Measurement of Three Phase Power

Various methods are used measurement of three phase power in three phase circuits on the
basis of number of wattmeter used. We have three methods
1. Three wattmeters method
2. Two wattmeters method
3. Single wattmeter method.

Measurement of Three Phase Power by Three Wattmeters Method

Here, it is applied to three phase four wire systems, current coil of all the three wattmeters
marked as one, two and three are connected to respective phases marked as one, two and
three. Pressure coils of all the three wattmeter are connected to common point at neutral line.
Clearly each wattmeter will give reading as product of phase current and line voltage which is
phase power. The resultant sum of all the readings of wattmeter will give the total power of the
circuit

Measurement of Three Phase Power by Two Wattmeters Method

In this method we have two types of connections
(a)Star connection of loads
(b)Delta connection of loads.
When the star connected load, the diagram is shown in below-

For star connected load clearly the reading of wattmeter one is product
phase current and voltage difference (V2-V3). Similarly the reading of wattmeter two is
the product of phase current and the voltage difference (V2-V3). Thus the total power of
the circuit is sum of the reading of both the wattmeters.
When delta connected load, the diagram is shown in below

Measurement of Three Phase Power by One Wattmeter Method

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The two-wattmeter method uses two single-phase wattmeters to measure three-phase power. The
sum of the measurement with two single-phase wattmeters becomes three-phase power in this
measuring setup.

See the figure, below-right; it shows watt measurement of a three-phase three-wire Wye(Y)
connection load. M-System Models LWT and LTWT Power Transmitter and Model LRP and LTRP
Reactive Power Transmitter use the two-wattmeter method. In this method, the two current coils are

connected to the two wires each of the two wires of the three-phase three-wire load. The potential
coils are connected between these wires and the rewiring wire. The wattmeter 1 is connected to the a
phase and the c phase; the wattmeter 2 is to the c phase and the b phase. Each measures the single
phase power P1 and P2, respectively. The sum of the two measured values is equal to the total threephase power.

A simple method uses only one (1) wattmeter. The meter is connected to only one phase, a, b or c, as
to shown in the figure, below-left and the three (3) times of the measured value is equal to the threephase power, as long as the three-phase are balanced. If unbalance occurs, the simple method
causes a measurement error. The two-wattmeter method does not even with unbalanced phases.