Energy Meter

An electric meter or energy meter is a device that measures the amount of electrical energy supplied to or produced by a residence, business or machine. The most common type is more properly known as a kilowatt hour meter or a joule meter. When used in electricity retailing, the utilities record the values measured by these meters to generate an invoice for the electricity. They may also record other variables including the time when the electricity was used.
The most common unit of measurement on the electricity meter is the kilowatt hour, which is equal to the amount of energy used by a load of one kilowatt over a period of one hour, or 3,600,000 joules. Some electricity companies use the SI megajoule instead. Demand is normally measured in watts, but averaged over a period, most often a quarter or half hour. Reactive power is measured in "Volt-amperes reactive", (varh) in kilovar-hours.
A "lagging" or inductive load, such as a motor, will have negative reactive power. A "leading", or capacitive load, will have positive reactive power. Volt-amperes measures all power passed through a distribution network, including reactive and actual. This is equal to the product of root-mean-square volts and amperes. Distortion of the electric current by loads is measured in several ways. Power factor is the ratio of resistive (or real power) to volt-amperes. A capacitive load has a leading power factor, and an inductive load has a lagging power factor. A purely resistive load (such as a fillament lamp, heater or kettle) exhibits a power factor of 1.
Current harmonics are a measure of distortion of the wave form. For example, electronic loads such as computer power supplies draw their current at the voltage peak to fill their internal storage elements. This can lead to a significant voltage drop near the supply voltage peak which shows as a flattening of the voltage waveform. This flattening causes odd harmonics which are not permissible if they exceed specific limits, as they are not only wasteful, but may interfere with the operation of other equipment. Harmonic emissions are mandated by law in EU and other countries to fall within specified limits.