1698

An Iterative Approach for Analysis of Harmonic

Penetration in the Power Transmission Networks
Vinay Sharma'(Member),

R.J. Fleming"(Senior Member),

*Cambrian Engineering Limited

119 - 105th Street East,
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
S7N 122

Leo Niekamp'(Member)

**Electrical Engineering Dept.

University of Saskatchewan,
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
S7N OW0

Abstract
An iterative process of computing harmonic voltage profile on a
power system transmission network is presented. A method
based upon the frequency domain analysis is utilised in
conjunction with the fundamental load flow computations. The
concept of conventional reactive power and the distortion power
are incorporated in order to determine interaction between the
power system and harmonic generating sources. The model of
the transmission system considered lends itself to the
determination of the standing wave pattern and can be used in
identifying the points of maxima and minima on the transmission
line besides the two end points. A phase shifting model of
transformer is presented for the harmonic analysis. Three
examples of power transmission systems are taken to illustrate use
of the algorithm. Included in the example test cases are a five
bus example system reported by Heydt[11, IEEE-RBTS[2]
reported by Billinton et al. and a reduced six bus power
transmission system of SaskPower [3].

Keywords: Harmonics, Power Systems, Standing Waves, and

Converters.
1. Introduction

Electrical power systems are subjected to transient and harmonic

disturbances due to switching, lightning, load changes, and nonlinear loads. Previously, these disturbances were of less
significance because of their limited magnitude and duration,
however during the past two decades, there has been tremendous
change in the types of loads on the ac power system. Present
trends are toward the use of static power converters, induction
motor switching, and electronic devices which require dc voltages
and currents.
CO-generation and renewed interest in
interconnecting alternate energy sources such as wind energy and
solar energy to the power grid is another source of harmonic
signal injections into the power systems.
The stationary waveform distortion is caused by the steady
injection of the harmonic currents from non-linear loads. Such
sources of harmonic signals include ac/dc converters, switching
power supplies, dc/ac inverters integrated to the grid, ac phase
control circuits, cycloconverters,etc. The stationary power system

91 WM 111-5 PWRD A paper recommended and approved by

the IEEE Transmission and Distribution Committee of
the IEEE Power Engineering Society for presentation
at the IEEE/PES 1991 Winter Meeting, New York, New
York, February 3 - 7 , 1991. Manuscript submitted
August 31, 1990; made available for printing
January 3, 1991.

waveform distortion is addressed in this paper. The term

Harmonic Signal, from now on, refers to the harmonic signals
which are responsible for the stationary waveform distortion in
the power system. In this paper ac/dc converters are considered
as the main sources of harmonic injections due to their extensive
applications.
The main objective of this paper is to illustrate inaccuracies in
one step computation of the harmonic voltage profile of the
power system for a given harmonic injection. On the basis of
results obtained from this work, it is the objective to strongly
recommend to take into account the interaction between the
converter and the power system. An iterative method between
the fundamental frequency load flow and the harmonic frequency
analysis approach is shown in this paper to give the best solution.
The response of the power system network due to harmonic
signal injection may vary from a minimal waveform distortion to
near harmonic resonance or a full resonance condition. A shunt
resonance condition will give rise to large harmonic voltage
waveform distortion. Such a peak of the harmonic voltage may
exist somewhere in the middle of the transmission line rather
than at either ends of it. In this paper, a cascaded network of
equivalent pi's is used to model the transmission line. Such a
model of the transmission line lends itself for obtaining the
harmonic voltage profile of the transmission line. Since cascaded
model of pi networks results in a large order of sparse system
equations, a sparse method is employed in solving the system
equations.
1.1. Harmonic Frequency Energy Flow

In a single frequency electric power system, the apparent power

S is given by J(P2+Q2), where P is given by EIcos(@)and Q is
given by EIsin(#). In a system where several frequency signals
co-exist, the above definitions are not adequate as shown by
Czamecki[4] and Shepherd[S]. The new definitions of apparent
and non-active power to handle power flow in systems where
harmonic frequencies co-exist are needed.
Consider a power system where the voltage and the current in the
system are given by equations 1 and 2. Average power P
comprises the sum of powers due to all frequencies as given by
the equation 3. The apparent power, S, defined as the product
of the total rms voltage and total rms current, is given by the
equation 4[6]. Equation 4 includes products of similar and unlike
frequencies. The non-active power J(S2-P2) includes two parts:
conventional fundamental frequency reactive volt ampere, Q; and
distortion volt amperes, D, which is also reactive in nature from
the point of view of the fundamental frequency. Thus the
apparent power can be broken into its parts as given by
equation 5.

1699

Although definition of Qk = F,,,

EkIksin(ek)can be used to
arrive at a mathematical value of Qk,such a definition of reactive
volt amperes can not be used to compute the value of shunt
connected capacitance for the purpose of making unity power
factor as shown by Shepherd[6] and others. In essence it is quite
difficult to separate the conventional reactive and distortion
reactive power. In the analysis presented herein, this reactive and
distortion volt amperes are combined in one term referred to as
non-active volt amperes and denoted by QD. This is consistent
with the argument, since the fundamental frequency energy
source must provide the net volt amperes required by the
non-linear load. Also the separation of the reactive and
distortion volt ampere will not lead to any worthwhile results
from the point of view of harmonic analysis of the transmission
network.

nodes and mutual admittance of two nodes can be obtained from

the application of Kirchhoffs Law to the circuit shown in
Figure 1.

Bus admittance matrix so formed will take care of the phase shift
at each harmonic frequency. Harmonic currents injected due to
the magnetising demand are considered as current sources shown
in Figure 1.

.P

q,

e =

hc Eki?in(kWt+CXk).

(1)

k=l
n

i =

IkSin(kWt+CXk-dk).

(2)

1- --1

k=l
n

P = CEkIkCos(dk).

(3)

Figure 1:

Transformer Model at Harmonic Frequencies

k=l
n

S2 =

EiCIj.
k=l

S2 =

fl +

(4)

j=l

Q2

D2.

(5)

2. Models of Network Elements

In order to study the penetration of harmonic currents into the

power transmission system, frequency dependent models of its
elements are required. The model should take care of two
phenomena; firstly its frequency dependent behaviour and
secondly its phase shifting influence on harmonics (if any). The
models of elements have been already reported in the literature
such as papers by Heydt[1,7,8] Mahmoud and Shultz[9], Pillegi et
al.[lO], McGranaghan et al.[ll], and Sharma and Fleming[l2].
The same models are used in this study except for the difference
pointed out below.
2.1. Transformer

The transformer is most difficult to model at harmonic frequency

due to its non-linear magnetising properties[l3]. In addition, it
produces some harmonics of its own. The level of harmonic
injection is quite large if it is over excited. Another noteworthy
factor is that a three phase transformer produces different phase
shifts for different harmonic frequencies. In this reported work,
the transformer model used by Mahmoud[9] and
Szabados-Hill[l3] is combined with a phase shifting transformer
model[l4] as shown in Figure 1.
The ideal phase shifting transformer in Figure 1 is considered to
have a complex ratio l:Adebor l:[a,+jbJ, where 6 is 1 for
positive sequence harmonic orders such as lst, 4th) 7th, 10th etc.,
-1 for the negative sequence harmonic orders such as 2nd, 5th)
Sth, etc., and 0 for zero sequence harmonic orders including all
triplen harmonic components. Since the power is invariant
through the ideal transformer and the current and the voltage
experience a phase shift of 06 radians, the self admittances of

2.2. Transmission Line

A correction needs to be applied to the resistance and the

internal inductance of the transmission line at higher frequency.
Once the corrected parameters of the line are computed, the
transmission line is modelled as a pi network. The shunt
capacitance of pi network of the transmission line plays a
significant role at higher harmonic frequencies.
For harmonic analysis, the short line appears as electrically long
line at higher ac frequencies. The nominal pi model, commonly
used to model transmission line at power frequencies, gives
reduced accuracy at harmonic frequencies. Arrillaga[151 et al.
and Sharma[l2] et al. proposed to use a number of nominal pi
networks connected in series to model electrically long lines.
However, it was shown in the references [ l l ] and [20] that as the
harmonic frequency increases the accuracy reduces drastically.
For example by arbitrarily using 13 cascaded nominal pi sections
for 13th harmonic order, there was 31% error in the calculated
results relative to the measured values as reported in reference
[ 121. The error can be reduced by considering larger number of
pi sections at the cost of computation efforts. The distributed
nature of the transmission line, nevertheless, can be approximated
by applying the correction to the nominal pi coefficients. The
model so obtained is called an equivalent pi model and is
obtained by the solution of second order linear differential
equations describing the wave propagation along the transmission
lines.
The standing wave, which is characterised by fixed nodes and
antinodes, can arise due to improper termination of the line at
the frequency of interest. As a result, the maxima of currents and
voltages are likely to occur at points other than at the receiving
ends or sending ends. These local maxima could result in
insulation damage, overheating or electromagnetic interference.
At times, it may be of importance to calculate the maximum
values of currents and voltages along the line. One of the
advantages of cascaded nominal pi network model is that it gives
a profile of voltage along the line. In case of an equivalent pi
network, information is obtained for sending and receiving ends

1700

only and one pi model is sufficient for the whole line. In order
to obtain voltage profile and still keep the accuracy of the model,
it is decided to represent the transmission line by a number of
cascaded equivalent pi networks. To keep the order of the
system to a reasonable value, it was arbitrarily decided to create
half as many cascaded equivalent pi model as the harmonic order.
Therefore, there is one equivalent pi model for lst, and 2nd
harmonic order; two for 3rd and 4th harmonic order; three for
5th and 6th harmonic order and so on.
Foregoing discussion on the model of the transmission line is
valid only for the balanced condition. Balanced condition exists
particularly in the transmission system due to balanced loading
and symmetrical transposition of the transmission line. However,
at high frequencies, assumption of balanced condition may not
hold true if the length of one transposed cycle is smaller than the
smallest wavelength[l6] of interest. For example, if the speed of
light is taken as a limiting velocity on the transmission line, then
a balanced model of the transmission line can be used to study
frequencies up to 30 KHz if the transposed length is 10 kilometre
or less and up to 15 KHz if transposed length is 20 kilometre or
less and so on.

2.3. Generator and Loads

A negative sequence impedance is used for the model of the
generator as reported by Heydt[l], Mahmoud[9], Pillegi et a1.[10]
and others. Most extensive model for the load is shown in Figure
2 where V is the nominal voltage, k is the harmonic order, and
P , Qr are real power and reactive power respectively at the
fundamental frequency. This model was first suggested by
Pesonen et a1.[17] and has further been reported to give
satisfactory results by Pillegi et a1.[9], Mcgranaghan et al.[ 111, and
Murotani[ld].

L - - s \ w
V2/P,

Figure 2:

2.4.

1
-

Load Model for Distributed Load

Six Pulse ac/dc Converter

A mathematical model of the converter is needed to determine

the harmonic spectrum of the current injected. Heydt[l] reported
a detail model of the converter in which the influence of the
converter commutation overlap and the harmonic spectrum of the
converter node ac voltage was included. Same model is
employed here except that the model chosen here includes the
resistance of the converter transformer as well. The inclusion of
the converter transformer resistance introduces some complexities
in the solution of the differential equation. But the model
proposed is important for small converter systems where
resistance of the converter transformer is quite significant. Detail
solution including the computation of constants and commutation
angle used in this paper is given in reference [19].

3. Algorithm
For harmonic analysis of the system, the methodology chosen is
based upon the non-linear frequency domain analysis[20]. Given
an initial estimate of the current waveform of the converter, the
harmonic bus voltages are determined from the system
admittance matrix equation, i.e. [I] = [Y][V]. A new estimate of
the current waveform of the converter is obtained from the new
bus voltages including the harmonic voltages. This cycle is
repeated until convergence in the magnitude of the harmonic
voltages on all nodes in the power system is obtained. The
convergence criterion is the change in harmonic bus voltages
with each step of calculation. Each frequency is dealt with
independently, since the delay angle of the converter is assumed
to be fiied during the computation cycle.

3.1. Energy Balance in Harmonic Power Flow

The aforementioned algorithm, however, does not account for the
interaction of the power system and the converter system. The
ac/dc converter, by virtue of its demand of current waveform,
injects current harmonics into the power systems. Thus, given the
knowledge of the current harmonics of the converter, a simple
solution[9,10] of the system equations, such as [Y][Vl = [I],
should yield the harmonic voltage profile of the system. But
there is flaw in this argument, for the amplitude of the current
harmonics generated by the converter is influenced by the ac
supply voltage in two ways. Given a firing angle, firstly the power
flow into the converter load is dependent on the ac terminal
voltage and secondly, the Commutation overlap is influenced by
the ac terminal voltage. These two factors greatly affect the
amplitude of the harmonic spectrum of current injected into the
power system by the converter.
In other words there is strong interaction between the converter
operation and the power system voltage profile. A one-step
calculation may give approximately close results, but an iterative
implementation of the algorithm, where the interaction of the
power system and harmonic injecting source is taken care of,
would yield a more precise result.
For example, given a converter operating at a certain firing angle,
the power dissipated in the dc load may be known, but the
apparent ac power supplied to the converter node by the
electrical system can not be known until the harmonic power flow
in the electrical system is determined; therefore, it is essential to
re-compute the fundamental frequency load flow following the
harmonic power flow computation each time. Following the new
fundamental frequency computations, the harmonic power flow
computations should be re-done. This process must be iterated
to study the interaction of the converter and the power system.
The iterations are stopped when the total calculated ac power
supplied to the converter system (both active and non-active)
converges to a constant value.
Initially, the load flow studies are carried out at the fundamental
frequency using Newton Raphson method. Following this, the
harmonic network solution is achieved in an iterative manner to
determine the harmonic voltage profile of the power system. The
net power at the converter node, given by the equations (3) and
(4), is computed. The whole process is reiterated again. Exit
from the iteration occurs when the steady state solution of
apparent volt amperes at the converter node is obtained. In this
manner, a true interaction of the performance of the converter
and the harmonic spectrum of the power system is obtained.

1701

--

4. Application of the Algorithm

Capacitive reactance at buses 3 & 4

6:

In this section, the application of the harmonic flow program is

illustrated. Three example systems were taken for the study of
the harmonic voltage profile computations. The first example, a
five bus power system, is similar to the one given in the reference
[ 11 and was used to show the accuracy of the program. There are
two more example studies presented, namely the IEEE RBTS[2]
five bus test system and a reduced six bus power transmission
system of SaskPower[3].

0.4

Q-B-e--e--R-43-3

-0.2

In order to illustrate the accuracy of the program, the first case

study was similar to the one discussed by Heydt et al.[S] The
capacitive reactances at buses 3 and 4 were kept constant at -jl.O
per unit, while at bus 5, it was varied through j0.2 pa., j0.3 P.u.,
j0.4 P.u., j0.5 PA., j0.6 PA., -j0.8 p a , and j l . 0 p.u. Results are
shown in Figures 4 and 5. Figure 4 illustrate the fifth harmonic
voltage amplitude at all buses as the capacitive reactance at bus
5 is varied. Figure 5 illustrates the fifth harmonic voltages for
bus 3 and bus 5 taken from Heydt's work[S]. The results are very
similar to the one obtained by the proposed methodology.
The slight difference seen at low values of capacitive reactance
arises due to the difference in setting up the experiment. In the
case of the experiment reported in this paper, the power demand
is allowed to change while keeping the delay angle of the
converter constant; whereas the apparent power demand, in case
of Heydt's work, is kept constant while permitting the change in
the operating point of the converter. Nevertheless, the pattern in
change of the fifth harmonic voltage at bus 3 and 5 is similar in
both cases.
GROUND TIE AT W M O N I C
FREQUENCIES ONLY

.cl

68

--.-

.-.-+b-.----.-m

Bus 4

BUS 5

-1

0.2

\.,;l.OSO&

Bus 2

LL

PU

BUS A

'12.45 kV
kV XOMISAL

. I I,.o

+ j.01

IZ.QQ%
x
,E9 kV/25 kV

I +-

Figure 4:

0.-

5>

(BUS 3)
0.a

0.001

I-

Y
$

o.o(u
0.M

O.lI01

O.OO0
0.0

0.2

u.4

0.0

0.)

1.u

1.a

Fifth harmonic voltage magnitude(rms) [SI.

The graphical representation of results may be misleading in the

sense that the percentage of error between the two compared
results is not perceptible. Table 1 presents the results computed
by the author and the documented results presented in the
reference [l], [3] and [SI. The results are for the condition when
the capacitive reactances at buses 3, 4, and 5 are jl.0 per unit,
-jl.O per unit, and -j0.6 per unit respectively and the converter is
operating at a delay angle of 22.5 degrees.

RECTIFIER

P=25

MW

A l l values arc given i n percent.

Bus No.

Fundamental
voltage.

ALL IMPEDANCES SHOWN

IN PER IJNIT ORMS
(100 MVA BASE USED)

Figure 3:

1
2
3
4
5

Five bus example.

(-i P.u.)

Fifth harmonic voltage magnitude(rms).

Computed Results
20 MW, 20 WAR

0.8

06

am

Figure 5:

+ j.0:

0.4

Capacitive reactance a t bus 5

The single line diagram of the five bus power system is shown in
Figure 3. The ac/dc converter at bus 4 of the system is a line
commutated converter operating at a delay angle of 22.5 degrees.
Buses 3, 4, and 5 have capacitor compensation for power factor
correction.

Bus 3

4.1. Five Bus Example

X'= 0.0001

= -11.0 p. U.

1-

Table 1:

105.0
106.88
110.38
108.88
131.88

Eeydt 's Reported Results Error(%)

Fifth
Fundamental
harmonic
voltage.
voltage.
0.006

0.383
0.625
0.762
0.197

105.00
106.81
110.43
109.05
131.95

Fifth
harmonic
voltage.
0.0057
0.3787
0.6182
0.7617
0.1946

In f i f t h
harmonic
voltage.
5
1
1
1
1

Comparison of Bus Voltages for Five BUS Example

1702

Both fundamental and fifth harmonic voltages agree within 1%

error. The magnitude of the fifth harmonic voltage at bus 1 is in
disagreement by 596, perhaps the error is larger due to small
influence of the harmonic current at the generator bus. The
condition of experiment in both cases is similar. It is encouraging
to see that two methodologies, namely, the iterative frequency
domain method based upon the Fourier principles used in this
report and Newton Raphson harmonic load flow studies, agree
closely.
Table l(a) gives comparison of results from one-step computation
and the iterative approach used in this paper. One-step
computations were done by injecting fixed values of harmonic
currents which are calculated for a converter on the basis of
fundamental supply voltage. From Table 1 and l(a), it is clearly
that the results obtained by iterative approach agree more closely
with the results from Heydts work. This observation is valid in
the case worse harmonics are injected into the system, for the
interaction between the power system and the converter system
is not accounted for in case of one-step computation.

2 x 4 0 UW
1x20

uw

1x10

nw

UllS 3

DUS 5
( 2 0 UWI

BUS 6
(20

nw1

Figure 6: Single Line Diagram of IEEE Test System

AU values are given in percent

One-step computation

Iterative method

42.1. Variation of Converter Load

In this test, the converter load(MW) was varied by changing the

dc load. The harmonic content of the current is affected by
different load conditions in two ways. Firstly the magnitude of
the line current is directly dependent on the dc side load and
secondly, the commutation angle is affected by the dc current[l9].
Results are shown in Figures 7 through 9. Figure 7 shows the
fifth harmonic bus voltages, Figure 8 illustrates the distortion
factor, and Figure 9 illustrates the transmission line voltage
profile for fifth harmonic voltages for the converter load(P)
demand of 36 MW.

Bus No.

Fifth harmonic
voltage

Fifth harmonic
voltage

1
2
3
4

0.003
0.224
0.365
0.444

0.115

0.006
0.383
0.625
0.762
0.1946

Table l(a): Comparison of Bus Voltages; One-step

Computation versus Iterative Method

4.2. IEEE RBTS Test System

A small power transmission system, the RBTS(Roy Billinton Test

System)[2),is a newly proposed power system for educational and
research purposes. This system was chosen as an example, mainly
due to its long transmission lines of approximately 250 kilometres
and 200 kilometres. The system, shown in Figure 6, is comprised
of six buses, nine lines, two generator buses and four load buses.
The voltage level of the transmission system is 230 kV and the
total installed capacity is 240 MW with 185 MW as the peak load.
The system load includes both linear load and the converter load.
The converter load is installed at bus 4 and is a natural
commutated rectifier in the 40 MVA, 13.2 kV class. The
converter transformer is 230 kV113.2 kV, 40 MVA, three phase,
grounded wye to delta. The per unit reactances on a 100 MVA
base are given in reference [2].
All the transmission lines are overhead, fully transposed, ACSR
construction. Bus 1is assumed to be the swing bus and bus 2 is
a PV bus for the fundamental frequency load flow studies.
Although there are various generating units at each of the
generating buses, all the generating units are replaced by a single
negative sequence impedance representing a single unit of
combined capacity for the purpose of harmonic analysis. Bus 1
is assumed to have such a large equivalent negative sequence
reactance of the generator that it is considered to be open
circuited for all harmonic frequencies.

With the increase in load, the harmonic current injected also

increases. This causes an increased harmonic voltage drop in the
transmission system. As shown in Figure 7 the fifth harmonic
voltage drop changes from about 7% to about 15 % at bus 2
when the load demand is increased from 16.5 MW to 36 MW.
The higher order harmonics, namely 7th, 11th and 13th were of
smaller magnitude (about a maximum of 3 % at bus 2) and are
not plotted.
Figure 8 gives the voltage distortion factor for buses 2, 3, 4, and
5. The voltage distortion of bus 2 is poorest of all due to the fact
that this bus suffers most from the harmonic voltages. The
distortion factor at load buses 3, 4, and 5 is affected in two ways.
Firstly the magnitude of the fundamental voltage decreases as the
load demand is increased and secondly the harmonic voltage
levels rise as the harmonic current injection is larger. A
distortion factor of unity indicates a pure sine wave, as seen from
Figure 8, the maximum distortion factor reached is 0.9991 for
bus 3.
Finally the transmission line harmonic voltage profiles for the
fifth harmonic order are given in Figure 9. The line between
bus 2 and bus 4 exhibits a standing wave pattern. The standing
wave has a maximum of 16 percent voltage for fifth harmonic at
about 60% of the line length from bus 4. The total length of the
line between buses 4 and 2 is 250 Kilometres. The line between
buses 1 and 3 shows a more predictable result, i.e. the voltage
monotonically increases toward a bus closer to the rectifier load.
Voltage profiles for the remaining lines, not shown here, are
similar to that of the line 1-3.

1703

installed at bus RG(6) is a natural commutated rectifier in the 40

MVA, 25 kV class. The converter transformer is a 230 kV/25
kV, 40 MVA, three phase, grounded wye to delta and the per
unit reactances on a 100 MVA base are shown in Figure 10.

Legend
Bus 1
U

Bus 2

Bus 3
0 B

' ' I '

15

20

'

'

25

' I

'

'

'

' I

Bus 5

Bus 6

' '

'

35

30

'

Line
No.

40

Converter load demand ( X )

Figure 7:

Effect of converter load demand

on the fifth harmonic voltages.

Line
Name

1
2
3
4
5
6

Line
Length

BZR
B3R
ClW

P2C
R4C
QlW

P o s i t i v e Sequence
Impedance (per u n i t )

(U)

182.8
182.8
158.5
174.4
21.4
104.6

0.0210
0.0210
0.0172
0.0151
0.0023
0.0913

X
0.1212
0.1212
0.1428
0.1134
0.0181
0.2851

B
0.4506
0.4506
0.2909
0.437
0.0362
0.0585

Table 2: Transmission data for SaskPower system.

Bus No.

Bus 2
Bus 3
Bus 4

1-1

Bus 5

Generator
No.

Connected
Bus Name

ED

1
2
3

Negative Sequence
Impedance (per u n i t )
R
X
0.000603
0.000897
0.002160

PR
QE

0.037343
0.054236
0.096514

Table 3: Generator data for SaskPower system.

0.985

15

25

20

30

35

40

Converter load demand ( X )

Figure 8 :

Effect of converter load demand on the

distortion factor.

Load
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6

Converter Dower demand = 36 %

Connected
Bus Name

Lord i n per u n i t
Real
Reactive

ED
PR
PE

0.798
0.250
2.709
0.608
0.419
2.65

CON
WOL

RG

0.177
0.100
0.680
0.0545
0.075
0.54

__

-egend

.-0

E a

Line 1-2

Line 1-3

i4

Line 4-2

In

'

'

"

20

'

"

'

'

40

"

'

60

'

'

'

'

"1

80

100

Transmission line length (%)

Figure 9: Transmissionline voltage profile for the 5th harmonic

Table 4: Load data for SaskPower system.

P2C(4)

4.3. SaskPower Test System

The next example was based on the Saskatchewan Power

Corporation[3] transmission system. A six bus system, shown in
Figure 10, comprises three generating stations namely Poplar
River(PR), Boundary Dam(BD) and Queen Elizabeth(QE). The
buses are numbered as shown in parentheses in Figure 10.
Lumped loads were considered at all the substations and
generating stations. The load at Regina (RG) substation (bus 6)
includes both linear and nonlinear load. The nonlinear load at
Regina substation is a six-pulse converter load.
The transmission line data, the generator data and the load data
for this system are given in Tables 2, 3, and 4 respectively. The
data is represented on a base of 100 MVA. The converter load

Figure 10 Single line diagram of SaskPower system.

1704

43.1. Variation of Converter Load

5. Conclusion

The converter load demand(MW) was varied by varying the dc

load impedance. The harmonic content of the current was
affected by different load condition and as a result harmonic
voltage profile on the transmission system was affected. The
results of this test are shown in Figures 11 and 12. Figure 11
shows the fifth harmonic voltages and Figure 12 illustrates the
transmission line harmonic voltage profile for the fifth harmonic
order at a rectifier load demand of 28.5 MW. The results are
more, or less predictable except that Wolverine(W0L) and
Condie(C0N) substations experience largest harmonic voltages
even though the harmonic generating load is at the Regina(RG)
substation. Queen Elizabeth(QE) and Poplar(PR) generating
stations, on the other hand, suffer least from the harmonic
distortion. The bus voltages for fifth harmonic order increase
with the increased load. The bus voltages for higher harmonic
order are not plotted, since their magnitude were smaller and
their pattern were similar to the 5th harmonic order.

The paper presents an iterative methodology to study the

harmonic analysis of power systems. The methodology employs
a frequency domain analysis in conjunction with the fundamental
frequency load flow. The major emphasis is given to the fact that
iterative approach determines truly the interaction between the
power system and the harmonic generating sources such as
converters. The performance of the converter is greatly affected
by the magnitudes and frequency of the spectrum of the converter
node voltages. It is by the action of the converter that a portion
of the fundamental power is converted into the harmonic power.
The total power demand including the harmonic power demand
of the converter is supplied by the energy sources of the
fundamental frequency. Thus an iterative computation of the
fundamental frequency power flow (Load flow computation) and
the harmonic power flow results in a convergent solution.

The transmission network has two appreciably long lines namely

the line between Boundary Dam (BD) and Regina (RG) and line
between Condie (CON) and Wolverine (WOL). The line
between Wolverine and Condie substations has a slight standing
wave as shown in Figure 12. The maximum of the fifth harmonic
voltage occurs at about 60% of the line length from Condie
(CON) substation. The remaining lines are short and do not
exhibit any standing wave pattern. The results shown in Figure
12 are for approximately 75% converter loading. The profile
characteristic of transmission lines was constant during different
converter load demand but magnitude increases with the
increasing converter load demand.

2.53

Legend

Boundary Dam (BD)

Poplar River (PR)
Oueen Elizabeth

'[

.,,

, ,

.,

.c

Wolverine (WOL)

I
f
n 0
-,

Regina (RG)
12

16

20

(OE]

Condie (CON)

28

24

Converter load demand ( X )

Figure 11: Fifth order harmonic voltages.

n

2 2.6,

Converter load at bus RG = 28.5%

10

I
I
2.2

Q)

ST 1.8

Legend

t
0

' 1.4
.-0
c
P

I Line

BD-RC

Line CON-RC
Line CON-WC

1
0

Line CON-PR

A Line OE-WO\

s0
In

.
0

20

2
40

1
60

,
80

100

Transmission line length (X)

Figure 12: Transmission line voltage profile for the 5th harmonic

Divergence of the solutions was not experienced, but there were

some cases of limit cycles. That is, the error between successive
computation oscillated between 0.0001 and 0.0002. The
oscillating error was due to the numerical instabilities introduced
by the numerical model of converter. The solution time of the
algorithm was not investigated in any detail. Efforts are presently
underway to exploit the sparsity of the system to minimize the
time of computation.
Benefits of the iterative method presented here are to strive for
a more realistic harmonic voltage profile of a power systems
without the need of field measurements. This approach is helpful
in planning of a new power system or extension of an existing
power system network, specially where estimated load contains
large ac/dc converters. Further, a precise predicted knowledge
of harmonic voltages and currents in the power system can be
used to design filter systems.
To prove the accuracy of the program, a simple five bus example
system was taken from the literature and the results are shown to
agree within 1% of the published results. The published results
were obtained using a different methodology (Newton Raphson
load flow) than the one proposed here. The close agreement
between the results of two different methodologies provides
credibility for the method used in this paper.
The program makes use of the virtual buses in the system and as
a result the transmission voltage profile is made available. As
shown in this paper such information can be used to investigate
the standing wave pattern on transmission lines and to identify
the points of maximum and minimum voltages on the
transmission lines. The location of the harmonic generating
source had greater impact on the wave pattern of the
transmission line. A long line invariably exhibited a standing
wave pattern. The magnitude obtained were small due to the
smaller harmonic current injection. The characteristics behaviour
of maxima and minima, however, would give rise to larger
magnitude if the injection magnitudes are larger.
The distortion factor obtained gives the information as to the
nature of the voltage waveform at a system node. Such
information is of vital importance to a protection engineer in
order to design an optimum protection system and avoid its
malfunction due to the harmonics. The distortion factor can also
be used to monitor the pollution of the frequency of the power
system. A distortion factor of 1 indicates a single frequency
power system. A lower value of distortion factor indicates a
heavily polluted power system from the point of view of
frequency.

1705

The model of the converter includes the effect of the converter

transformer resistance and the leakage inductance. Therefore,
the model can be used for smaller size converter systems as well
where the transformer resistance can not be ignored.

15.

Arrillaga, J., Bradley, D.A., and Bodger, P.S., "Power

System Harmonics," John Wiley & Sons,New York, 1985.

16.

D o w e l , H.W.. and Marti, J.R., "Overhead Transmission

Line Models for Steady State and Transient Analysis,"
Presented to Power System Planning & Operation Section,
Canadian Electrical Association, Montreal, Quebec, March
1985.

17.

CIGRE Working Group, "Harmonics, Characteristic

Parameters, Methods of Study, Estimating of Existing
Values in the Network," Electra, 1977. pp. 35-54.

18.

Murotani, K. "Discussion on A Method of Analyzing

Harmonic Distribution in AC Power System,: IEEE
Transaction on Power Apparatus and Systems, Vol.
PAS-101, No. 6, June 1982, pp. 1823-24.

19.

Sharma, V.K, "Harmonic Frequency Profile Calculations

of Electric Power Transmission Systems" Electrical
Engineering, University of Saskatchewan. Ph.d. Thesis,
May 1989.

20.

Ortmeyer. T.H., "Harmonic Analysis Methodology," IEEE

PES Tutorial COW C o r n Tut 84 EHO221-2-PwR.
February. 1984, pp. 74-84.

6. References
1

Xia, D., Heydt, G.T., "Harmonic Power Flow Studies Part

I- Formulation and Solution," IEEE Transaction on
Power Apparatus and System, Vol. PAS-101, No. 6, June
1982, pp. 1252-1265.

2.

Billinton, R. et al., "A Reliability Test System for

Educational Purposes - Basic Data," 89 WM 035-7, A
paper presented at the Winter Power Meeting of IEEE
Power Engineering Society, New York, January 29
February 3, 1989

3.

Kolla, S.R., "Application of Modal Transformation for

Fault Analysis and Digital Distance Relaying," Master's
Thesis, Electrical Engineering, University of Saskatchewan,
Saskatoon, Canada, August 1985.

4.

Czarneck L S, "Methods of Describing the Power

Properties of Linear Non-sinwidal Systems," Second
International Conference on Harmonics in power Systems
Proceedings, Winnipeg,Manitoba, Canada, October 1986.

5.

Shepherd, W.,and Zand, P, "Energy Flow and Power

Factor in Nonsinusoidal Circuits,' Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, U.K. 1979

6.

Shepherd, W., and a n d , P., "Suggested Definition of

Reactive Power for Nonsinusoidal Systems," IEE
Proceedings, Vol 119, No. 9, Sept. 1972, pp. 136142,
Correspondence.

7.

Xia, D., Heydt, G.T., "Harmonic Power Flow Studies Part

11- Practical Application," IEEE Transaction on Power

Apparatus and System, Vol. PAS-101, No. 6, June 1982,

pp. 1266-70.
8.

Heydf G.T., Grady, W.M., Xia, D., "Harmonic Power

Flow Studies Volume 1: Theoretical Basis," Electric Power
Research Institute, EPRI EL3300, Project 1764-7. Final
Report, November, 1983.

9.

Mahmoud, A.A., and Shultz, R.D, "A Method for

Analyzing Harmonic Distribution in A.C. Power Systems,"
IEEE Transaction on Power Apparatus and System,
PAS-101, No. 6, June 1982, pp. 1815 - 1824.

10.

11.

12.

PiUeggi, DJ., Chandra, N.H.. Emanuel, A.E., "Prediction

of Harmonic Voltages in Distribution Systems," IEEE
Transaction on Power Apparatus and System, Vol.
PAS-100, No. 3, March 1981, pp. 1307-1313.
McGranaghan, M.F., Dugan, R.C., and Sponsler, W.L.
"Digital Simulation of Distribution System Frequency-Response Characteristics," IEEE Transaction
on Power Apparatus and Systems, Vol. PAS-100. No. 3,
March 1981.

Sharma V.K. and Fleming RJ, Harmonic Analysis of

Power Transmission Network in the Frequency Domain,"
Second International Conference on Harmonics in power
Systems Proceedings, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada,
October 1986.

13.

Szabados, B.. and Lee, J., "Harmonic Impedance

Measurements on Transformers," IEEE Transaction on
Power Apparatus and Systems, PAS-100, No. 12,
December 1981, pp. 5020-5026.

14.

Stag& G.W., and El-Abiad, AH., "Computer Methods in

Power System Analysis," McGraw-Hill Book Company,

New York, 1968.

Vinay Sharma (S'81-M'83) was born in Gurgaon, India, on

December 7, 1957. He received the B.Sc. degree in electrical
engineering from Panjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, India,
in 1979 and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of
Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada, in 1983 and 1989,
respectively.
At the present time he is Design Engineer with Cambrian
Engineering Limited, Saskatoon, Canada. From 1987 to 1989 he
was Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Electrical Engineering and
a member of Power System Research Group, University of
Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada. His main interest is in the
area of power electronics and control theory.
Dr. Sharma is a Professional Engineer in the province of
Saskatchewan, Canada.
Ronald J. Fleming (M '63-SM '79) was born in Saskatchewan,
Canada, on February 28, 1930. He received the B.E., M.Sc., and
Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from University of
Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada, in 1955, 1961, and 1968,
respectively.
At the present time he is Professor Emeritus in the Dept. of
Electrical Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Canada.
Until 1989, he was Head and Professor of Electrical Engineering
and a member of Power System Research Group at the
University of Saskatchewan. His field of interest is in the area of
power system and plant modelling and control.
Dr. Fleming is a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada,
a member of the Canadian Society of Electrical Engineering, and
a member of the Association of Professional Engineers of
Saskatchewan.

Leo Niekamp (M '80) was born in Saskatchewan, Canada on

Februaly 21, 1950. He received the B.Sc. degree in electrical
engineering from the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK,
Canada, in 1972.
From 1973 to 1979 he worked as plant and underground electrical
engineer in the mining industry, responsible for power distribution
and controls, and ac/dc converters for large dc drives. Since 1979
he has been with The Cambrian Engineering Group Limited, and
has been working on ac/dc converter systems for electrolytic
process. At the present time he is Manager, of Electrical
Engineering Department. Presently he is pursuing Master's work
at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada.
Mr. Niekamp is a Professional Engineer in the province of
Saskatchewan, and is a licensee in the provinces of Alberta and
Manitoba, Canada.

1706

Discussion
Y. Baghzouz (University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV): The authors are to
be commended for their contribution in the area of harmonic penetration
studies. They presented an algorithm based on what is referred to as the
extended current injection method which was introduced in Ref. [lo].
Comments on the items that follows will be greatly appreciated.
The algorithm of Ref. [lo] is numerically stable and converges very
rapidly (within 4 or 5 iterations); however, the results may not be very
accurate since it does not check the energy balance at the converter
terminals as pointed out by the authors. It would be interesting to compare
(through an example) the quality of the results and the computational effort
of the extended current injection method and the algorithm presented by
the authors.
When modeling network elements, it was pointed out that the transformer model presented in [13] was used. However, this reference concludes that there is no generalized formula for the frequency variation of
the shunt elements. Furthermore, the fundamental-frequency shunt
impedance and harmonic currents caused by core nonlinearity vary with
the transformer voltage. It is not clear how these factors are taken into
account in the harmonic penetration program reported generalized.
In order to determine the points of maximum heating and insulation
stress along transmission lines, the authors used a number of cascaded
*-networks that is equal to half of the harmonic order. Such a model may
result in unacceptable computation time, especially when higher frequency
harmonics are considered in the analysis. Efficient algorithms are available
for computing maximum rms currents and peak voltages along transmission lines under both balanced [A] and unbalanced [B] conditions. These
algorithms require only the knowledge of the harmonic voltages and
currents at the receiving end of the line.
Finally, it is not clear how the authors defined the voltage distortion
factor. It appears that they defined this quantity as unity minus the
commonly used definition of distortion factor, i.e.,

are similar except for the difference in final checking of energy

balance. Our experience shows that due to volt-ampere loading
of the rectifier, the fundamental bus voltage at the converter is
affected. We fully agree that it will be a worthwhile exercise to
compare the two algorithms in terms of results and the
computational burden. These efforts will be pursued.
The transformer model used in the algorithm is based upon the
model proposed in References [9] and [13]. Mr. Baghzouz
correctly pointed out that there is no generalized formula for
the frequency dependence nature of the shunt impedance. Due
to lack of this formula, the shunt branch was considered
monotonically increasing with the frequency. This linearization
is valid for lower order harmonics. The harmonic current of
the magnetising current of the transformers were injected as a
current vector. The values of current harmonics were obtained
from field measurements and were estimated for the IEEE
RBTS Test system.
Regarding other remarks stated by Mr. Baghzouz, we offer
following observations:
1.

Cascaded equivalent pi networks were used to represent

long transmission lines in the proposed algorithm. This
was done to develop a comprehensive tool to
accommodate both harmonic current injection
computations and voltage profile calculations. The
proposed algorithm is especially useful where no
information exists as to the harmonic current injection
into the system. We agree that algorithms given in
reference [A] and [B] are computationally efficient if the
receiving end harmonic currents and voltages are
available. While the computation burden of the
proposed algorithm is indeed increased due to cascaded
pi network, as we reported in the paper, sparse matrices
and sparse algorithm can be used extensively to
minimise the computational efforts.

2.

Definition of the distortion factors used in the paper is

based upon the IEEE definition, i.e.

where V , and V,, are the rms fundamental and n-th harmonic voltages.
The above definition, however, does not conform with the vertical scale of
Fig. 8.
References
[A] Y. Baghzouz and 0. T. Tan, Computation of Maximum RMS

[B]

Current and Peak Voltage on Transmission Lines Under Nonsinusoidal Conditions, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol.
PWRD-1, NO. 3, July, 1986, pp. 266-72.
Y . Baghzouz and 0. T. Tan, Maximum Heating and Insulation
Stress on Untransposed Transmission Lines with Unbalanced Harmonic Distortion, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol.
PWRD-2, No. 1, Jan., 1987, 256-61.

Manuscript received February 17, 1991,

V. SHARMA and L. NIEKAMP The authors would like to

thank Mr. Yahia Baghzouz for his comments and questions. As
our results indicate, iterative method of checking energy
balance at the converter node yields more realistic harmonic
current injection from that node. This is especially important
where no measured data is available from the field
measurements. Our algorithm uses a similar converter model
as reported in Reference [lo] and inner loops of our algorithm

DFv

vl/J(

... v,>

= 1,2,

For the test reported in section 4.2.1, the 5th, 7th, llth,
and 13th harmonic voltages at Bus 2 are 0.070, 0.0340,
0.030, 0.024 per unit respectively for a converter load of
16.5 MW. With fundamental voltage of 1 per unit at
Bus 2, the voltage distortion factor is 0.9963 as shown in
Figure 8.
Finally we would like to draw attention of the reader to a
typographical mistake. Table 1 gives the results computed by
the authors and documented results presented in reference [l],
[[7] and [SI instead of [l], [3] and [SI as reported in the paper.
Manuscript received J u l y 2, 1991