantaneous reactive power compensation. indicates that the proposed instantaneous reactive power theory
for a three-phase power system can deal with the following
and the PWM control circuit for the inverter. Their relations cases:
can be expressed as 0 sinusoidal and nonsinusoidal waves,
balanced and unbalanced systems, and
q L = vs x i L (22)
* with or without zero-sequence components.
and The p q theory of [I], however, is limited to a system without
zero-sequence components only and cannot deal with the
above example.
The instantaDeous reactive components of the load currents V. CONCLUSION
are used as the command current for the reactive compensator,
In this paper, a generalized instantaneous reactive power
i&, i.e.,
theory has been proposed. Not only clear definitions for
i& = 1 L q . (24) the instantaneous active and reactive components such as
active power, reactive power, active current, reactive current,
For a three-phase four-wire power system, we may have three power factor, etc., have been given, but also their properties,
independent components for voltages and currents. The source relationships, and physical meanings of these instantaneous
voltage vector, VS, the source current vector, is, the load quantities have been described in detail. The proposed theory is
current vector, i L , and the compensator current vector, ic, valid for sinusoidal or nonsinusoidal, balanced or unbalanced
are expressed as three-phase power systems with or without zero-sequence
components. A power system with a reactive compensator has
been used as an application example for the proposed theory.
usc This generalized reactive power theory discloses an important
algorithm for instantaneous reactive power measurement and
and

ic = [;I.
zcc
The neutral current components are the sum of the three-
compensation applications.

REFERENCES
[I] H. Akagi, Y.Kanazawa and A. Nabae, Instantaneous reactive power
compensators comprising switching devices without energy storage
phase currents of the source, the loads and the compensator, components, IEEE Trans. Ind. AppL, vol. 20, pp. 625-630, May/June
+ +
respectively, e.g., is0 = isa i S b isc. Here, the reactive
1984.
[2] J. L. Willems, A new interpretation of the Akagi-Nabae power com-
power compensator output current vector, ic, is controlled by ponents of nonsinusoidal three-phase situations, IEEE Trans. Instrum.
a PWM inverter to track the command current vector, ig. Meas., vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 523-527, Aug. 1992.
[3] A. Ferrero and G. Superti-Furga, A new approach to the definition o f
Fig. 4 shows waveforms of the system before and after re- power components in three-phase systems under nonsinusoidal condi-
active power compensation. In the figure, only the waveforms tions, IEEE Tram. Instrum. Meas., vol. 40, no. 3, pp. 568-577, June
1991.
of phase a , u s a , i s a , ihaq (= ita), and the source side neutral [4] L. S. Czamecki, Orthogonal decomposition o f the currents in a 3-phase
current, iso, are shown. Before the compensator was started, nonlinear asymmetrical circuit with a nonsinusoidal voltage source,
is = i L and ic = 0. After the compensator was started, is IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas., vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 30-34, Mar. 1988.
[SI -, Scattered and reactive current, voltage, and power in circuit
became in phase with the source voltage immediately, and SSO with nonsinusoidal waveforms and their compensation, IEEE Trans.
became zero without any time delay. This indicates that the Instrum. Meas., vol. 40, no. 3, pp. 563-567, June 1991.
PENG AND LAI: GENERALIZED INSTANTANEOUS REACTIVE POWER THEORY 291

Fang Zheng Peng (M93) was born in Hubei Jih-Sheng Lai (S85-M89-SM93) received the
Province, China. He received the B.S. degree M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering
in electrical engineering from Wuhan University from University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 1985
of Hydraulic and Electrival Engineering, China, and 1989, respectively.
in 1983 and the M.S. and Ph.D. Degrees in From 1980 to 1983, he was the Chairman of
electrical engineering from Nagaoka University of the Department of Electrical Engineering,Ming-Ch
Technology, Japan, in 1987 and 1990, respectively. Institute of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan, where he
He joined Toyo Electric Manufacturing Com- initiated a power electronics program and received
pany, Ltd., from 1990 to 1992. From 1992 to 1994, a grant from his college and a scholarship from
he worked with Tokyo Institute of Technology as the National Science Council to study abroad. In
a Research Associate. Since 1994, he has been a 4 1986, he became a staff member at the University
Research Assistant Professor at University of Tennessee, working with Oak of Tennessee, where he taught control systems and energy conversion courses.
Ridge National Laboratory. In 1989, he joined the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Power
Dr. Peng is a member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Electromics Applications Center, where he managed EPRI-sponsored power
electronics projects. Since 1993, he has been with the Oak Ridge National
Laboratory as the Power Electronics Lead Scientist. His main research
areas are power electronics modeling and simulation, circuit design, and
microcomputer applications. He has published more than 50 technical papers
and two books and filed 12 invention disclosures with 4 patents awarded.
Dr. Lai is a member of Phi Kappa Phi and Eta Kappa Nu.