An Example of Three-Phase Power Measurements

Figure 1: Screen capture of a 10-s acquisition of AC input
and PWM output of a 480-V motor drive

To follow up on our last post on three-phase power calculations, and to wrap up this series of posts on the fundamentals of power, we'll walk through an example of a set of three-phase power measurements. We'll base our discussion on a single screen capture of measurements taken on a 480-V motor drive with 480-V AC input and 480-V maximum drive output. For this example, we used a Teledyne LeCroy Motor Drive Analyzer.

Power Calculations for Pure Sine Waves

Figure 1: For a purely resistive load,
power = voltage * current, with both vectors in phase

Wouldn't it be wonderful if every sine wave we encountered in the real world was pure, with no distortion? It sure would make life easier. Alas, it's pretty much never the case. But in reviewing sinusoidal power calculations, it's best that we begin with the simplest case: a single, pure sinusoidal line voltage and single, pure sinusoidal line current supplying a linear load.

Back to Basics: AC Sinusoidal Line Current

Figure 1: A single-phase AC current
vector rotates at 50 or 60 Hz

We've reviewed the basics of AC line voltage in previous posts. Now we'll turn our attention to the other fundamental component of line power. Regardless of whether you call it "grid," "household," "line," "utility," or "mains," AC sinusoidal current is what flows from the power utility's lines into every home and business.

More Basics of Three-Phase AC Sinusoidal Voltages

Figure 1: In the Wye three-phase
connection, neutral is present but
sometimes inaccessible

Our last post in this series on the essential principles of power covered the basics of three-phase voltages: their composition of three voltage vectors, how they're generated, how they're measured (line-line or line-neutral), and conversion of line-line values to line-neutral values. Here, we'll pick up the thread with more on three-phase AC voltages.

Back to Basics: Three-Phase Sinusoidal Voltages

Figure 1: Three-phase AC voltages
consist of three voltage vectors

In a previous post, we briefly covered the basics of single- and three-phase AC power systems. Single-phase systems, as we've noted, comprise a single voltage vector with a magnitude (in VAC) and a phase angle. Of course, a three-phase voltage consists of three voltage vectors and three phase angles. This installment will go on to describe three-phase AC voltages in similarly brief fashion.

Back to Basics: Fundamentals of AC Line Power (Part II)

Figure 1: AC line voltage is a single-phase
vector that rotates at a given frequency

Having reviewed a broad definition of power, how it is generated and distributed, and how motors consume almost half of all generated power, we will now turn to a more detailed discussion of just what it is that we call "power." When we discuss "power," we're typically referring to what comes out of a wall socket: AC line, or sinusoidal, power.