UTILITY NEEDS SMARTER POWER METERS IN ORDER TO REDUCE ECONOMIC LOSSES

Whenever the delivered power is greater than the sum of the registered power at points of common coupling (PCC) the utility will have losses. This paper will show that even in an ideal case, without any abuse of users, the losses occur due to inadequate measurement equipment and to deficient billing policy. Namely, common household power meters register only active energy, while power meters for industrial applications register reactive energy as well. Consequently, the billing policy is based only at one or both values. This approach does not follow the change of the end-user load profile that becomes very nonlinear. Actually, the current trough nonlinear load deviates from sine waveform causing that a part of the delivered power remains invisible for the power distribution system. Therefore, the utility registers significant economic losses. To solve this problem we recommend distortion power to be measured and included into the billing policy. It has not been the case so far because the electric power community has not been aware of the amount of the distortion power in the contemporary grid. Besides, power meters have not been able to measure it. This paper demonstrates how to overcome the obstacle with a minor modification of ordinary electronic power meters. The proposed solution is verified by a set of measurements on different types of loads that are commonly used in households and offices.