Is Reactive Power a Physical Quantity?

Leszek S. CZARNECKI

Abstract

Reactive power is regarded in the power engineering community as a physical quantity, the article shows, however, that there is no physical phenomenon in electrical circuits that might be described in terms of reactive power. This power satisfies the Power Balance Principle, but this cannot bolster the opinion that it is a physical quantity because this Principle for reactive power cannot be derived from the Energy Conservation Principle but from the Tellegen Theorem which is only a mathematical not physical property of electrical circuits. The article shows that the meaning of reactive power Q is similar to the meaning of apparent power, which is just an arbitrary quantity characterizing supply sources, it is only a product of rms values of the load voltage and reactive current. Reactive power Q is a product of rms values of the load voltage and reactive current, on the condition, however, that this current correctly defined.

 

Keywords

reactive power, definition, mathematical property

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Bilbiography

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