Instantaneous, Average, Real and Reactive Power

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We discussed and developed some important concepts of transmission lines in last few articles. Last
time we discussed about long transmission lines. Here we discuss a simple but important basic
concept Electric Power. This will refresh our knowledge before we move further.

Electric Power has same meaning as mechanical power but here the power or energy that we are
concerned is in Electrical form. We often encounter terms like instantaneous, average, total, real,
reactive, apparent and complex power or simply power. What they mean? how are they related ? That
we will discuss here and in next article.

DC Circuit
As long as our analysis is restricted to Direct Current(DC) circuit the power consumed by the
resistance load is the product of voltage across the resistance and current flowing through the
resistance. It is really simple.

P=V.I

The power consumed by the load is the product of voltage across the load and current drawn by the
load (Fig-A). Or the Power supplied by the DC source (battery/cell) is the product of voltage across the

cell and current supplied by the cell. Both are equal in our example figure(considering ideal battery of
zero internal resistance). The law of energy conservation implies power supplied by the source must
be same as power consumed by the circuit. In DC circuit case instantaneous power is same as average
power.

AC Circuit
In AC circuit analysis, what is this power that we talk about. The main problem is that the AC voltage
and current varies sinusoidally with time. Moreover the presence of circuit reactive elements like
Inductor and capacitor shift the current wave with respect to voltage wave (angle of phase
difference).

Power is rate at which energy is consumed by load or produced by generator. Whether it is DC circuit
or AC circuit, the value of instantaneous power is obtained by multiplying instantaneous voltage with
instantaneous current. If at any instant of time t the voltage and current values are represented by
sine functions as

v = Vm sin t

i = Im sin (t-)
Vm and Im are the maximum values of the sinusoidal voltage and current. Here =2 f
f is the frequency and is the angular frequency of rotating voltage or current phasors. It should be
clear that for a power system f is usually 50 or 60 Hz
is the phase difference between the voltage and current.

As we said the instantaneous power is the product of instantaneous voltage and current, if we name
instantaneous power as p then

p = v.i = Vm sin t . Im sin (t-)

or p = Vm Im sin t sin (t-)

Applying trigonometric formula 2.sin A.sin B = cos(A-B) - cos (A+B) we get

It can be written as

This is the equation of instantaneous power

In the Fig-C is drawn all the three waves corresponding to v, i and p. Graphically also we can get the
value of instantaneous power (p) at any instant of time t by simply multiplying the value of current i
and voltage v at that particular instant t. (You can verify that in the diagram p is negative when either
v or i is negative otherwise p is positive. See the points where p is zero). In the graph we have shown
horizontal axis as angle instead of time t for easy visualization. It should be clear that both way it is

correct.

Clearly the instantaneous power p is composed of two terms. The first term is constant because for a
given load the phase angle is fixed. It does not change unless the load is changed. The second term
is varying with time sinusoidally due to the presence of the term cos (2t-). Look that the
instantaneous power frequency is twice the frequency of voltage or current.
So the instantaneous power in a single phase circuit varies sinusoidally.

The instantaneous power, p = constant term + sinusoidal oscillating term.

In one complete period the average of oscillating term is zero.

Then what is the average power within a given time, say one Time Period of the wave?

It is the constant term.

Here is another way to think about the average power.

Just observe that the instantaneous power is negative for a small time. For any time interval you just
find the total +ve area A+ (above horizontal-axis (blue line) and below p curve) and total -ve area A(below horizontal axis and above p curve). The net area is obtained by subtracting A- from A+. By
dividing this net area ( by the time interval Ti we get the average power(P). You can do this using
calculus. What you will ultimately get is only the first term in the above formula for instantaneous
power p.

In still another way it is easier to realize that the formula for instantaneous power p has a constant
term (Vm.Im / 2) cos and the other sinusoidal term (Vm.Im / 2) cos (2 wt - ). Actually p is the
oscillating power which oscillates about the average constant term (Vm.Im / 2) cos .
So the average power is

The above formula can be written as

Or,

here,

V and I are the phasor representation of RMS values* of voltage and current sinusoids. The symbols |
V| and |I| are the magnitudes of phasors V and I. (See at the buttom for definition of RMS value).

This above formula is your favorite formula for useful power that we are most concerned about. This
average power formula is used to find the power consumed by the load. The monthly electric energy
bill at home is based on this power. The engineers and technicians in power or electrical industry
simply use the term power instead of average power. So whenever we simply call power it means
average power.
Of course the instantaneous power is oscillating in nature. As we already said it does not oscillates
about the horizontal-axis rather about the average power P (cyan color horizontal line).

P will be zero when cos =0 or = 90 degree, that is when the phase angle between voltage and
current waves is 90 degrees. It is only when the load is pure inductive or capacitive. In this case the
second term only remains in the instantaneous power formula.

From the above figure for some time the power becomes negative that means the load supply energy
to source for this period. This is due to the presence of reactive element in load.

The above formula for instantaneous power can be written in another form. This form actually is an
attempt to distinguish the oscillating reactive power from the instantaneous power formula.
Rearranging the terms in equation for instantaneous power above we get

p = |V| | I | cos (1-cow2t) - |V| | I |

sin sin2t
In this equation the first term |V| | I | cos (1-cow2t) is oscillatory whose average value is |V| | I |
cos . We already talked about this average power.

The second term |V| | I | sin sin2t which is also oscillatory but with zero average value. The

maximum value of this term is |V| | I | sin . This is the so called Reactive power. So Reactive power
is the maximum value of a oscillatory power that is repeatedly drawn from the source and again
returned to the source within each cycle. So the average of this reactive power is zero.

The average power P is called as Real Power. It is also sometimes called active power.

Real power = P = |V| | I | cos

It is usually written as P = VI cos . But it should be remembered that V and I are the rms values of
voltage and current. For example when we say single phase 220 volt AC it means the rms value of
voltage is 220 volts ( it is not maximum value of voltage sinusoid)

Reactive power = Q = |V| | I | sin

Real power is measured in Watt and the reactive power is measured in VAR (VoltAmpereReactive). In
power sector these units are too small so real power is measured in Megawatt (MW) and reactive
power in Megavar (MVAR). The letter R at the end denotes reactive power.

Many times students and practicing engineers are confused about the average power (often simply
called power). They think that what they get by multiplying RMS voltage and RMS current is RMS
power. No that is wrong. There is no RMS power. RMS power has no meaning or not defined. (Also see
definition of RMS value, below at the end). It is average power or real power or true power.

Power In Three phase Balanced System

Let us consider a three phase balanced system. A three phase balanced system is analysed
considering only one phase and neutral return. This is called per phase analysis. So the above analysis
for single phase is true for balanced three phase case. Let the total power here is P t. Then we get total
three phase power as thrice of single phase case.

Pt = 3 |V| | I | cos

It should be remembered that |V| and | I | are the per phase values. and is the phase angle of load
in per phase analysis.

The above formula for balanced three phase system can be written as

Pt = 3 |Vl| | Il | cos

In the above formula Vl and Il are line voltage and current (Fig-D). This equation is independent of
type of three phase load connection i.e delta or star connected load. You have to know the line
voltage, line current and phase angle as above. This form is very convenient and used often in
power calculation.

There is one main difference between the single phase and total three phase power. The instantaneous
single phase power is pulsating. In the balanced three phase case, each phase instantaneous power is
pulsating but the three pulsating power waves are 120 degrees displaced from each other. At any
instant of time the total of these three instantaneous power waves is a constant which is 3 |V| | I |
cos . So the total power consumed in three phase balanced system is not pulsating. Non-pulsating
power also imply the desired non-pulsating torque in case of three phase rotating machines. In large
3-phase motors this is really desired.

*RMS value of AC Sinusoids

The value of AC voltage or current that produces the same heating (or same energy) that is produced
if DC voltage or current numerically equal to RMS value of AC is applied instead of AC. This concept
helps make the formula for power similar for both DC and AC circuits.

Phasors in AC Circuit Analysis

Phasor is a vary important mathematical concept used frequently for Alternating Current(AC) circuit
analysis. I will try to explain some basic properties of phasors that you studied(or did not study) in
school. My main purpose is to help you build up sufficient background for the next article to be
published which is about transformer vector group. But in general understanding the phasor will help
you in analyzing the AC circuits more efficiently. Just little middle school maths.

Phasors
The voltage so the current produced from the generator are alternating in nature. Hence the whole
transmission and distribution system voltage and current are alternating in nature. (see figure below).
Here the value of voltage increases from 0 to Vmax then decreases to become zero then its polarity
changes and again it becomes -Vmax and then returns back to zero again. Now one cycle or 360
degree is completed. As the shape of this wave is the trigonometric sine wave so it is called sinusoidal
wave. Also see Fig-A in which two sinusoidal waves are drawn

In a 60 Hz system, in one second the voltage or current wave completes 60 such cycles.

Any sinusoidal wave whether it represent current or voltage cycles or something else are actually
represented in the form of trigonometric equation V= Vsin (x), where V is the magnitude and x is the
angle covered. If we will start solving AC circuits using this type of equations then it will be extremely
difficult to solve the large AC circuit problems.

The concept of phasor is used to simplify any AC circuit problem.

The beauty is that any sinusoidal wave can be represented by a phasor. The phasor is like vector. It
has magnitude and arrow direction as shown in Fig-A. Remember that current or voltage are not
vectors.

Phasor is a mathematical tool which has made calculations in electrical engineering simple. In
mathematics the term complex number or complexor is used in place of phasor.

The sinusoidal voltage wave can be equivalently represented by a phasor rotating anticlockwise,
centered at origin. If there are two voltage waves then they can be represented by two phasors, the
length of each phasor proportional to the magnitude of respective voltage. see Fig-A. In the figure red
and green phasors correspond to red and green sinusoidal waves respectively. Here in this case we
have taken the magnitude of green phasor about half that of red phasor and the green phasor is 60
degrees behind the red phasor. As the phasors always rotate in anticlockwise direction, from the
phasor diagram it is clear that the green phasor is behind the red phasor. In the sinusoidal waves
diagram you may feel it confusing. Just think that red wave started its positive cycle at '0' degree
(origin), but the green wave still have to go 60 degrees to start its positive journey. Also imagine that
green wave will attain its maximum (Vmax/2) after rotating 60 degrees after red wave has attained
its maximum (Vmax).

Carefully compare both the sinusoidal and phasor representation. In simple AC

circuits the phase difference between voltage and current waves arises due to reactive circuit elements
like inductors and capacitors. The angle of phase difference depends on the numerical values of the
reactive elements and active elements (resistance).

On paper, if you draw 1 inch phasor for 11 kV voltage then 3 inch should be the length of 33 kV
phasor. Both these phasors rotating about the origin in anticlockwise direction. For 60 Hz system all
the phasors will complete 60 rotations (or 60 cycles) in one second. The two phasors will never cross
each other. The angle between the phasors the phase difference will never change as the phasors
rotate.

A phasor can be written in the form, A + j B. It is called Rectangular form (other is Polar form which
we will not analyze here ).

In rectangular form A is the active part and B is reactive part and j is a symbol or operator

examples V1=3 +j 2, V2=5+j 7 etc.

Addition of Phasors
Two phasors can be added and gives another phasor.

If

Then

V1=3 +j 2 and V2=5+j 7

V1+V2 = (3+5) + j (2 +7) = 8 + j 9

The two phasors can be added geometrically to get the same above result. One phasor's head is
joined to other phasor's tail. Final or resultant phasor is the arrow from first phasor's tail to other
phasor's head. see the Fig-B and analyze carefully.

In this manner you can add several phasors to get the resultant phasor. I have illustrated the addition

of five numbers of phasors in Fig-C below, you can add thousands (if you have time and patience).
The phasors are just rearranged to get the resultant phasor R. I have taken the advantage of colours
to better visualize. Remember you can add five phasors any order (without changing the direction and
angle of each ), that means any one can be first and any one can be last, but still you will get the
same phasor R (same length and angle). try it.

Subtraction of Phasors
Similarly one phasor can be subtracted from the other,

V2-V1 = (5-3) + j (7-2) = 2+j 5.

Remember that V2-V1 can be written as V2 + (- V1). Geometrically to find -V1, just reverse the
direction of V1. Now add V2 to this reversed V1 to get V2-V1. Try it.

Phasors can also be multiplied and divided. We will discuss whenever we require.

I am concluding this session about phasor hoping that it will help you better understand the future
articles in electrical systems.

Magnitude of Phasor
A phasor has a magnitude. Simply speaking it is the length of the phasor. It is a value. Symbolically
the magnitude of the phasor V1 is written as |V1|.

As in our example V1 = 3+j2

Using Pythagoras theorem we get the magnitude of V1 as

|V1| = (32+22)