IEEE ISIE 2006, July 9-12, 2006, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

A Three-Phase Shunt Active Power Filter for Damping of

Harmonic Propagation in Power Distribution Systems

Salem Rahmani('), Kamal Al-Haddad(2), Senior Member IEEE and Farhat Fnaiech(') Senior Member IEEE

Research group in Signal, Image and Intelligent Control of the Industrial Systems (SICISI)
(1)

Ecole Superieure des Sciences et Technique de Tunis, 5, Av. Taha Hussein 1008, Tunis, Tunisia
Phone: (216) 71 496 066; Fax: (216) 71 391 166 ; Email: Salem.Rahmani@esstt.rnu.tn, Farhat.Fnaiech@esstt.mu.tn
Canada Research Chair in Energy Conversion and Power Electronics CRC-ECPE
(2)

Ecole de Technologie Superieure, 1100 Notre-Dame West Street, Montreal, Quebec H3C 1K3, Canada
Phone: (514) 396 8874, Fax: (514) 396 8684, Email: kamal@ele.etsmtl.ca

Abstract - In recent years, harmonic resonance or
harmonic propagation between line inductances and
shunt capacitors installed for power factor
correction, and so on has multiplied voltage and
current harmonics in industrial power plants and
utility power distribution systems. This paper
presents a shunt active power filter to attenuate
harmonic propagation resulting from series/parallel
resonance between capacitors for power factor
correction and line inductors in a power distribution
line. The active power filter based on voltage
detection is controlled in such a way as to present
infinite impedance to the external circuit for the
fundamental frequency, and as to exhibit low
resistance for harmonic frequencies. When the
active filter is installed on the end bus of the feeder,
it successfully performs harmonic damping
throughout the distribution line. Simulation results
clarify that installation of the active filter acting as a
harmonic terminator on the end bus of the feeder
can damp out harmonic propagation throughout the
feeder.
Index Terms - Voltage detection, power distribution
systems, shunt active power filter, harmonic
damping, harmonic propagation.
I. INTRODUCTION
Recent advance of the power device capability and its
application technology is quite remarkable. This has
brought a still expanding adoption of power devices into
many types of equipment from industrial inverters, built
in power circuits to home applications such as TVs,
electromagnetic cookers and fluorescent lights.
Eventually, more harmonics are being injected into the
distribution line and these generating sources are
becoming indefinite in nature. To cope with harmonics,
either conventionally LC is used close to the load [1-3].
However because LC filter is composed of passive
elements it will cause anti-resonance between a
distribution transformer reactance and the passive filter
elements and so on has multiplied voltage and current
harmonics in industrial power plants and utility power
distribution systems. The worst case occurs under no-
load conditions from a theoretical point of view. Thus, it
may happen at night in a real power distribution system
under light-load conditions.
It has been reported by actual measurements that
harmonic propagation frequently occurs in the
downtown area of a 6.6-kV power distribution system
under light-load conditions at night [9]. The worst case
for harmonic voltage propagation occurs under no-load
conditions when one of resonant frequencies between
line inductance and shunt capacitors is close to one of
dominant harmonic frequencies. The presence of
resistive loads contributes to mitigating harmonic
voltage propagation. Hence, dynamic load changes may
not produce any serious effect on the active power filter
for harmonic voltage damping in power distribution
systems. In contrast, conventional active filters for
harmonic current compensation of nonlinear loads
would be strongly affected by dynamic load changes.
Dynamic changes in harmonic voltages are usually slow
in power distribution systems because dynamic load
changes are hidden by other static loads [1-8].
In order to damp out harmonic propagation, this paper
presents a shunt active power filter based on voltage
detection that functions under steady state and no-load
conditions. This active filter is controlled in such a way
as to act as a damping resistor for harmonic frequencies.
When the active filter is installed on the end bus of the
radial power distribution line, it successfully performs
harmonic damping throughout the distribution line. This
implies that the active filter acts as a "harmonic
terminator," installed on the end terminal of a signal
transmission line. Computer simulation is performed to
verify the viability and effectiveness of the active filter
having the function of harmonic termination.
II. SYSTEM CONFIGURATION OF THE ACTIVE
FILTER
The real overhead line between a bus and the adjacent
bus can be represented by a lumped LR circuit, the
parameters of which depend on the length and thickness
of the line. Figure 1 shows the power distribution feeder
under no-load conditions, where shunt active powers

1-4244-0497-5/06/$20.00 C 2006 IEEE 1 760 I

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 filter for damping out harmonic propagation is
connected at the end of the feeder. L1 corresponds to a
leakage inductance of a primary distribution
transformer, and L2 and L3 to line inductances. Three
capacitors, Cl, C2 and C3 are used for power factor
correction. Harmonic propagation results from series
and/or parallel resonance between the inductive
reactances and the capacitive reactances. This feeder
simulator has a harmonic generator connected at bus vl,
which produces an amount of harmonic voltage at vl.
3 Phase AC Mains
v -
Figure 1. Three-phase power distribution line simulator
Vca b,,
Vb
V,b
Figure 2. Control block diagram
III. HARMONIC EXTRACTION
Harmonic propagation contributes to a significant
amplification of voltage harmonics in a distribution line.
The harmonic propagation is caused by series and/or
parallel resonance between the line inductances and
shunt capacitors for power factor correction. In addition,
shunt capacitors and loads in the distribution system are
connected or disconnected, not by an electric power
company but by individual customers. In order to damp
out harmonic propagation throughout power distribution
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Figure 1 shows a shunt active filter based on voltage
detection. A power circuit of the active filter consists of
a three-phase voltage-fed pulse width-modulation
(PWM) inverter using six insulated gate bipolar
transistors (IGBTs), three interfacing inductors Lc, and a
dc capacitor Cdc. The shunt active filter is installed at
bus VD. This feeder simulator has a harmonic generator
connected at bus VA, which produces an amount of
harmonic voltage at VA.
Active Power Filter
G]
G,
systems, the active filter based on voltage detection is
installed on the end bus of the distribution line (Figure
2). The voltage at the point of installation is detected,
and then a harmonic voltage is extracted from the
detected voltage.
In order to achieve this, the so-called dq-transformation
is used. The sensed three-phase voltages va, vb and v, in
the stationary reference frame are transformed into the
rotating reference frame dq by using the following
matrix transformation:
2
 K d rV (1 ) to the inverse of the characteristic impedance of the
V
C IVb distribution feeder. With this value, the active filter can
damp out harmonic propagation effectively.
with the transformation matrix C is given by: Voltage error, and a real current reference component
id* is derived from a PI regulator that controls the dc
bus voltage of the inverter. This component is summed
n sin23 )3)2 to create the demanded reference for the inner current
regulator loop.
Figure 2 shows a current control circuit of the active
0 represents the actual phase angle of the line voltage
space vector. Vd and Vq are the components of the
filter. This circuit compares the reference signals ica,
resulting voltage space vector in the fundamental mains 1cb and i*c with the corresponding measured filter
frequency rotating coordinate system. The obtained current. The resulting error signal is then fed into a PI
instantaneous voltages Vd and Vq are divided into dc and current controller giving the harmonic signal namely DP.
ac component as: As a result, the current controller yields three phase
{Vd=Vd+Vd
Uvq vq Vq
= + (3)
voltage references. Then, each reference voltage is
compared with a 5-kHz repetitive triangular waveform
to generate the gate signals for the insulated gate bipolar
The active dc-component vd, (linked to the active
transistors (IGBT's).
power), represents the positive sequence at the
fundamental frequency of the measured voltage. The IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
reactive dc-component vq represents the positive The system parameters used in these simulations are
sequence at fundamental of the reactive power. In given in Table 1. When a lossless line is assumed, the
Figure 2, the ac-components vd and vq represent the characteristic impedance of the feeder simulator, Z, can
total harmonic content of the voltage. These dq-
be calculated as:
components are obtained at the output of a high pass Zs = (7)
filter having Vd and Vq as inputs. A Low Pass Filter with
a subtracted forward action synthesizes the high pass The control gain KV should be set to the inverse of the
filter. The dc-components are then eliminated, and only characteristic impedance of the feeder. That is
the ac-components remains in the output signals vd and
(8)
vq. ZT
The ac components are applied to the inverse dq
transformation circuit, so that the control circuit yields Table 1. System parameters for simulation
three-phase harmonic voltages at the point of
installation, which are obtained by the following matrix Line voltage, and V,=120 V (rms), f,= 60 Hz
transformation: frequency
Line inductor L1=L2=L3=0. 18 mH
Resistor R1=0.02 Q
Vb = CT (4)
R2=R3=0.05 Q
Capacitor C1=C2=C3=150 ViF
with inverse transformation matrix of (2). Active filter LC=2 mF, Rc= 0. Q,
parameters Cdc= 1000 ViF
cos9 sin9 Filter DC bus voltage Vdc= 70 V
Switching frequency fsw= 5 kHz
c- =
Co0-23- si(0-23) (5)
Figure 3 shows simulation waveforms when no active
co{+h 3O3)
Si
filter is connected. The voltages (VAa, Ab, Ac)A (VBa, Bb, Bc)
(VCa, Cb, Cc) and (VDa, Db, DC) before compensation, are
depicted in Figure 3.
Each harmonic voltage is amplified by a gain of KV to The harmonic spectrum of the voltages vAa, VBa, VCa, VDa
produce the compensating current reference which is before compensation is shown in Figure 4. The total
given by: harmonic distortions (THD's) are respectively 4.63%,
i= KvV (6) 5.540o, 9.25% and 11.54%. When the active filter is
The actual harmonic compensating current ich is connected, the harmonic propagation is completely
extracted from the detected compensating current i, eliminated. Thus, the active filter effectively damps out
Assuming that Gch is equal to its reference ich *, the active the harmonic propagation throughout the feeder.
filter behaves as a damping resistor of 1 K, &2 for
harmonic frequencies. The optimal value of KV is equal

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 5 200 r T T

0OX 5S 100
>t
~

i
>A -200
0.15 0.16 0.17 0.18 0.19 0.2
0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
8
200 _ 1 T T

A -200 <
0.15 0.16 0.17 0.18 0.19 0.2
>10I
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
200
5 100 _
-2o
9m6
20
0.15 0.16 0.17 0.18 0.19 0.2
0
500
0 1000 1 500 2000 2500
200 F | IT

200
0.15 0.16 0.17 0.18 0.19 0.2
>0I
0
I__

500 1000 1500 2000 2500

Tirre (s) Frequency (Hz)
Figure 3. Voltages (VAa, Ab, AC), (VBa, Bb, Bc) (Vca, Cb, Cc) and Figure 6. Spectrum of bus voltages vAa, vBa, vca, vDa after
(VDa, Db, DC) before compensation compensation
Figure 5 shows the bus voltages (VAa, Ab, Ac), (VBa, Bb, Bc)
2 100 r
(VCa, Cb, Cc) and (VDa, Db, DC) after compensation. The
analysis of the steady state waveforms shows full
0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 compensation of the bus voltages. Further, the spectrum
analysis at bus voltages vAa, VBa, VCa, VDa are depicted in
100
Figure 4, it shows the ability of the active power filter to
0
0 500
_ _ _ __ _

1000
_ _ _ _ _

1500
_ _ _ _ _

2000
_ _ _ _ _ _

2500
cancel the non-characteristic harmonics. The THD's of
the voltages vAa, VBa VCa, VDa are reduced respectively
100 from 4.63%, 5.540%, 9.25% and 11.54% before
compensation to 0.93%, 1.13%, 1.33% and 1.64% after
0 500
r_ l
1000 1500
r
2000 2500
l~~~~~~~ compensation. These results confirm the capability of
100 the algorithm to balance the voltages while
0 _ -
compensating for harmonics.
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
Frequency (Hz)
V. CONCLUSION
Figure 4. Spectrum of bus voltages vAa, vB, vc, vDa This paper has studied a shunt active power filter based
before compensation on voltage detection, which is damped out harmonic
propagation caused by resonance between line
5; 200X) inductances and power capacitors installed for power
factor correction. The voltage detection-based active
filter intended for "harmonic termination" should be
0.15 0.16 0.17 0.18 0.19 0.2 installed on the end bus of a power distribution line. The
S 200
obtained results have confirmed the viability and
0 15
effectiveness of the shunt active power filter, achieving
>d8 -200
0.15 0.16 0.17 0.18 0.19 0.2 good performance in damping out harmonic propagation
200
in power distribution systems.
6 o

-200 VI. ACKNOWLEDGMENT

s 20c8 0.16 0.17 0.18 0.19 0.2
The authors wish to Canada Research chair in Electric
00 Energy Conversion and Power Electronics for
>8 -200 supporting this work.
0.15 0.16 0.17 0.18 0.19 0.2
Tin- (s)

Figure 5. Voltages (VAa, Ab, AC), (VBa, Bb, Bc) (Vca, Cb, Cc) and VII. REFERENCES
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