Symmetrical power factors and symmetrical reactive current components

This paper deals with the definition of power factor and reactive current component in a three-phase system. For a single-phase system, power factor and reactive current component are defined based on the phase-angle displacement between the measured voltage and current waveforms. This definition can be directly extended to balanced three-phase systems. However, this extension is not suitable when the three-phase system (voltages or currents) is unbalanced. Reason is that the conventional definition of phase-angle does not directly apply to an unbalanced three-phase system and needs further refinements. This paper defines the concept of symmetrical power factors and symmetrical reactive current components for a three-phase power system. Furthermore, it presents a method of calculating these quantities from a set of three-phase voltage and current measurements. Performance of the technique is evaluated using computer simulations