In some countries, the electric energy consumption levels have reached levels that exceed the available supply.
There is an increasing need to optimize and reduce this level of use and find alternative, more efficient and renewable power sources.
Electric companies use electric meters installed at the consumers facilities to measure the power delivered to them for billing purposes.
Modern solid state electricity meters are able to measure both active and reactive power, demand and maximum use of power, or allow different rates to be applied in different periods of the day.
Most electrical installations act as inductive loads on the mains network.
These loads include equipment with coils or windings, such as motors and transformers that produce a time delay between the voltage and current variables.
Energy consumers, in particular larger ones such as industrial plants, are obliged, either by contract or for economic reasons, to compensate the reactive power consumed by their equipment.
The integration of distributed renewable energy systems tied to the main grid create a bidirectional flow of energy that needs to be properly managed, using metering and advanced power electronics conversion techniques.
In this laboratory, several types of user can be simulated using static and dynamic loads to study power factor compensation, energy consumption, load profiling and the optimization of electrical power use.
