AbstractTraditional non‐sinusoidal power theory does not reflect properly the energetic relations in non‐sinusoidal systems. To alleviate this situation several new power theories have been proposed recently. These new theories invariably rely on the definitions of the active power, the non‐sinusoidal apparent power and on the basic power equation, i. e., on the assumption that the geometric sum of all power components is equal to the apparent power. The paper points to the fact that the non‐sinusoidal apparent power is an artificial quantity without any physical meaning and that there is neither theoretical nor practical justification for the application of the basic power equation.