ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF AN ACTIVE POWER FILTER

USING QUAD-SERIES VOLTAGE SOURCE PWM CONVERTERS

H.AKAGI, Y.TSUKAMOT0 and A.NABAE

Nagaoka University of Technology
( Formerly, Technological University of Nagaoka)
Nagaoka,940-21,Japan

Abstract -The modeling, analysis and design of an ac- Harmonic Generator

tive power filter using quad-series voltage source PWM
converters are presented. Some instantaneous space
vectors of voltage and current are used for the
analysis. A vector differential equation derived in
this paper makes it easy to achieve the analysis and
design of the active power filter. Experimental
waveforms obtained from a prototype active power filter
of rating 7kVA, along with simulation waveforms, are
included to verify the theory presented in this paper.

INTRODUCTION I

Active power filters have been studied to compen-
sate for harmonics in industrial power systems since
their basic compensation principle was proposed in 1971
by Sasaki and Machidall]. In the beginning of the
1970's, however, there was almost no advance in active
power filters beyond a laboratory testing stage,
because circuit technology was too poor to practically
implement the compensation principle. Over the last
5-10 years, a remarkable progress of fast switching
devices such as power transistors and static induction
thyristors has spurred interest in the study of active
power filters for harmonic compensation[2]-[6].
In addition to sophisticated PWM control tech-
nology, the development of the theoretical study has
made it possible to put them into a practical testing
stage. Nowadays, an active power filter using voltage
source PWM converters is considered as a new harmonic
compensator in the coming generation. It is far
superior in the compensation performance to a conven-
tional passive LC filter, because a distinct difference
exists in the compensation principle between the two.
Fig.1 shows the basic compensation system of the
active power filter which is controlled in a closed
loop manner to actively shape the source current is
into the sinusoid. That is, it injects the compensating
current i, into the source to cancel the harmonics con-
tained in the load current iL. Accordingly, any finite
amount of impedance in the power system, which is
usually predominantly inductive, does not influence the
compensation characteristics.
The analysis of a voltage source PWM inverter for
ac motor drives has been shown in many papers. When it
is used as an active power filter, it is quite same in
the power circuit as the active power filter. It is,
however, different in the behavior because the active
power filter acts as a non-sinusoidal current source.
Therefore, the analysis and design of such an inverter
are not available in the literature. The purpose of
this paper is to model the active power filter and to
present the analysis leading to the design. The primary
intent is to show that one can find a satisfactory
design, based on an interesting graph which relates the
performance to various design parameters.
Active Power Filter (Fig.2)
Fig.1 Basic compensation system
Power Circuit
The power circuit consists of four three-phase
transformers for quad-series connection, four three-
phase voltage source PWM converters using 24 power
transistors and a dc capacitor Cd. The primary windings
of the transformers are connected to each other in
series. Each transformer has a winding ratio of 1:2.
The primary voltage is 50V and the secondary lOOV,
because the line-to-line voltage of the source is 2OOV
(=50Vx4). The reason for adopting the quad-series vol-
tage source PWM converters as the power circuit is to
suppress the harmonics caused by switching operation
without increasing the switching frequency, paying at-
tention to practical applications. The voltage rating
of the power transistors used here is 450V and the cur-
rent rating 25A [61.
Control Circuit
As shown in Fig.2, the control circuit consists of
the calculation for the harmonic current within the
dashed line, the dc capacitor voltage control, and the
current control for the quad-series voltage source PWM
converters. The calculation circuit for the harmonic
current is divided into three calculation circuits. In
the calculation circuit for pL and qL, the three-phase
voltages and the three-phase load currents are trans-
formed into the d-q orthogonal coordinates by the fol-
lowing equations:

SYSTEM CONFIGURATION L ILW J

Fig.2 shows the detailed system configuration of The instantaneous real power p and the instan-
an active power filter using quad-series voltage source taneous imaginary power q, are give; by
PWM converters of rating 7kVA.
88CH2565-0/88/0000-0867$01.OO @ 1988 IEEE
4 i-
2OOV 50Hz

cd

Fig.3 Equivalent circuit to the active

I Current Control
Circuit
power filter shown in Fig.2

L -----__--_-__j
___
5 1 0 1 1/3 1 -2/3 1/3
Fig.2 System configuration of the active power filter
6 1 0 1 1 -2/3 I 1/3 1/3
7 1 1 1 1 l o / o l o

(3)

The physical meaning of pL and qL was already discussed

in detail in reference [ 7 ] . In equation (3), pL and q
are decomposed into two instantaneous real ani
imaginary powers, respectively (7)
- -
P, = F L + P, (4)

- - The current control circuit and the control circuit for

the dc capacitor voltage was already described in
9, = 9,+ 9, (5)
references [ 6 1 and [81, respectively.

where i, and q are the dc components corresponding to

the fundamental of the load current, and 7 and 6 are
the ac components corresponding to the harmonic cur-
rent. In the active power filter for harmonic compensa-
tion, p* and q * are given by
Accordingly, the calculation circuit for p* and q* con-
sists of two high pass filters with same or different
cutoff frequencies. The design of the high pass filters
has a great effect on the compensation performance in
transient states as well as in steady states, as shown
in reference [8l.
In the calculation circuit for isu, i&
the following calculations are achieved.
THE ANALYSIS OF CURRENT CONTROLLABILITY
An equivalent circuit to the active power filter
is introduced to simplify the following analysis. Fig.3
shows the equivalent circuit in which the power tran-
sistors and diodes are replaced by three ideal
switches. Fig.3 is equal in current controllability to
Fig.2, provided that the dc capacitor voltage in Fig.3
is ZVcd, taking into account the winding ratio of the
four three-phase transformers.
The Vector Differential Equation of Voltage and Current
As shown in Table 1, the combination of the on-off
state of the three switches gives eight kinds of modes,
considering it as a binary. By introducing the switch-
and i* ing functions Su, Sv and Sw, three differential equa-
cw' tions of voltage and current are derived from Fig.3.
868
 d

Expressing the parentheses on the right side of equa-

tion (14) as eo, the following simple equation is ob-
tained [ 9 I.

dAi,
L = e, - V(!/)

where,
d i:
e o = L - + e
dt
l(0, - 2
m Vrd In equation (15), eo is the voltage vector which lets
the active power filter inject the actual compensating
Fig.4 Discrete voltage vectors of V(k) currents equal to their reference. Equation (lj),
therefore, means that a voltage deviation between e,
and v ( k ) produces Aic.
djcu
L -
dt = -eu + Su(k)*2Vcd
Simulation Results
dicv
L -= -e .t Sv(k).2Vcd Fig.5 shows some waveforms obtained by digital
dt computer simulation under three different conditions to
discuss the current controllability of the active power
dic w filter. The following reference signals for p and q
L -=
dt -ew + Sw(k)-2Vcd were given by an external generator.

condition (a) p*=O, q*=7/'Tsin6wt (kIVA)

The use of instantaneous space vectors changes equa- e condition (b) p*=7fisin6wt (kW), q*=O
tions ( 8 ) , (9) and (10) into the following single vec- condition (c) p*=-7fisin6wt (kW), q*=O
tor differential equation. where, w : line angular frequency.

d ic It is clear from equation (7) that the amplitudes

L dt = -e + V(k) (11) of 5th and 7th harmonic currents contained in isu, i*
and isw are quite equal under the above three cond;!
tions. In Fig.S(a), which corresponds to condition (a),
There exist the following relations between the space the actual compensating current icu follows its
vectors and the instantaneous values in each phase. reference isu very well. On the other hand, in Fig.j(b)

1I:
corresponding to condition (b), icu does not always
follow isu, but in Fig.j(c) icu follows i& relatively

1, = [ ]
iC d
icq
=m
I 1
0
-112 -1/2
4/2 -0/2
'CW
well. Why does such a distinct difference between Fig.5
(b) and (c) occur in current controllability under the
same condition except for the polarity of p*?

Fig.6 (a), (b) and (c) show the discrete vectors

e = [ 1 =
v(k) and the trajectory of eo, corresponding to Fig.5
(a), (b) and (c), respectively. Fig.(6) gives us the
answer to the above-mentioned question and the f o l -
lowing
labi 1 ity
important
.
information on current control-

(1). No error appears between is and i, whenever

"0
always exists inside the hexagon formed by the six
discrete vectors V(k).

(2). Whether e, always stays inside or not depends on

both the amplitude and phase of p* and q*.

(3). The current controllability for q* is better than

that for p* even in the same amplitude and phase.

Fig.4 shows the discrete voltage vectors of V(k)

(k=0,1, ...
7) expressed by the above equation. An er- DISCUSSION ON CURRENT CONTROLLABILITY
ror vector Ai, is defined as follows:
As already shown in Figs.5 and 6 , Ai, appears as
long as e, stays outside the hexagon. In the following,
the relation between the position of eo and the current
.* controllability is discussed in detail. Fig.7 shows the
where, 1, : reference compensating current vector eight discrete voltage vectors v(k) and a voltage vec-
i, : actual compensating current vector tor e o . Fig.8 shows the trajectory of A i , . The active
Sy substituting equation (13) into equation (ll), the power filter selects such a voltage vector V(k) among
following equation is derived. the eight that Ai, becomes a minimal vector on the
869
 .*
Ti F LCU eu
5
0
L
L

TI c V F

L
t W E
W E

Fig.5 Simulation waveforms

(b)

Fig.6 v(k) and eocorresponding to Fig.5

dAic
-1

' \. region i

Fig.7 Voltage vector diagram Fig.8 Current vector diagram

basis of the polarity of the error current in each
phase which is detected every a sampling interval of
time[6]. For example, if A i , exists in r e g i o n a a t the
sampling time, v(1) would be selected, and if A i , ex-
ists in region a, V ( 2 ) would be selected.
870
Now assume that eo exists in the position shown in
Fig.7. It is clear from equation (15) that A i c moves to
the direction of a vector expressed by eo -V(k). When
A i , enters region a,
V ( l ) would be selected, s o A i c
would move to region 0 . When A i c enters region 0 ,
V(3) would be selected, so Ai, would move to r e g i o n a .
A s a result, once Ai, enters r e g i o n a o r a , Ai, would
keep increasing along the boundary line between regions
Q a n d a . Therefore, Aicv does not increase though Aicu
and Ai,, increase.

If eo exists in such a special position that V(1)

is always selected, Ai, does not enter any other than antrollable
region 1 .In this case, all of the three error cur-
rents increase, thus getting out of control. Fig.9 A l l of t h e
Only U-phase O n l y U-phase
shows the summary of the analysis. controllable
three phases controllable
controllable
The digital computer simulation for the compensa-
tion system shown in Fig.1 was done to verify the
theory presented here under the following different
conditions; control- antrol-

condition (a) a=90, L=O.75mH

0 condition (b) a=3Oo, L=2.50mH
condition (c) =25', L=1.9OmH
where a : control angle of the three-phase
thyristor bridge converter. /"
c o n t rpb=\
ollable

Paying attention to the commutation interval of

time from the w-phase to u-phase, Fig.lO(a) shows that Fig.9 Current controllable region
Aicv remains zero except for switching ripples but Aicll
and Aicw keep increasing during the commutation.
Fig.lO(b) shows that all of Aicu, Aicv and Aicw keep

(b)
Fig.10 Simulation waveforms

commutation commutation
/
commutation +,!j

(b)

Fig.11 V(k) and eo corresponding to Fig.10

871
 GOO -
increasing but Fig.lO(c) shows that Aicw remains zero
but both Aicu and Aicv keep increasing. Fig.11 (a),
(b) and (c) show the discrete voltage vectors V(k) and
the trajectory of eo under the same above-mentioned /a=90"
conditions as Fig.10 (a), (b) and (c), respectively. An
interval of time when eo exists outside the hexagon
corresponds to a commutation. From comparison of
Figs.10 and 1 1 with Fig.9, it is clear that the theory
- 400 -
>
a= 30" I
I
v
\ I
of the current controllability agrees well with the b
simulation results. s"
200 -
A DESIGN OF THE ACTIVE POWER FILTER

The optimal design of the active power filter I

depends on the order, amplitude and phase of the har- 01 I I
monic current for which it would compensate. Hence, let 1 1.7 2 1/L
the compensation objective be the harmonic current Fig.12 Theoretical optimal voltage
generated by the three-phase thyristor bridge converter of the dc capacitor
of rating ZOkVA as shown in Fig.1.

In designing the active power filter, the fol-

lowing requirements are given in advance;

(1). the maximum voltage of the dc capacitor is 250V,

4t Experiment ,
which is limited by the voltage rating of the
power transistors used here,

(2). the maximum value of the average switching fre-

quency is 3.5kHz, from the viewpoint of losses,

( 3 ) . the commutation inductance of the thyristor bridge

converter, 2 is 1.3mH (20.4%, ZOOV, ZOkVA, 50Hz). "16d 200 240
Fig.12 shows the theoretical optimal voltage of vc, (V)
the dc capacitor vs. .%/L in the case that the control Fig.13 Average switching frequency
angle U varies from OF to 90. The definition of the
optimal voltage is such a minimum voltage that eo al-
ways exists inside the hexagon formed by V(k).

Fig.13 shows some experimental and simulation CONCLUSION

values of the average switching frequency vs. the dc
capacitor voltage. From the above-mentioned require-
ments, and Figs.12 and 13, an optimal value of the
reactor for suppressing switching ripples is given by
Z/L=1.7 i.e., L=0.75mH (11.8%)
If the optimal value Z/L=1.7 was selected in the case
of 2=0.32mH(S%) instead of requirement ( 3 ) , the actual
compensating current would follow its reference and re-
quirement (2) would be satisfied but requirement (1)
would not be met. On the other hand, if Z/L=0.24
(L=0.75mH) was selected, the dc capacitor voltage would
exceed 600V by 350V. These would not be paractical
designs.
Fig.14 (a), (b) and (c) show experimental
waveforms of iLU and i under the design parameters
2=1.3mI1, and L=0.75mI1, '?.e., Z/L=1.7 at the dc
capacitor voltage Vcd=170V, 200V and 230V, respec-
tively. Fig.15 shows simulation waveforms of isu under
the quite same conditions as Fig.14. The waveforms of
isu in Fig.14 and 15 agree well with each other. Fig.16
shows the discrete voltage vectors V(k) and the trajec-
tory of a voltage vector e o , corresponding to Figs.14
and 15. At Vcd=170V, the waveform of isu is not
sinusiodal as shown in Figs.l4(a) and 15(a) because the
compensating current does not follow its reference. In
this case, a part of the trajectory of eo exists out-
side the hexagon. At Vcd=230V, the compensating current
can follow its reference so that the waveform of isu
becomes a pure sinusiod except for the switching
ripples. In this case, all of eo exists inside the hex-
agon. Since the theoretical optimal voltage given by
Fig.12 is 206V, the waveform of i is an almost pure
sinusiod at VFd=200V. Thus Figs. lip 15 and 16 show
the verification of the design presented here.
872
Since harmonic compensation is the goal of an ac-
tive power filter using quad-series voltage source PWM
converter, it is important to achieve an optimal design
of various parameters which influence the compensation
performance, as well as to discuss the calculation cir-
cuit for isu, i* and is .
In this paper, a vector dif-
ferential equayyon was xerived, which relates the cur-
rent controllability to various design parameters for
an arbitrary compensating current.
An optimal design of the active power filter, the
compensation objective of which is a three-phase
thyristor bridge converter, was achieved on the basis
of the equation and finally verified by experimental
simulation waveforms.
REFERENCES
H.Sasaki and T.Machida, "A New Method to Eliminate
AC Harmonic Currents by Magnetic Compensation
-Considerations on Basic Design- ' I , IEEE Trans.
PAS, V01.90, pp2009, No.5, 1971.
H.Kawahira, T.Nakamura and S.Nakazawa, "Active
Power Filters", in Proc., JIEE IPEC-Tokyo, 1983,
pp981.
K.Komatsugi and T.Imura, "Harmonic Current Compen-
sator Composed of Static Power Converter",
IEEE/PESC, pp283, 1986.
M.Takeda et al, "Harmonic Current Compensation
with Active Filter", IEEE IAS Annual Meeting,
pp808, 1987.
 (c)
Fig.15 Simulation waveforms of isu

l-4
5ms ( C ) vCd=23ov

Fig.14 Experimental waveforms of iLu and isu

Fig.16 v(k) and eo corresponding
to Figs.14 and 15

(51 M.Kohata et al, "Compensator for Harmonics and

Reactive Power Using Static Induction Thyristors",
European Conference on Power Electronics and Ap-
plications, 1987.

(61 -_ of
H.Akagi, A.Nabae and S.Atoh, "Control Strategy
Active Power Filters Using Multiple Voltage Source
PWM converters", IEEE Trans. IAS, Vol.IA-22, No.3,
pp.460, 1986.
[7] H.Akagi, Y.Kanazawa and A.Nabae, "Instantaneous
Reactive Power ComPenSators Comprising Switching
Devices Without Energy Storage Components", IEEE
Trans. IAS, Vol.IA-20, pp.625, 1984.
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181 F.Z.Peng, H.Akagi, and A.Nabae, "A Study of Active
Power Filters Using Quad-Series Voltage Source PWM
Converters for Harmonic ComDensation". IEEE/PESC.
. ~~,
pp.204, 1987.
[9] A.Nabae, S.Ogasawara and H.Akagi, "A Novel Control
Scheme for Current-Controlled PWM Inverters", IEEE
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