AC Power/Complex Power

Instantaneous Power
• Instantaneous power is the power absorbed in any element at any specific instant
of time.
• The instantaneous power p(t) absorbed by an element is the product of the
instantaneous voltage v(t) across the element and the instantaneous current i(t)

Vm and Im are the peak values of voltage and current

θv and θi are the phase angles of the voltage and current
Instantaneous Power

Amplitude Constant Amplitude Constant

Time independent Time dependent
Twice the angular of frequency of V or I
Half the time period of V or I
Constant Amplitude and sinusoid
p(t) is Positive for some part of each cycle
and
Negative for the rest of the cycle
p(t) is Positive Power is absorbed by the circuit
(Resistor elements)
p(t) is Negative Power is absorbed by the source
Constant Amplitude
Half the time period Time independent Capacitive and Inductive elements

Instantaneous power changes with time and is therefore difficult to measure.

 Average Power
Average power is more convenient to measure.
All measurement devices measures average power

First Term The first integrand is constant, and the average of a constant is the same constant.

Second Term The average of a sinusoid over its period is zero because the area under the
sinusoid during a positive half-cycle is canceled by the area under it during
negative half-cycle
Average Power
Average Power

Average power is not affected by voltage and current Phase angles as

Instantaneous power requires voltage and current in time domain i.e, v(t) and i(t)

If the circuit is purely resistive, Average power

If the circuit is purely reactive, Average power

A resistive load (R) absorbs power at all times, while a reactive load (L or C) absorbs zero average power.
In the circuit calculate the average power absorbed by the resistor and
inductor. Find the average power supplied by the voltage source.

I𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑑𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑍 = 3 + 𝑗1 = 3.16∠18.43Ω

𝑉 = 8∠45 𝑉

𝑉 8∠45
𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝐼 = 𝑍 = 3.16∠18.43 = 2.5316∠26.57A

Average power supplied from the source 1 𝟏

𝑃 = 2 𝑉𝐼𝑐𝑜𝑠(θv-θi) 𝑷 = 𝒙𝟖𝒙𝟐. 𝟓𝟑𝟏𝟔𝒙𝒄𝒐𝒔 𝟒𝟓 − 𝟐𝟔. 𝟓𝟕 = 𝟗. 𝟔𝑾
𝟐
Resistor
𝐼𝑅 = 𝐼 = 2.5316∠26.57A 𝑉𝑅 = 3𝑥2.5316∠26.57=7.5948 ∠26.57V
𝟏 𝟏
𝑨𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏 𝑹𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓 = 𝟐 𝑽𝑰𝒄𝒐𝒔(𝜽v−𝜽i)= 𝟐 𝒙𝟕. 𝟓𝟗𝟒𝟖𝒙𝟐. 𝟓𝟑𝟏𝟔𝒄𝒐𝒔(𝟐𝟔. 𝟓𝟕 − 𝟐𝟔. 𝟓𝟕)=9.6W
Inductor
𝐼𝑅 = 𝐼𝐿 = 𝐼 = 2.5316∠26.57A 𝑉𝑅 = 𝑍𝐿𝑥2.5316∠26.57=1∠90x2.5316∠26.57V=2.5316∠116.57V
𝟏 𝟏
𝑨𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏 𝑰𝒏𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓 = 𝟐 𝑽𝑰𝒄𝒐𝒔(𝜽v−𝜽i)= 𝟐 𝒙𝟐. 𝟓𝟑𝟏𝟔𝒙𝟐. 𝟓𝟑𝟏𝟔𝒄𝒐𝒔(𝟏𝟏𝟔. 𝟓𝟕 − 𝟐𝟔. 𝟓𝟕)=0W
Effective or RMS Power
Average Power

𝑉𝑚 = 𝑉𝑟𝑚𝑠 2 𝐼𝑚 = 𝐼𝑟𝑚𝑠 2

Substituting the RMS values, Average power in-terms of RMS quantities :

1
𝑃 = 𝑉𝑟𝑚𝑠 2𝐼𝑟𝑚𝑠 2 cos 𝜃𝑣 − 𝜃𝑖 = 𝑉𝑟𝑚𝑠 𝐼𝑟𝑚𝑠 cos 𝜃𝑣 − 𝜃𝑖
2

𝑷 = 𝑽𝒓𝒎𝒔𝑰𝒓𝒎𝒔𝑪𝒐𝒔(𝜽𝒗 − 𝜽𝒊)
Apparent Power S and Power factor
Average Power in terms of Peak values

Average power 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐬 𝐨𝒇 𝑹𝑴𝑺 𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒔 𝑷 = 𝑽𝒓𝒎𝒔𝑰𝒓𝒎𝒔𝑪𝒐𝒔(𝜽𝒗 − 𝜽𝒊)

The apparent power (in VA) is the product of the rms values of voltage and current.

The product VrmsIrms is known as the apparent power S.

The factor 𝑪𝒐𝒔(𝜽𝒗 − 𝜽𝒊)is called the power factor (pf).

Power Factor
The angle (𝜽𝒗 − 𝜽𝒊) is called the power factor angle
Impedance and Power factor
The load impedance and power factor can be related as:

In-terms of RMS quantities of voltage and current:

power factor is the cosine of the phase difference between voltage and current.
power factor is cosine of the angle of the load impedance.
power factor is the ratio of real/average power to the apparent power

For resistive circuit Power factor = unity or 1

For reactive circuit Power factor = Zero lagging(L) or Leading(C)

Complex Power S It is the most convenient form of representing AC power

It is the product of voltage and complex conjugate of current in phasor form

𝑽𝒓𝒎𝒔 = 𝑽𝒓𝒎𝒔∠𝜽𝒗 𝐼𝑟𝑚𝑠 = 𝐼𝑟𝑚𝑠∠𝜃𝑖
∗
Complex conjugate 𝑰𝒓𝒎𝒔 = 𝑰𝒓𝒎𝒔∠ − 𝜽𝒊 Impedance

Complex power

(or)

Unit of P is Watts called as Real Power

Unit of Q is VAR called as Reactive Power

Complex power S representation provides all information about power in a load, namely, the real part of S is
the real power, the imaginary part of S is the reactive power, the magnitude of S is the apparent power and
the cosine of the angle is the power factor.
Power Triangle and Impedance Triangle
• The Power components namely real (P), reactive(Q) and Apparent
power(S) can be represented in form of a right angle triangle called
power triangle.
Magnitude of
Apparent impedance
power
Reactive power Reactance
Power factor angle

Real power Resistance

• The impedance components namely resistance (R), reactance(X) and

magnitude of impedance(IZI) can be represented in form of a right
angle triangle called impedance triangle.
 Problem

Solution: ∗
𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟S = 𝑉𝑟𝑚𝑠𝐼𝑟𝑚𝑠
S = 110∠85 0.4∠ − 15 = 𝟒𝟒∠𝟕𝟎𝑽𝑨

Apparent power =I S I= 44VA

S = 44∠70𝑉𝐴=15.06+41.35j VA

Real power=real part of S=15.06W

Reactive power=imaginary part of S=41.35VAR

Power factor = cosine of angle of S=cos(70)=0.3420 lagging

Impedance

110∠85
𝑍= = 275∠70=94.06 + 258.42jΩ
0.4∠15
 Problem
A sinusoidal source supplies 10 kVA reactive power to load Z =250∠ − 75◦.Determine: (a) the power factor, (b) the
apparent power delivered to the load, and (c) the peak voltage.

Solution: 𝑍 = 250∠ − 75Ω Reactive power Q = 10KVAr

𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒆 = 𝜽 = 𝟕𝟓

𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟 = cos 75 = 0.2588𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔

𝑄 = 𝑆𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 = 10000

𝟏𝟎𝟎𝟎𝟎
𝑨𝒑𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝑺 = = 𝟏𝟎. 𝟑𝟓𝟐𝒌𝑽𝑨
𝒔𝒊𝒏𝟕𝟓
2
𝑉𝑟𝑚𝑠
𝑆= 2 = 𝑆𝑍
𝑉𝑟𝑚𝑠
𝑍
2 = 10352𝑥250 = 1608𝑉
𝑉𝑟𝑚𝑠

𝑉𝑚 = 2 𝑉𝑟𝑚𝑠 𝑷𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝒗𝒐𝒍𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝑽𝒎 = 𝟐 𝒙𝟏𝟔𝟎𝟖 = 𝟐𝟐𝟕𝟒. 𝟖𝟔𝑽