CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS
VOL. 51, 2016
A publication of
The Italian Association
of Chemical Engineering
Online at www.aidic.it/cet
Guest Editors: Tichun Wang, Hongyang Zhang, Lei Tian
Copyright © 2016, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l.,
ISBN 978-88-95608-43-3; ISSN 2283-9216
The Design of Hybrid Active Power Filter based on Harmonics
Detection and Its Simulation Research
Zhengyou Ma
Department of Electrical Engineering, Sichuan College of Architectural Technology, Deyang, Sichuan 61800, China
mazhengyou@sohu.com
This paper puts forward a design method of hybrid active power filter which is based on harmonics detection
and identifying. Firstly the paper analyzes damage and causes of the harmonics, then several solutions to
harmonics problems are devoted to harmonic suppression. The hybrid active power filter, which combines
active power filter, passive power filter and generalized integrators, and which has their both respective merits,
leading the development of electric reliability and quality. According to minimum current principle of harmonic
compensation, the compensation performance of hybrid active power filter in power distribution system has
been analyzed and verified by Matlab simulation, and the stable current experimental results shows this power
filter in this paper is going quite well effect on harmonic compensation in circuit, and this hybrid filter which
connects in series active filter and passive filter improves the compensations performance remarkably,
meanwhile avoiding the expensive initial cost.
1. Introduction
With the rapid development of the national economy, the power quality and its service reliability have become
growing concerns in the field of energy conversion and utilization in recent years. Especially with the
increasing sensitivity and precision of electronic equipment and automated controls, there are several defects
that will cause the electrical power system breakdown, and there are also some voltage fluctuations that will
seriously affect the performance of the system. These reasons which cause voltage fluctuations are always
harmonic distortion, surges and spikes, and momentary disruptions. Among them, harmonic distortion is
voltage or current frequencies riding on top of the normal sinusoidal voltage and current waveforms, and the
harmonics are the main reason which will cause overheating of transformers and wiring, nuisance breaker
trips, and reduced power factor (Daniel, et al., 2013).
When the current is switched on or off each time, harmonics are created by this current pulse. Because of
these resistive and reactive loads, this current pulse does not vary smoothly with voltage, so these “nonlinear
loads” will generate a spectrum of harmonic frequencies, which includes the fundamental frequency and its
multiples (Moran, et al., 1995). In China the fundamental frequency of the AC is 50Hz, as shown in figure1, the
combined waveform shows the effect of multiples of harmonic on the fundamental frequency of current, and
there are 5th, 7th, 11th, and 13th harmonics in the combined waveform, and according to the past research, the
third harmonic which the frequencies is 150Hz in circuits system plays the most serious interference in the
electric power system, and which is created by single-phase loads such as telephone, fax and computers
(Tang Y. et al. 2012).
The harmonics in distribution circuit do not always causes problems in case of modern electronic devices will
contain some frequencies of harmonics, but the greater the power drawn by these modern devices or other
nonlinear loads, the greater level of voltage distortion which is caused by harmonics (Dash, et al., 2016). The
table 1 shows the potential defects which attribute to harmonics in the electric power system. In order to
suppress the harmonics, at the present stage there are several ways to deal with harmonics problems through
prevention, in this paper a new hybrid active power filter based on Harmonics Detection is put forward to
harmonics suppression, and with the help of Matlab simulation, the active power filter will be a better
opportunity for harmonics suppression and place a very high premium on power quality and reliability.
DOI: 10.3303/CET1651074
Please cite this article as: Ma Z.Y., 2016, The design of hybrid active power filter based on harmonics detection and its simulation research,
Chemical Engineering Transactions, 51, 439-444 DOI:10.3303/CET1651074
439
0 90 180 270 360
0
Phase(degree)
Amplitude
0.5
-0.5
1.0
-1.0
Fundamental
Combined waveform
5th,7th,11th,and 13th harmonics
Figure 1: Effect of harmonics combined in normal current
Table 1: The potential defects of harmonics
No. The potential defects of harmonics
1 Malfunction of sensitive and nonlinear equipment and device
2 Overheated phase conductors, transformers and panels
3 Flickering lights and super high neutral currents
4 Premature failure of transformers and uninterruptible power supplies
5 Reduced power factor and Reduced system capacity
6 Random tripping of circuit breakers
2. Harmonics detecting and identifying
The best way to eliminate harmonics is insulation, which is choosing equipment and installation practices that
minimize the level of harmonics in the circuit and portion of facility. The harmonics problem will be solved by
these methods, such as adding additional circuits to help isolate the sensitive equipment from what is causing
the harmonic distortion (Wu, et al., 2015).. Another way to suppress the harmonics is passive filter (also called
LC filter), which is composed of inductance, capacitance and resistance, a passive filter shows the low
impedance at tuned frequency to absorb current harmonic and has a good compensation performance. But
the passive filter has the disadvantage of susceptible to the the electric power system and the characteristic
change due to aging, and the passive filter always has fixed parameters, and this character can’t adapted for
the complex and changeable situation. As one of the key technologies in combating harmonic distortion and
improving the power quality, active power filter (APF) has become a trending research emphasis in power
electronics technology, and the active power filter overcomes these disadvantages of the passive filter, and it
can provide reliable and flexible compensation, but it also has its shortcoming-high operation cost and low rate
of quantity and price (Biricik, et al., 2015).. Table 2 shows the best application and its shortcoming of vvarious
solutions of harmonics suppression.
From table 2, hybrid active filter composed of passive power filter connected in series to the active power filter
improves the compensation performance of passive filter remarkably, give more flexibility and reliability to
power device, and the hybrid active filter in this paper will comfortable for high-power system avoiding the
expensive initial cost.
440
Table 2: Solutions of harmonics suppression
Solution Best application Shortcoming
Isolation Transformer
Where sources of harmonics are on
separate branches from harmonics-
sensitive equipment.
Isolates but does not remove the
harmonics problem
Passive filter
For circuits that include three-phase loads,
where there are only minor voltage
imbalances between phases.
Lower-cost than active filters, but
requires
analysis and a trial-and-error approach
Active filter
For circuits that include three-phase loads;
voltage imbalances between phases can
be present
Adapts to changes in system but the
cost is too much
Hybrid active filter
Almost every working occasion can be
comfortable
Give more flexibility and reliability to
power device
3. Minimum current principle of harmonic compensation
The hybrid active filter consists of active power filter (APF), passive power filter, three-phase PWM voltage
inverter (pulse width modulation) and coupling transformer. As shown in figure2, the active power filter and
passive power filter are connected in series to voltage inverter through coupling transformer. In this system the
APF prevents the harmonic current into hybrid active filter, and it plays a voltage inverter controlling role in this
circuit.
Es Ls
Cd
L C
r
C/T
5th 7th 11th
Figure 2: The configuration and structure of hybrid active filter
When the feedback control is applied to the active power filter, the figure3 shows that the minimum harmonics
compensation process is operated by the single-phase equivalent circuit. In order to suppress current
harmonic in the circuit, the active power filter is considered as a controlled voltage source, and this voltage is
VAPF, and the voltage value of this filter is shown in Eq(1).
sh
IKVAPF = (1)
In Eq(1), K is the harmonic compensation gain, Ish is the load harmonic current. Supposing utility voltage is
pure sinusoidal, the ration between the utility harmonic current and the load harmonic current is obtained,
which can be used to denote the filtering characteristics of hybrid active power filter.
The Eq(2) shows the characteristics of hybrid active power filter. In this equation, ZF is the impedance of
passive filter, ILh is the load harmonic current, ZS is the system impedance. Associate with Eq(1) and Eq(2), K
is the resistance to damp resonance between ZF and Zs. Choosing the larger value of K will significantly
reduce the harmonic content in the actual current, however, the larger value of K will increase the rated power
of the active filter.
KZZ
Z
I
I
FS
F
Ih
sh
++
= (2)
441
Zs Zs
ZF ZFILh ILh
Ish Ish
KIsh
Figure 3: The single-phase equivalent principle of harmonic compensation
4. The performance of hybrid active power filter in power distribution system
4.1 Test environment and test parameters
The test of harmonic suppression of the hybrid active power is depended on a three-phase shunt power
laboratory, which is implemented and tested in the compensation of a six-pulse uncontrolled rectifier. As
shown in figure4, the VSI voltage contains a capacitor bank, and the parameters of the capacitor bank is 6800
μF and DC-450V, and a dual DSP (TMS320C32 and TMS320F240) and CPLD circuit are adopted in this
digital control system, which sampling period is 200 μs. The detail parameters of the test power laboratory
are shown in table3.
es Ls CF
LF
L
R
VSI
Cd
Figure 4: The environment of performance test for harmonic suppression
Table 2: Test parameters of harmonic suppression in laboratory
No. Parameters Value
1 Utility impedance 0.5mH
2 Utility three-phase voltage 380V
3 DC-voltage 200V
4 CF 50μF
5 LF 4mH
Owing to the single LC filter of 7th of harmonic suppression, there are several amount of harmonic such as 5th,
11th and 13th of remaining harmonics in the circuit. Therefore, the PI current controller which is made up of
generalized integrators is used as the remaining harmonics suppression. The PI current controller in stationary
frame is depicted in figure5. In figure5, is* is the grid current reference, Ki is the integral coefficient, and the
VAPF is the violate reference. This figure is use to realize the digital generalized integrators.
442
∑
K
is
Uc*eis
*
+
-
+
+
h = 5,11,13,17,19
Figure 5: The structure of the PI current controller
For reducing the computation time of harmonics suppression, the generalized integrators are implemented by
iterative arithmetic. When generalized integrators are used, the harmonic attenuation rate is shown in Figure
6. Figure 6 illustrates that the 5th, 11th, 13th, 17th and 19th harmonic current are eliminated effectively by reason
of generalized integrators in this circuit, and the stable experimental results for harmonic compensation has
been also shown in figure 6.
102 103
-150
-100
-50
0
Frequency(Hz)
Ish/ILh
(dB)
Figure 6: The harmonic attenuation rate under generalized integrators
In order to verify the filtering effect, the Matlab software is used to build the simulation model of the active
filter, and the simulation waveform is shown in Figure 7. From figure 7 the active filter is used to compensate
harmonics and reactive current, which can compensate the harmonic and reactive current in the load at the
same time. This figure shows that the current waveform has a wonderful compensation effect with the help of
the hybrid active power filter.
t/s
is/A
is/A
t/s
(b) The current waveform after harmonic compensation
(a) The fundamental current waveform
Figure 7: The difference current waveforms between the fundamental current and compensation current
443
5. Conclusions
This paper puts forward a design method of the hybrid active power filter based on harmonics detection and
minimum current principle of harmonic compensation, and on the basis of damage and causes of the
harmonics, several solutions to harmonics problems are analyzed to harmonic suppression, such as
prevention method, passive filter, insolation transformer and active harmonic filter. In addition to these
suppression measurements, many power-monitoring devices are now commercially available from a variety of
manufacturers to measure and record the harmonic levels. After taking the appropriate methods to determine
the harmonic levels, the best solution to harmonic suppression should be chose from the harmonic source and
cause.
Due to the characters of harmonics composition and the consideration of high rate of quantity and cost, a
hybrid active power filter method which is based on harmonics detection has been applied to harmonics
suppression. The hybrid active power filter is composed of active power filter, passive power filter and in
series of generalized integrators. Then according to minimum current principle of harmonic compensation, the
compensation performance of hybrid active power filter in power distribution system has been analyzed and
verified by Matlab simulation in laboratory.
The stable current experimental results shows this power filter in this paper is going quite well effect on
harmonic compensation in circuit, and this hybrid filter which connects in series active filter and passive filter
improves the compensations performance remarkably, meanwhile avoiding the expensive initial cost. This
hybrid active power filter in this paper has their both respective merits of the active power filter and the passive
power filter, leading the development of electric reliability and quality.
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