1.

Introduction
Once the harmonic sources are clearly defined, they must be interpreted in terms of their effects on the rest of the system and on personnel and equipment external to the power system. Each element of the power system must be examined for its sensitivity to harmonics as a basis for recommendations on the allowable levels. The main effects of voltage and current harmonics within the power system are, The possibility of amplification of harmonic levels resulting from series and parallel resonances. A reduction in the efficiency of the generation, transmission and utilization of electric energy. Ageing of the insulation of electrical plant components with consequent shortening of their useful life. Malfuction of system or plant components.

2. Harmonic effects on power system equipment

The effects of voltage distortion into three general categories Thermal stress Insulation stress Load disruption Harmonic have the effect of increasing equipment losses and thus the thermal stress. Harmonics result in increased losses and equipment loss of life. Triplen harmonics result in the neutral carrying a current which might equal or exceed the phase currents even if the loads are balanced. This dictates the derating or oversizing of neutral wires. Moreover, harmonics caused resonance might damage equipment. Harmonics further interfere with protective relays, metering devices, control and communication circuits, and customer electronic equipment. Sensitive equipment would experince maloperation or component failure.

Harmonic currents in the power distribution system can cause: Transformer heating Transformer secondary voltage distortion

Increased power losses Overloaded neutrals and capacitors Telephone and comminication system noise

2.1 Rms value of a distorted wave

Harmonic quantities are generally expressed in terms of their rms value since the heating effect depends on this value of the distorted waveform. For a sinusoidal quantity, the rms value is the maximum value divided by the square root of 2. For a distorted quantity, under steady-state conditions, the energy dissipated by the Joule effect is the sum of the energies dissipated by each of the harmonic components:

The rms value of a distorted waveform can be measured either directly by instruments designed to measure the true rms value, by thermal means or by spectrum analysers.

2.2 Total harmonic distorsion

The total harmonic distortion quantifies the thermal effect of all the harmonics. THD applies to both current and voltage and is defined as the rms value of harmonics divided by the rms value of the fundamental, and then multiplied by 100%. THD of current varies from a few percent to more than 100%. THD of voltage is usually less than 5%. Voltage THDs below 5% are widely considered to be acceptable, but values above 10% are definitely unacceptable and will cause problems for sensitive equipment and loads.

Harmonic currents and voltages superimposed on the fundamental have combined effects on equipment and devices connected to the power supply network.

2.3 Instantaneous effects

Harmonics have a number of undesirable effects on power system components and loads. These fall into two basic categories: short-term and long-term. Short-term effects are usually the most noticeable and are related to excessive voltage distortion. On the other hand, long-term effects often go undetected and are usually related to increased resistive losses or voltage stresses.

Harmonic voltages can disturb controllers used in electronic systems. They can, for example, affect thyristor switching conditions by displacing the zero-crossing of the voltage wave. Harmonics can cause additional errors in induction-disk electricity meters. For example, the error of a class 2 meter will be increased by 0.3% by a 5th harmonic ratio of 5% in current and voltage. Ripple control receivers, such as the relays used by electrical utilities for centralised remote control, can be disturbed by voltage harmonics with frequencies in the neighbourhood of the control frequency.

2.4 Long-term effects

Over and above mechanical fatigue due to vibrations, the main long-term effect of harmonics is heating.

Capacitor heating The losses causing heating are due to two phenomena: conduction and dielectric hysteresis. As a first approximation, they are proportional to the square of the rms current. Vibrations and noise The electrodynamic forces produced by the instantaneous currents associated with harmonic currents cause vibrations and acoustical noise, especially in

electromagnetic devices (transformers, reactors, etc.). Pulsating mechanical torque, due to harmonic rotating fields, can produce vibrations in rotating machines.

Interference on communication and control circuits Disturbances are observed when communication or control circuits are run along side power distribution circuits carrying distorted currents. Heating due to additional losses in machines and transformers * additional losses in the stators (copper and iron) and principally in the rotors (damping windings, magnetic circuits) of machines caused by the considerable differences in speed between the harmonic inducing rotating fields and the rotor. * supplementary losses in transformers due to the skin effect (increase in the resistance of copper with frequency), hysteresis and eddy currents (in the magnetic circuit). Heating of cables and equipment Losses are increased in cables carrying harmonic currents, resulting in temperature rise. The causes of the additional losses include: * an increase in the rms value of the current for an equal active power consumed; * an increase in the apparent resistance of the core with frequency, due to the skin effect; * an increase in dielectric losses in the insulation with frequency, if the cable is subjected to nonnegligible voltage distortion; * phenomena related to the proximity of conductors with respect to metal cladding and shielding earthed at both ends of the cable, etc. Generally speaking, all electrical equipment (electrical switchboards) subjected to voltage harmonics or through which harmonic currents flow, exhibit increased energy losses and should be derated if necessary.

2.5 General limits

* current distortion = 1.3 to 1.4%; * asynchronous machines: permissible stator current distortion = 1.5 to 3.5%; * cables: permissible core-shielding voltage distortion = 10%;

2.6 Standardised limits

The series of standards (IEC 61000) for electromagnetic compatibility define certain limits concerning harmonics, mainly:

* IEC 61000-3-2 which define the limits of harmonic emissions for equipment consuming less than 16 A per phase (except for certain category of equipment indicated in the standards). The case of equipment consuming over 16 A per phase is examined in the technical spec. IEC/TS 61000-3-4 and should finally be determined by the projected standards IEC 61000-3-12. * IEC 61000-2-2 which defines compatibility levels for harmonic voltages in public LV power supply systems (see fig.4 ). * IEC 61000-2-4 which defines compatibility levels in industrial networks. We would remind that compatibility level does not define an absolute limit. There remains some probability to be slightly beyond the fixed level.

The IEEE limits for voltage and current harmonics shown in Tables 10.1-10.4 are dependent on several variables and concepts defined as follows: PCC: Point of common coupling. This point is defined as the point in the utility service to a particular customer where another customer could be connected. ISC: Available short circuit current. IL: 15 or 30 minute (average) maximum demand current.

The thought processes behind these tables are that 1) the customer should be responsible for limiting harmonic currents in accordance with Tables 10.1-10.3 and 2) the utility should be responsible for limiting harmonic voltages in accordance with Table 10.4.

3. Harmonic Impacts
Short-term effects can cause nuisance tripping of sensitive loads. Some computercontrolled loads are sensitive to voltage distortion. For example, one documented case showed that a voltage distortion of 5.5% regularly shut down computerized lathes at a large pipe company heat treatment operation. While voltage distortions of 5% are not usually a problem, voltage distortions above 10% will almost always cause significant nuisance tripping or transformer overheating. Harmonics can degrade meter accuracy. This is especially true with common singlephase inductiondisk meters. In general, the meter spins 1-2% faster when a customer produces harmonic power. However, the greater issue in metering is the question of how active power, and especially reactive power, should be defined and measured when distortion is present. Debate on these definitions continues today. Blown capacitor fuses and failed capacitor cans are also attributed to harmonics. Harmonic voltages produce excessive harmonic currents in capacitors because of the inverse relationship between capacitor impedance and frequency. Voltage distortions of 5% and 10% can easily increase rms currents by 10% to 50%. Capacitors may also fail because of overvoltage stress on dielectrics. A 10% harmonic voltage for any harmonic above the 3rd increases the peak voltage by approximately 10% because the peak of the harmonic usually coincides, or nearly coincides, with the peak of the fundamental voltage. Harmonics can also cause transformer overheating. This usually occurs when a dedicated transformer serves only one large nonlinear load. In such a situation, the transformer must be derated accordingly. Derating to 0.80 of nameplate kVA is common. Overloaded neutrals appear to be the most common problems in commercial buildings. In a three-phase, four-wire system, the sum of the three phase currents returns through the neutral conductor. Positive and negative sequence components

add to zero at the neutral point, but zero sequence components are additive at the neutral. Power system engineers are accustomed to the traditional rule that balanced threephase systems have no neutral currents. However, this rule is not true when power electronic loads are present. Their zero sequence harmonics (i.e., primarily the 3rd harmonic and triplens) sum in the neutral wire and can overload the neutral conductor. Figure 4 illustrates this problem.

Figure 4 Overloaded neutral conductors serving single-phase nonlinear loads. Many PCs have 3rd harmonic currents greater than 80%. In these cases, the neutral current will be at least 3 * 80% = 240% of the fundamental a-b-c phase current. Thus, when PC loads dominate a building circuit, it is good engineering practice for each phase to have its own neutral wire, or for the shared neutral wire to have at least twice the current rating of each phase wire.

3.1 Parallel resonance

All circuits containing both capacitances and inductances have one or more natural frequencies. When one of those frequencies lines up with a frequency that is being produced on the power system, a resonance may develop in which the voltage and current at that frequency continue to persist at very high values. This is the root of most problems with harmonic distortion on power systems.

Figure 5.26 shows a distribution system with potential parallel resonance problems.

From the perspective of harmonic sources the shunt capacitor appears in parallel with the equivalent system inductance (source and transformer inductances) at harmonic frequencies as depicted in Fig. 5.27b. Furthermore, since the power system is assumed to have an equivalent voltage source of fundamental frequency only, the power system voltage source appears short circuited in the figure. Parallel resonance occurs when the reactance of XC and the distribution system cancel each other out. The frequency at which this phenomenon occurs is called the parallel resonant frequency. It can be expressed as follows:

At the resonant frequency, the apparent impedance of the parallel combination of the equivalent inductance and capacitance as seen from the harmonic current source becomes very large, i.e.,

Keep in mind that the reactances in this equation are computed at the resonant frequency. Q often is known as the quality factor of a resonant circuit that determines the sharpness of the frequency response. Q varies considerably by location on the power system. It might be less than 5 on a distribution feeder and more than 30 on the secondary bus of a large step-down transformer. It is clear that during parallel resonance, a small harmonic current can cause a large voltage drop across the apparent impedance,

The voltage near the capacitor bank will be magnified and heavily distorted. Let us now examine current behavior during the parallel resonance. Let the current flowing in the capacitor bank or into the power system be Iresonance; thus,

It is clear that currents flowing in the capacitor bank and in the power system (i.e., through the transformer) will also be magnified Q times. This phenomenon will likely cause capacitor failure, fuse blowing, or transformer overheating.

3.2 Series resonance

There are certain instances when a shunt capacitor and the inductance of a transformer or distribution line may appear as a series LC circuit to a source of harmonic currents. If the resonant frequency corresponds to a characteristic harmonic frequency of the nonlinear load, the LC circuit will attract a large portion of the harmonic current that is generated in the distribution system. A customer having

no nonlinear load, but utilizing power factor correction capacitors, may in this way experience high harmonic voltage distortion due to neighboring harmonic sources. This situation is depicted in Fig. 5.29.

During resonance, the power factor correction capacitor forms a series circuit with the transformer and harmonic sources. The simplified circuit is shown in Fig. 5.30.

The harmonic source shown in this figure represents the total harmonics produced by other loads. The inductance in series with the capacitor is that of the service entrance transformer. The series combination of the transformer inductance and the capacitor bank is very small (theoretically zero) and only limited by its resistance. Thus the harmonic current corresponding to the resonant frequency will flow freely in this circuit. The voltage at the power factor correction capacitor is magnified and highly distorted. This is apparent from the following equation:

4. Thermal losses in a harmonic environment

Harmonics have the effect of increasing equipment copper, iron and dielectric losses and thus the thermal stress. Equipment derating becomes a preventive requirement in this case.

4.1. Copper losses

If skin effect is neglected, the pu increase in copper losses due to harmonics is determined by the current distortion factor, alternatively the voltage distortion factor; the two being equal for a pure resistance.

4.2. Iron (core) losses

Iron losses are those losses taking place in an iron core which is being magnetised by an applied excitation or is rotating in a magnetic field. These losses consist of

hysteresis loss and eddy-current loss and result in reducing the effciency and raising the core temperature thus limiting the output. Hysteresis loss is due to the reversal of magnetisation of an iron core, and depends on the volume and quality of the used magnetic material, maximum value of the flux density and frequency of electric current. Eddy-current loss is the power loss associated with the flow of eddy currents induced in the armature core of a rotating machine as a result of its rotation in the magnetic field or in the core of a transformer as a result of ac excitation. The iron loss is composed of hysteresis loss and eddy-current loss, and can be expressed as follows, assuming sinusoidal flux density:

Here, pfe represents total iron loss, phys is hysteresis loss, Peddy is eddy current loss, eh is hysteresis coefficient, ee is eddy-current coefficient, is frequency, Bmax is amplitude of flux density, and alfa is a constant.

5. Rotating Machines
In the rotating machines harmonics cause additional stator and rotor losses and reduce the output torque. The effects of voltage distortion may be considered as insulation stress due voltage effects and thermal stress due to current flow. Nonsinusoidal voltages applied to electric machines may cause overheating, pulsating torques, or noise. Losses in electric machines are dependant upon the frequency spectrum of the applied voltage. An increase in motor operating temperature will cause reduction of the motor operating life. Single phase motors are the most affected. The operating temperature of a machine closely associated with its life expectancy because deterioration of the insulation is a function of both time and temperature. This relation is given below.

According to Equation, the life against the temperature can be plotted and thus from life-temperature relation a very rough idea is obtained. One of the categories of harmonic effects of on equipment is heating effects in power handling equipment such as motor, capacitor and transformers that, most often, reduce equipment operating life. At harmonic frequencies, motors can usually be represented by the blocked rotor reactance connected across the line. The lower-order harmonic voltage components, for which the magnitudes are larger and the apparent motor impedance lower, are usually the most important for motors. There is usually no need to derate motors if the voltage distortion remains within IEEE Standard 519-1992 limits of 5 percent THD and 3 percent for any individual harmonic. Excessive heating problems begin when the voltage distortion reaches 8 to 10 percent and higher. Such distortion should be corrected for long motor life.

Positive sequence hfth harmonic currents in the stator create a magnetic field rotating forward at a frequency of hf fo with respect to space. Also, negative sequence hbth harmonic stator currents produce a magnetic field rotating backward at a frequency of hb fo in space. These fields are pulsating, which when resolved give forward and backward components. As such, additional harmonics are generated. Moreover, positive (fourth, seventh, tenth, thirteenth, . . .) and negative sequence (second, fifth, eighth, eleventh, . . .) harmonic pairs give rise to pulsating fields of frequencies 3fo, 6fo, 9fo, 12fo ,. . ., respectively. Should the natural frequency of the generator be close to one of these frequencies, supersynchronous resonance would prevail accompanied by torsional oscillation and bending of the turbine shaft and rotating elements. A pulsating field is a standing field with an amplitude varying with time. Any pulsating field can be resolved into two - rotating in opposite directions - fields, the amplitude of

each being half of the pulsating one, and which coincide in space when the pulsating field gets its maximum value. negative sequence currents in a generator appear as double-frequency currents in the rotor circuit causing severe overheating, melting and damage.

6. References
[1] Schneider Electric, Harmonic disturbances in networks, and their treatment, Cahier technique no. 152, December 1999. [2] George J. Wakileh, Harmonics in rotating machines, Electric Power Systems Research, Volume 66, Issue 1, July 2003, Pages 31-37. [3] Wagner, V.E et al. Effects of harmonics on equipment, Power Delivery, IEEE Transactions on Volume 8, Issue 2, Apr 1993 Page(s):672 680. [4] Lei Ma; Sanada, M.; Morimoto, S.; Takeda, Y., Prediction of iron loss in rotating machines with rotational loss included, Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on Volume 39, Issue 4, July 2003 Page(s): 2036 2041. [5] S. Mark Halpin and Reuben F. Burch, Harmonic Limit Compliance Evaluations Using IEEE 519-1992 available at http://www.calvin.edu/~pribeiro/IEEE/ieee_cd/chapters/pdffiles/c9pdf.pdf

[6] Mack Grady, W.; Santoso, S, Understanding Power System Harmonics, Power Engineering Review, IEEE Volume 21, Issue 11, Nov. 2001 Page(s):c2 - c2. [7] Lin, D. Batan, T. Fuchs, E.F. Grady, W.M., Harmonic losses of single-phase induction motors undernonsinusoidal voltages, Energy Conversion, IEEE Transactions on Publication Date: Jun 1996 Volume: 11, Issue: 2. [8] Inan, A.; Attar, F The life expectancy analysis for an electric motor due to harmonics, Electrotechnical Conference, 1998. MELECON 98., 9th Mediterranean Volume 2, Issue , 1820 May 1998 Page(s):997 - 999 vol.2. [9] Kusko, Alexander, Power quality in electrical systems, New York : McGraw-Hill, c2007. [10] Arrillaga, J, Power system harmonics, West Sussex, England ; Hoboken, NJ : J. Wiley & Sons, c2003.