This paper presents a comprehensive review on the unified power quality conditioner (UPQC) to enhance the electric power quality at distribution levels. This is intended to present a broad overview on the different possible UPQC system configurations for single-phase (two-wire) and three-phase (three-wire and four-wire) networks, different compensation approaches, and recent developments in the field. It is noticed that several researchers have used different names for the UPQC based on the unique function, task, application, or topology under consideration. Therefore, an acronymic list is developed and presented to highlight the distinguishing feature offered by a particular UPQC. In all 12 acronyms are listed, namely, UPQC-D, UPQC-DG, UPQC-I, UPQC-L, UPQC-MC, UPQC-MD, UPQC-ML, UPQC-P, UPQC-Q, UPQC-R, UPQC-S, and UPQC-VA m in . More than 150 papers on the topic are rigorously studied and meticulously classified to form these acronyms and are discussed in the paper.Index Terms-Active power filter (APF), harmonic compensation, power quality, reactive power compensation, unified power quality conditioner (UPQC), voltage sag and swell compensation.