This part of IEC 61000, which is a technical report, reviews the sources and effects of power frequency conducted harmonic current emissions in the frequency range up to 2 kHz on the public electricity supply, and gives an account of the reasoning and calculations leading to the existing emission limits for equipment in the editions of IEC 61000-3-2 [1]1, up to and including the fifth edition (2018) with Amendment 1 (2020), and in the second edition of IEC 61000-3-12 (2011) [2].

The history is traced from the first supra-national standard on low-frequency conducted emissions into the public electricity supply, EN 50006:1975 [3] and its evolution through IEC (60)555-2 [4] to IEC 61000-3-2 [1], IEC TR 61000-3-4 [5] and IEC 61000-3-12 [2]. To give a full picture of the history, that of the standard for the measuring instrument IEC 61000-4-7 [6] is mentioned as well.

NOTE All IEC standards were renumbered starting from 60000 from 1998-01-01. To indicate the references of standards withdrawn before, or not reprinted after, that date, the "60x" prefix is here enclosed in parentheses. Hence "IEC (60)555-2".

Some concepts in this document apply to all low voltage AC systems, but the numerical values
apply specifically to the European 230 V/400 V 50 Hz system.