What is wrong with the Budeanu concept of reactive and distortion power and why it should be abandoned

Abstract

The Budeanu definitions of reactive and distortion power in circuits with nonsinusoidal waveforms have been widely used for almost 60 years. There have been objections, concerned mainly with the questions of whether these powers should be defined in the frequency domain and whether they can be measured as defined. The main drawbacks of these definitions include the fact that the Budeanu reactive and distortion powers do not possess any attributes which might be related to the power phenomena in the circuit; that their values do not provide any information which would allow the design of compensating circuits; and that the distortion power value does not provide any information about waveform distortion. It is concluded that Budeanu's concept has led the power theory of circuits with nonsinusoidal waveforms into a blind alley.