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IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol. 11, No. 4, October 1996

AN AREA SUBSTATION LOAD MODEL IN THE PRESENCE OF HARMONICS

R. Mancini, Z. Zabar (SM), L. Birenbaum (SM), E. Levi (SM), *J. Hajagos and **S. Kalinowsky (SM)
Polytechnic University, 6 Metrotech Center, Brooklyn, NY 11201
*Long Island Lighting Company
175 E. Old Country Rd., Hicksville, NY 11801
Abstract: A computer program is described which
simulates the effects of harmonics introduced at the
distribution level (13.8kV/120 or 277V) by non-linear
loads and which can be integrated into existing loadflow codes. Each device is represented by a table of
harmonics (amplitude and phase) of the current when
energized by a sinusoidal voltage. For simplicity, it is
assumed that the current waveform remains unchanged
when the applied voltage becomes "slightly" distorted
by the harmonic components of the current. An
estimate is made of the error caused by this
assumption.

INTRODUCTION
This study was motivated by the desire to find a
simple way to account for the effects of harmonics
introduced by non-linear loads. The use of non-linear
loads is increasing in residential, commercial and
industrial applications. The harmonic content of
currents supplying these non-linear loads is quite high
for many devices, such as computers, TV sets and
other electronic equipment, which commonly use
switched-mode ac-dc power supplies; low-wattage
fluorescent lamps; uninterruptible power supplies
(UPS); and adjustable-speed drives (ASD). These
devices may easily draw currents whose total harmonic
distortion (THD) exceeds 40%. The THD is defined as

THD =

1,

where I1 is the magnitude of the fundamental

component, and the In are the magnitudes of the
harmonic components. For switched-mode power
supplies, the THD is about 100%. In turn, the current
harmonics, flowing through the line and transformer
impedances, also cause distortion of the voltages.
Although the higher current harmonics may be small,
the line and transformer reactances are proportional to
frequency, so that voltage harmonics may become
appreciable.
96 WM 124-8 PWRD A paper recommended and approved by the IEEE
Transmission and Distribution Committee of the IEEE Power Engineering
Society for presentation at the 1996 IEEWPES Winter Meeting, ~ a n ~ a 21ry
25, 1996, Baltimore, MD. Manuscript submitted August 1, 1994; made
available for printing December 5 , 1995.

**Consolidated Edison of New York

4 Irving Place, New York, NY 10003
PRACTICAL EFFECTS OF HARMONICS
The presence of harmonics in the current causes a
lowering of the power factor (ratio of real power to voltamperes). For example, for switched-mode power
supplies, the power factor is less than 0.6. With equal
power, low power faclor means high currents, which
translate to higher line losses for the utility. In the
neutral of a 4-wire, 3-phase system, the 3rd (and other
triplen) harmonic currents of the individual phases add
directly, since they are zero-sequence, causing loss,
heating, and premature aging of insulation.
Transformers are seriously affected by harmonics.
In delta-connected transformers, although triplen
harmonics are absent from line currents, they do
circulate in the windings themselves, causing additional
heating. As a result, with large nonlinear loads, these
transformers must be de-rated to compensate for this
effect [l].
Capacitors are affected by the presence of
harmonics in the voltage, since they cause harmonic
currents wCV to flow, which may cause their rated kVA
values to be exceeded. If the voltage distortion is
sufficiently bad, then the resulting harmonic currents
cause the fuses that pirotect the capacitors to open, or,
if not, they may be damaged.
TYPICAL NONLINEAR LOADS
In a typical residence, one may find several
television sets, a VCR, a computer, and a stereo. All of
these devices commonly use ac-dc power supplies,
which consist, in essence, of a full-wave rectifier
feeding a capacitor in parallel with the load. The
continuous charging and discharging of the capacitor
causes the current to rise in sharp peaks, as in Fig.
l(a), which shows the input current waveshape for an
Apple Macintosh SE. This waveform was recorded with
a Tektronix 602A digital signal analyzer. Figure l(b)
shows the corresponding harmonic spectrum.
The current is seen to be rich in odd harmonics,
with a THD of about '120%. The crest factor (ratio of
peak to rms value) for this waveform is about 2.5; for a
sine wave. it is 1.414.
For street lighting, lamps containing sodium or
vapor are Often
and are a'so nonlinear'
In commercial
industrial locations, the use Of
adjustable-speed drives is being encouraged by major
utilities through rebate programs. This is so because
ASDs are more efficient than regular drives [2]. In the
case of pumps, a change of frequency accompanied by
a change in input voltage adjusts the speed, and hence

0885-8977/96/$05.00

0 1996 IEEE

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The harmonic spectrum of the current is also

sensitive to the shape of the input voltage. This is
especially evident when a power factor correcting
capacitor is present in parallel with the load, as in the
case of a GE 70W street lamp assembly.

0.04

Fia. l ( a L

.I

Input current waveshape of a Mac SE

computer (one cycle 63 60Hz). y-axis
scale: 500mV/div means 0.5Ndiv.
0.02

0.50 7,

Jri

1
1

-0.02
0'0 -

4.04

4.01

'

I
0.00

'

'

0.01

1
0.01

'

I
0.02

'

0.02

Fia. 2(a). Input current waveshape of a Siemens ASD

with a 100HP pump (one cycle @I 60Hz). yaxis scale: 0.01 means 25A.

iOO.00 7
I

0.00

10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

Fia. 1(b). Harmonic spectrum for the waveform in Fig.

1(a). y-axis: amperes; x-axis: harmonic
index.
the characteristics of the pump. Figure 2(a) shows a
typical current waveform for a Siemens ASD, used with
a 100 HP water pump, and Fig. 2(b) shows its harmonic
spectrum. Here the THD varies from 40% to about
8O%, depending on the mechanical load. For lighter
loads, the harmonic distortion is at its highest. The
dominant harmonics are the non-triplens, i.e., 5, 7, 11,
13, 17, 19, etc. [ 3 ] .

Three-phase rectifiers are used not only in ASDs,

but also in ac/dc converters, in uninterruptible-power
supplies (UPS), and dc motor controllers. Their current
waveforms resemble that of Fig. 2(a).
The harmonic spectrum of the current is often a
function of the magnitude of the input voltage, but no
general rule can be formulated for this dependence.
With decreasing voltage, the THD decreases in ironcored devices, but tends to increase in devices which
include electric arcs and switching events.

no

Fia. 2Cb).

10.00

.-,"
-_

L I

30 00

40 00

Harmonic spectrum of Fig. 2(a). y-axis:

amperes; x-axis: harmonic index.

Although the harmonic spectrum of particular

circuits can be obtained by means of available
computer programs, the dynamics of electrical arcs in

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general defy representation and the utility is often

confronted with devices whose circuits are not easily
obtained. For this reason we found it expedient to
resort to an experimental approach.
DEVICE REPRESENTATION
Our approach for representing nonlinear devices is
based on the Fourier series for their current waveforms.
Each device was tested to obtain recordings of the input
current at six different voltage levels. This is needed
because of the sensitivity of the harmonic content of
many non-linear loads to the input voltage. For a 120V
device, we used 105V, 11OV, 115V, 120V, 125V and
130V. For a 277V device, we used 256V, 263V, 270V,
277V, 284V and 291V. The input voltage, in each case,
was as distortion-free as possible. The assumption
made here is that, for most devices, small distortions in
the shape of the input voltage do not affect the current
waveshape significantly. This assumption avoids the
need for getting a detailed, exact representation of a
device, such as a set of V-l characteristics, for every
possible magnitude and shape of input voltage [4] and
greatly simplifies the simulation method, to be
described below. Each current was then Fourieranalyzed to obtain the amplitudes and phases for each
harmonic through the 30th. Thus, the current for each
device was represented by 30 amplitude entries and 30
phase entries at each of 6 voltage levels, i.e., by a total
of 360 data entries.
Figure 3 shows the laboratory test setup used to
obtain the device Fourier models. A 1:l transformer is
used to isolate the load from the power system, and the
variac varies the voltage from 105 to 130V. The load is
connected to the output of the variac.

where each point is the time and value of the waveform.

A total of six waveshapes are stored for each device, on
a 3.5 inch floppy disk, in an ASCII file. This data is then
fed into a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) program,
written in C language. The six DFTs are then
assembled into a table of Fourier data, to be used in the
harmonics simulator prlogram.
SIMULATION METHOD
The purpose of the program is to allow load-flow
studies to include the effects of harmonics particularly
on the customer supply voltage. Figure 4 shows the
power system that is being simulated, where it is
assumed that the three-phase load is balanced and it is
understood that the impedances are in per-unit.

V,,b = 13.8 kV

AVfeeder

Substation

Feeder
Impedance
Distribution

Current probe

r----1
I

r---i

r----1
I

I120Vac 1

Voltag. probes

Fia. 3.

Laboratory test setup used to obtain Fourier

models of different devices (loads).

The voltage and current waveforms are then

obtained, using the Tektronix 602A digital signal
analyzer, which has storage capability. The zero
crossing of the input voltage serves as the reference for
the current. Only the current waveshape is of interest,
so it is stored. The waveshape recorded from the
signal analyzer is represented by 1024 data points,

Fia. 4.

One-line diagram of the power system being

simulated.

The one-line diagram in Fig. 4 starts with the

substation. The balse voltage of the substation
(assumed sinusoidal) is 13.8kV. Below the substation
is the feeder, described by its impedance. After the
feeder comes the distribution bus. At the distribution
bus, there are two delta-wye transformers, which step
down the 13.8kV voltage to 120V and 277V. The
equivalent transformer impedances are about 0.1 0 p.u.
The loads are at the bottom of the one-line diagram.
These loads can be changed in the program.
Referring to Fig. 4 , the load buses are connected to
the substation through impedances.
If these
impedances were zero, we would have an ideal
conductor, and the voltage waveshapes at the load
buses would be distortion-free, regardless of the current
waveshape. With impedances in the network, however,
the distorted currents required by the loads cause
additional voltage drops across the network. These

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voltage drops are the source of voltage harmonics.

Therefore, our approach is based on calculating the
voltage drop AV caused by each harmonic component
of the line current flowing through the line and
transformer impedances. Their inductive reactances
must be calculated for each harmonic frequency, while
the resistive portion remains the same (neglecting skin
effect).
In the case of deltalwye distribution
transformers, the triplen harmonics are not present in
the feeder, and therefore are eliminated from the
simulation. Since it is usually difficult to ascertain the
zero sequence reactance of the transformer and of the
neutral line, the nameplate leakage reactance of the
transformer is used in their place.
As a first step, before considering the effects of
harmonics, we need to determine the voltage (assumed
sinusoidal) at the distribution buses, for the given
substation voltage of 13.8 kV. A procedure is employed
that was suggested by one customarily used by
Consolidated Edison for linear loads. We start by
guessing initial values; for instance: 120V and 277V.
At the 120V bus, we get the corresponding fundamental
currents in each load branch, by the use of look-up
tables, obtained previously by the DFT program, and
calculate the 60Hz reactive impedance. Now we
calculate the voltage drop due to this impedance, using
phasors. The distribution bus voltage is now calculated,
by adding the line and transformer impedance voltage
drops to the 120V bus voltage, to obtain V f l , with angle
8 f l . Next, we do the same for the 277V branch, and,
we get Vf2, with angle 8f2. Since these two voltages
must be the same in magnitude and phase, a first
comparison to make is to check if V f l is equal to Vf2. If
not, we increase the 277V bus voltage by l V , and
recalculate the transformer impedance drop and Vf2.
The procedure is repeated until V f l and Vf2 are equal.
At this point we can proceed to make the distribution
bus the zero-degree reference, since this is the
common bus between the 120V and 277V branches.
This is done by re-setting the angles of all the currents
in line 1 by the angle 8f1, and similarly re-setting the
angles of the currents in line 2 by the angle 8f2. Below
is an outline of the procedure used for this step, and for
the subsequent steps, to get the fundamental load
voltages.

calculate distribution voltage due to V L ~ Vf2

,
compare V f l with Vf2; if equal in magnitude, make
the distribution bus the zero-degree reference
(make Of1 and 8f2 equal); if not, increase 277V
bus by 1V and go to step 5
9. get total current in equivalent feeder
10. calculate the feeder impedance drop
11. calculate the substation voltage, Vsub,calc
12. Compare Vsub,calc with vsub, given: if equal,
continue; if not, increase 120V bus by 1V and go
to step 2

7.

8.

The quantity vs& is assumed to have a base value

of 13.8kV. When the procedure just described has
been completed, we have the substation voltage, and
the 120V and 277V bus voltages, and can proceed to
calculate the voltage distortion (and the voltage
waveforms) at the distribution bus, and at the two load
buses. Note that the substation voltage is assumed to
be sinusoidal. Alternatively, these voltages could be
obtained from a load-flow code.
For the known load voltages (using the procedure
outlined above), look up the corresponding set of
current harmonics, and calculate the voltage drops
across the impedances separately, for each frequency.
The reactive part of the impedances must be recalculated for each harmonic frequency. Once this has
been done, the shapes of the load voltages can be
plotted in the time domain, and the total harmonic
distortion can be calculated.
Any high-level computer program could have been
used to write the program. In this case, C was chosen
because of its readability and popularity. Figure 5
shows a simple diagram of the program and its
associated input files.
INPUT DATA FILES

computerdat
-fluorescent
[tv dat

I asd dat

3.
4.
5.
6.

start with an initial VL1 and V L and

~ vsub
get current in 120V branch for given VL1
calculate distribution transformer impedance
voltage drop, A V L ~
calculate distribution voltage due to VL1, V f l
get current in 277V branch for given V L ~
calculate transformer impedance voltage drop,
AVL2

090GRAM

tv dat
asddat

30 120

dat 20 120
30 277

hatmonic
program

(120V
toutput
and 277V bus
waveshapes)

[U
I

initial 277V bus voltage

13 BKV bus vonage
RUN-TIME INPUT

Outline for establishina load voltaaes

1.
2.

CONTROL FILE

lcomputerdat

Fia. 5.

Input and output of the program

The inputs to the program are the load models and

the control file (refer to Fig. 5). The load models are
simply the set of Fourier amplitudes and phase angles
of the currents for the 6 selected voltage levels. In our
case, the current goes up to the 30th harmonic.
Referring to the control file in Fig. 5 the first column
contains the name of the load model data file. The
second column contains the portion of total volt-

amperes (in percent) that the load draws. The total

percentage in the second column must add up to 100%.
Finally, the third column specifies the bus the load is
connected to (120 or 277 bus).
The program itself is written in a structured style,
with the use of functions. Each step of the program, no
matter how trivial, was implemented in independent
functions. Doing so makes future changes easy and
makes the program easy to understand from the source
code. The main part of the program, which calls the
functions, is very compact and simple to follow.

--

2017

Exact solution for ew;i

With the switch open, the
source is applied to the load through a series
impedance. The resultant current is given by
for i S I A :

I =

w(L+M,)

Vsin cot

CALCULATION OF ERROR
A fundamental assumption made with our method
is that the voltage at the load bus is initially a sine wave.
In other words, whether the load voltage (12OV) is a
pure sine wave or a slightly distorted wave, in our
model the load currents are presumed to be the same.
Practically, both voltage and current affect each other.
The load voltage is distorted due to the voltage drop in
the distribution network. A second assumption is that it
is satisfactory to find this (60 Hz) load bus voltage by
using only the fundamental component of the distorted
current. To estimate the error involved in our procedure
consider Fig. 6, which shows a one-line diagram of a
network with only one load bus.

Fia. 7(a). Equivalent circuit of one-line diagram of Fig. 6

Fia. 7(b). Nonlinear load characteristic used in error

calculation
i .Y

11
Fia. 6.

Load

One-line diagram of system used in error

calculation

Figure 6 is reduced to Fig. 7(a) for the sake of

clarity for the load represented by the nonlinear
characteristic given in Fig. 7(b). This approximates the
magnetization curve of common iron-cored devices,
such as transformers and motors. Although not evident,
this model leads to sharply peaked current waveforms.
These are not unique to iron-core devices: they also
resemble the current waveform of Fig. 1(a),
characteristic of switched-power-supply electronic
devices.

M2 - MI
Vsin cot + f o r i 2 IA: i = ~- 1
L + M , IA
w(L + M : )
The load voltage
d(Li)
eCole
= V cos cot - dt
is then given by

f o r i 5 I,:

(3)

(4)

eco,e=V (L :4k11)
1
cos a t

f o r i 2 IA: eco,<=V
(6)

First, with the switch

Approximate solution for e-;
closed, the voltage applied to the load is sinusoidal.
The current is then given by
f o r i _< zA:
(7)

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(It is noted that i is larger than it should be, since L is

being ignored. Hence this estimate will yield a
pessimistic value for the error.)
The fundamental comDonent of the current i is

where TAis the time found from the condition

V sin o T A= w M , Z,
(10)
Now, with the switch open, Eq. (4) may be used to find
ecore.
Assume that OTA = 7d4, which is a conservative
assumption, because it means that in one-eighth of a
cycle, the magnetizing current in the nonlinear core
reaches the knee of the $4 curve; i.e., the transformer is
more heavily-saturated than normal, with a
corresponding higher distortion of the current. The
error in the 120 V bus voltage, defined as
-eco,~upprox~
ERR =

voltage, the predicted THD is about 7%, and the

measured waveform indicates a THD of about 5%. The
discrepancy in the voltage is mainly due to the
difference between the two current waveforms. The
delayed peaking in the current waveform is due to the
series inductance. Thus, the predicted waveforms are
seen to be more distorted than the measured ones.
This is a desirable situation since the effects of the
harmonics were not underestimated by the method
used here.
I

-.

_ -

eco,~exacti

is given by

ecorjexucti

for i IIA:

ERR=-L
f o r i 2 IA:

M,(M,

-M ,

(11)

+ L ) (0.5 + i)
+ L M2(0.5 MlM,(L

(12)

Fia. 8(a) Bus current waveforms

4)

4)

A)

M2(M, - M , + L ) (0.5 - + L M,(0.5 +

ERR=-L
MlM2(L + M l )

(13)

8)

Assuming that M2 = M1/2 and that L = 0.1 MI, the error

in the 120V bus is about 8% for l < l ~ , and approximately
2% for i2lA. These errors are not objectionable in view
of the uncertainties about the actual load distribution.
ACTUAL VS. PREDICTED RESULTS

Fia. 8(b). Bus voltage waveforms

A laboratory test was conducted to compare results

predicted by our program with experiment. Three
parallel-connected nonlinear devices were used as
loads: a 90 W Mitsubishi 21" color TV, a 40 W Apple
Macintosh SE and a 2-lamp (40 W each) rapid-start
fluorescent fixture with solid-state ballast. The lab
setup was similar to the one used for testing individual
appliances (Fig. 3) with the exception of the variac,
which was replaced by a series reactance of 2.5 mH,
having negligible resistance. The purpose of the
inductor was to simulate network impedance. The input
voltage was 125 V. Figure 8 shows waveforms of the
line current (a) and load voltage (b) for the predicted
(solid line) and actual (dashed line) cases.
It can be seen that for both the current and the
voltage, the agreement between the predicted and
measured results is quite good. The peak of the
measured current wave is seen to be shifted by about
20 degrees to the right of the predicted peak. For the

CONCLUDING COMMENTS
A method for predicting the effect of nonlinear loads
on the waveshape of the customer voltage was
reported here. The method utilizes a computer data
bank of Fourier series representations of the current in
each load unit, as a function of the input voltage. The
basic assumption is that the Fourier series
representation of the current drawn by a device, with a
distorted voltage, can be approximated by that for a
sine-wave voltage. In most cases, it represents a
conservative solution.
A laboratory setup was built to test the validity of
the simulation program. The predicted line current and
load voltage waveforms were in close agreement with
the measured results. A field study is now in progress.
As the next step in this study, the simulation code
will be integrated into a classical load-flow program.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was done under a grant from the Long
Island Lighting Company (LILCO), the Empire State
Electric Energy Research Corporation (ESEERCO),
and the New York State Electric Research
Development Agency (NYSERDA), with the help of
Consolidated Edison of New York (Con-Edison).
REFERENCES

[l] W.M. Grady, R. Chan, "Harmonics Modeling in the

Residential Sector," Proceedings: Ist International

Conference on Power Quality, December 1992;pp
B14.1 - B14.4 (EPRI publication).
[2] E. Levi, Polyphase Motors - A Direct Approach to
Their Design, John Wiley & Sons, 1984;pp 18-26.
[3] E.W. Kimbark, Direct Current Transmission, John
Wiley & Sons, 1971 ; ch. 8.
[4] D. Xia, G.T. Heydt, "Harmonic Power Flow Studies:
Part I - Formulation and Solution," E Trans. on
Power Apparatus and Systems, Vol.101,No. 6,pp
1257 - 1265,June 1983.
BIOGRAPHIES

Raffaele Mancini was born in Brooklyn, New York. He

received his BSEE and MSEE in 1993 and 1994 from
Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, NY (Brooklyn Poly).
His main fields of interest are power systems and
computer networks. He is currently employed at Allied
Signal Aerospace in Teterboro, New Jersey. He is
pursuing a Master's Degree in Computer,Science at
Polytechnic University.
Zivan Zabar is Professor of Electrical Engineering at the
Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, NY (Brooklyn Poly).
He received his PhD from the Technion - Israel Institute
of Technology in 1972. His areas of interest are linear
propulsion, electrical power conversion systems, and
power electronics. He has five patents and about 50
papers published in technical journals. He is a senior
member of the IEEE, and a member of Sigma Xi.

Leo Birenbaum is Professor of Electrical Engineering

Emeritus at the Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, NY
(Brooklyn Poly). He received the BEE from the Cooper
Union in 1946,the MEE from the Polytechnic in 1958,
and the MS (Physics) from the Polytechnic in 1974. He
has worked and published in the areas of microwaves;
biological effects of electromagnetic fields; linear
motors; and power distribution. He is a (senior) member
of the IEEE, the New York Academy of Sciences, and
the Bioelectromagnetics Society.
Enrico Levi is Professor of Electrophysics Emeritus at
the Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, NY (Brooklyn
Poly). His fields of interest are electrophysics and
electromechanical power conversion systems. He is
the author of two books, chapters in three others and

about 60 scientific papers. He was granted three

patents. He is a senior rnember of the IEEE.

Janos T. Hajagos is Supervisor of Transmission

Planning Section at the Long Island Lighting Company
(LILCO). He received his BSEE from Newark College
of Engineering in 1965, and his MBA degree from
Adelphi University in 1969. He is responsible for
planning and assessing the status of both the bulk and
subtransmission systems. He is also responsible for
evaluating and maintaining the planning tools used by
the Section. He is curreritly involved in the management
of several R&D projects conducted under the auspices
of the Empire State Electric Energy Research
Corporation (ESEERCO) and LILCO. He is a licensed
Professional Engineer in the State of New York.

Serge Kalinowsky is a principal engineer in the

Electrical Planning department of the Consolidated
Edison Company of New York, Inc. He received the
BSEE degree from Massachusetts Institute of
Technology in Cambridge, MA in 1954,and his MS in
mathematics from Courant Institute of Mathematics of
New York University in 1963. His fields of interest are
in load modeling, stability analysis, system restoration,
system reliability and voltage control. He is a senior
member of the IEEE and has a Professional
Engineering License for New York State.