IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 47, NO.

2, MARCH/APRIL 2011

973

Designing Passive Harmonic Filters for an Aluminum Smelting Plant

Babak Badrzadeh, Member, IEEE, Kenneth S. Smith, Senior Member, IEEE, and Roddy C. Wilson, Member, IEEE

AbstractThis paper presents the results of harmonic analysis and harmonic lter design for a grid-connected aluminum smelting plant. Harmonic-penetration-analysis studies are carried out to determine the system resonance frequencies and the individual and total harmonic voltage distortions for a wide range of possible system operating conditions including scenarios with N-1 and N-2 generation, an outage of a harmonic lter, and an outage of a rectier transformer. A conceptual harmonic-lter-design procedure for the lters required for the smelting plant is presented. The suitability and robustness of the proposed harmonic lter conguration in terms of the lters component current and voltage ratings and corresponding rms values are investigated. Index TermsHarmonic impedance, harmonic penetration, multipulse rectier transformers, passive harmonic lters, reactive-power compensation.

I. I NTRODUCTION LUMINUM smelting is the process of extracting aluminum from its oxide alumina. This is realized by an electrolysis process which requires a dc current source. The electrolysis process takes place in a large number of seriesconnected steel pots collectively referred to as a potline. Each potline is fed from an ac supply by a number of diode rectiers and step-up transformers collectively termed rectier transformers. To mitigate the harmonic currents produced by the uncontrolled diode rectiers, multipulse conversion using phase-shifting transformers is adopted. The smelting process is generally a nonstop process with a practically constant load year-round. A large grid-connected aluminum smelting plant in the Middle East is being expanded with new smelting loads. At present, there is no surcharge for reactive-power import from the utility grid, but the grid connection requirements are being changed such that no reactive power can be imported from the grid and the circulation of the reactive power through the two incoming grid transformers has to be practically eliminated.
Manuscript received June 11, 2010; revised October 17, 2010; accepted October 19, 2010. Date of publication January 6, 2011; date of current version March 18, 2011. Paper 2010-PSEC-164.R1, presented at the 2010 Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting, Houston, TX, October 37, and approved for publication in the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON I NDUSTRY A PPLICATIONS by the Power System Engineering Committee of the IEEE Industry Applications Society. B. Badrzadeh is with Vestas Technology R&D, 8200 rhus N, Denmark (e-mail: babad@vestas.com). K. S. Smith and R. C. Wilson are with the Transmission and Distribution Division, Mott MacDonald, Glasgow, G2 8JB, U.K. (e-mail: Kenneth.Smith@ mottmac.com; Roddy.Wilson@mottmac.com). Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TIA.2010.2103544

Fig. 1. Electrical power system of the aluminum smelting plant.

The latter is generally found to be more demanding in terms of the required reactive-power compensation. Preliminary studies indicate that, without any harmonic lters in service, the individual and total harmonic voltage distortion levels exceed the limits specied in the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61000 standards [1], [2]. At present, no means of harmonic control is installed at the smelting plant, but the harmonic distortion limits are being enforced by the utility grid. The expansion of the smelting loads and unbalanced operation of some of the smelting loads would raise further concerns about the level of harmonic distortion within the plant and at the point of common coupling (PCC) with the utility. A well-designed harmonic lter is a costeffective solution to maintain the acceptable harmonic levels and to double as a reactive-power compensator. This paper presents the results of extensive power system studies conducted to investigate and maintain the harmonic levels within the IEC-specied limits. The detailed design of the required harmonic lters will be elaborated. For the harmonicpenetration analysis and harmonic lter design, the Interactive Power System Analysis (IPSA+) software tool is used. II. S YSTEM U NDER C ONSIDERATION The electrical system of the smelting plant after completion of the proposed network expansion is shown in Fig. 1. The smelting load is approximately 90% of the total system load. This gure shows that the bulk of smelting load is connected to a 132-kV voltage level. The total potline loads connected to each of the three 132-kV substations are different.

0093-9994/$26.00 2011 IEEE

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The severe operating temperatures during summer conditions do not allow full utilization of the reactive power that could be supplied by the on-site generators. The results of load-ow studies indicate that as much as 40 Mvar of reactive power need to be imported from the main grid during summer conditions. To eliminate the circulation of reactive power through the two incoming grid transformers, three units of 26-Mvar capacitor banks are required at each of the 132-kV substations shown in Fig. 1. The additional 38-Mvar reactive-power supply would cause a leading power factor at the PCC. To achieve a unity power factor at the PCC while eliminating the reactive-power circulation through the two incoming transformers, the reactive power generated by some of the on-site generators must be reduced. This is achieved by modication of the set point of the respective automatic voltage regulators. The smelting plant under consideration includes six potlines, designated as 5, 6, 7, 9, 21, and 43, as shown in Fig. 1. Each rectier is a 12-pulse current-source diode rectier. To limit the level of harmonics, multipulse conversion is adopted. For all potlines, the multipulse rectiers are of the parallel-type design where all the 12-pulse rectiers are connected in parallel on their dc side. For potlines 5, 6, 7, and 9, each potline consists of four main and one standby rectier transformers. The original intended operation of the rectier transformers for these potlines was to use four rectier transformers in normal operating conditions such that a balanced 48-pulse harmonic performance is obtained at the 132-kV points of connection. To realize a 48-pulse system, the rectier transformers are wound such that the phase displacement between the two successive secondaries (potline side) of the phase-shifting transformers is 360/48 = 7.5 . When referred to the primary (network side) of the transformer, harmonic cancellation results in a 48-pulse system. This means that the six dominant harmonic currents of the 12-pulse system including the 11th, 13th, 21st, 23rd, 35th, and 37th are practically eliminated. To maximize the process efciency, the present operating philosophy of the plant is to use all ve rectier transformers under normal operating conditions. The fth (standby) rectier transformer of these potlines has the provision to be phase shifted by one of the following phase angles: +15 , 15 , +7.5 , 7.5 , or zero. Choosing any of these ve possible phase displacements will create an unbalanced 48-pulse system. This implies that the magnitude of the harmonic currents is increased compared with a balanced 48-pulse system where there are four rectier transformers, phase shifted by 7.5 with respect to each other. Potlines 21 and 43 were originally designed as 60-pulse rectiers with ve rectier transformers being used in normal operating conditions. For these potlines, the phase shift between the two successive secondaries of phase-shifting transformers is 360/60 = 6 . The dominant harmonics will be the 59th and 61st orders. A total number of 30 individual rectier transformers for the 132-kV potlines and four for the 33-kV potline 6B will be installed after the completion of network expansion. There is a small auxiliary potline connected at the 11-kV voltage level not shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

Schematic representation of potlines for IPSA harmonic analysis.

III. R ECTIFIER -T RANSFORMER R EPRESENTATION For the potline transformers, the zero sequence impedances are assumed equal to the positive sequence impedances. The winding connection of all rectier transformers is converted to YNyn0 in the model. This permits full ow of the zerosequence triplen harmonics from the harmonic source side (potlines) to the network side with no phase shift. From the triplen-harmonics point of view, the worst possible case is therefore investigated. The schematic representation of the potlines for harmonic analysis is shown in Fig. 2. As discussed in Section II, all the six 132-kV potlines are operated with ve rectier transformers in service. In the IPSA tool, the rectier transformers of potlines 23 and 41 are phase shifted by 6 such that a balanced 60-pulse system is achieved. In the model, additional phase-shifting transformers with zero impedance are used. For potlines 5, 6, 7, and 9, a phase shift of 7.5 is applied between the two successive main rectier transformers. Preliminary harmonic studies showed that the choice of any of the ve possible phase angles for the fth rectier transformer will have a very marginal impact on the level of harmonic currents reected at the 132-kV substations. For the fth rectier transformer, a phase angle of zero is chosen, which results in a marginally lower level of harmoniccurrent distortion compared with other possible choices. Fig. 2 shows how the correct phase shifts are taken into account in the IPSA model using the phase-shifting transformers. This arrangement gives the correct harmonic-current injections in the 132-kV network. IV. H ARMONIC -C URRENT I NJECTION The converters used for the potline ac/dc rectiers are harmonic-current sources when viewed from the input power system. The dc at the output of the rectier is reasonably constant, and the converter acts like a source of harmonic voltage on the dc side and of harmonic current on the ac side. The impact of harmonics on the power system can therefore be analyzed by current sources injected into the points where the potlines are connected. The actual measurements supplied by the plant owner provide information on the harmoniccurrent magnitudes of up to the 40th order. These values are relatively smaller than those obtained from a theoretical Fourier analysis and were used as a starting point for the calculations of harmonic-current injections. The harmonic-current measurements were not suitable for direct entry in the harmonic analysis tool, and some preprocessing was needed. This is because, for each potline, the harmonic measurements were only carried

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TABLE I HARMONIC-PENETRATION-STUDY CONFIGURATIONS

TABLE II SUMMARY OF THE TOTAL HARMONIC VOLTAGE DISTORTIONS AT THE 400-, 132-, AND 33-kV SUBSTATIONS

out for one individual rectier transformer and no information on the harmonic-current magnitude of the other four rectier transformers was available. Additionally, no information on the phase angle of the harmonic currents was provided. Calculations have therefore been developed to estimate the harmonic phase angle for the characteristic harmonics [3]. (The characteristic harmonics of the 12-pulse rectier transformers are 11th, 13th, 23rd, 25th, 35th, 37th, 47th, and 49th.) Including the phase angles for the characteristic harmonics provides some harmonic cancellation due to a difference in the phase shifts of different rectier transformers in a given potline. Conventional harmonic-penetration studies are normally performed for up to the 50th order. As no information on the magnitude of the 47th and 49th harmonics is provided, mathematical calculations were utilized to provide an estimation of these harmonics [3]. With several sources of harmonics in the system, harmonic currents of the same order generally have different phase angles and some harmonic cancellation will occur. This is referred to as the diversity effect [4]. This reduces the net total harmonic voltage distortion at the PCC. In the studies reported in this paper, this phase cancellation has been taken into account due to the following reasons. 1) Different size and length of the cables connecting potlines to the three 132-kV substations. 2) Different impedances for the phase-shifting transformers connecting potlines to the three 132-kV substations. 3) A very minor difference between the short-circuit impedance of the ve phase-shifting transformers within each potline due to manufacturing tolerances. 4) As the total potline loads connected to each of the three 132-kV substations are different, the amplitude of the harmonic currents of the same order at the three 132-kV substations will be different. The theoretical calculation of phase angles is based on a methodology described in [3], where the harmonic phase angle depends on the commutation overlap angle and, hence, the reactance of

the line. As discussed previously, the line reactance is different for different rectier transformers. This indicates that the phase angle of harmonic currents of the same orders will be different at the three 132-kV substations. Note that the size of the required harmonic lters are determined based on the reactive-power requirements of the smelting plant and that inclusion or neglect of the diversity effect does not result in savings in terms of the total lter size. V. H ARMONIC -P ENETRATION S TUDIES This section presents the results of the harmonic-penetration studies performed on the smelter-plant electrical network under consideration. The analysis has been performed for a number of the most onerous maintenance congurations with the aim of identifying potentially problematic operating conditions. The system congurations for the individual cases are given in Table I. The case studies discussed in this section are based on an assumed harmonic lter conguration, details of which will be discussed in Section VII. Several case studies presented in this section allow evaluation of the ltering scheme performance under the most onerous operating conditions. The case studies presented include the harmonic signature of the system with and without the proposed harmonic lter conguration. For (N-1) generator outages, only the scenarios which give rise to highest total harmonic voltage distortion have been investigated. Note that, in cases where a harmonic lter is out of service, the lter outage that causes the highest distortion has been reported. The levels of total harmonic voltage distortion at the 400-kV interconnector, as well as the 132- and 33-kV substations at the points where the potlines are connected, are summarized in Table II. The system conguration for each case study is given in Table I. Instances where the IEC 61000-3-6 (for the 400- and 132-kV voltage levels) or IEC 61000-2-4

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TABLE III SUMMARY OF MAXIMUM INDIVIDUAL DISTORTING COMPONENTS AT THE 400-, 132-, AND 33-kV SUBSTATIONS

(for the 33-kV voltage level) planning level is not maintained are highlighted in bold. All other cells in the table indicate an acceptable total harmonic voltage distortion. Note that substations 33 kV-A1 and 33 kV-A2 represent the front and rear busbars for the substation 33 kV-A, since, with this substation, the bus section is operated as normally open. The maximum individual distorting components are summarized in Table III; those exceeding the recommended limits are highlighted in bold. The tables can be used as follows: For case 02, the THDV at the 132-kV switchboard 132 kV-A is 2.1%, and the 5th and 7th harmonic voltages have the greatest magnitude at 1.4% (of nominal 132-kV substations), which is within the recommended individual limit of IEC 61000-3-6. The individual harmonic voltage distortions for the 400-kV grid are practically zero and therefore not shown in Table III. Case studies indicate that, without the harmonic lters in service, the total harmonic voltage distortion as well as the individual harmonic components for the majority of the substations is higher than the permissible IEC 61000-3-6 (for the 400- and 132-kV voltage levels) and IEC 61000-2-4 (for 33-kV voltage level). This indicates the need to install harmonic lters at the three 132-kV substations where the potlines are connected. As discussed previously, these harmonic lters are also required to eliminate the reactive-power exchange with the main grid. The harmonic distortion observed during (N-1) generation when all the potlines are operated with ve rectier transformers and with all lters in service is well within the limits dened in IEC 61000-3-6 or IEC 61000-2-4. Under these operating conditions, the highest predicted THDV value is 2.4% on the 132-kV network. In all cases, the individual harmonic voltages are maintained within the acceptable limits of IEC 61000-3-6. When a rectier transformer is out of service in potline 43 or 21, i.e., case study 03, the operating current of the other four rectier transformers is increased by 125% to maintain the real power required for the potline. In this case, the original 60-pulse system becomes an unbalanced 48-pulse system and the harmonic current and voltage magnitudes increase on the 132-kV switchboard 132 kV-C. In the case studies considered here, the THDV on a number of the 132-kV substations increase to a maximum of 3.4%, which is below the 3.5% compatibility level of IEC 61000-3-6. Inspection of case 04 reveals that there is a slight increase in the predicted values of total harmonic voltage distortion when the system is operated with (N-2) generation outage during summer conditions. The total harmonic voltage distortion and the largest individual harmonic voltage component for all substations are maintained within the acceptable IEC limits.

Case study 05 considers the system operation with one of the harmonic lters out of service. As a result of a lter outage at the 132-kV switchboard 132 kV-B, the THDV at that switchboard increases to 3.9% [from 2.4% when all three harmonic lters are in service (case 02)], with a maximum individual harmonic distortion of 1.5% at the 7th harmonic. This means that, with one of the harmonic lters out of service, the impact of the other two lters on the harmonic control of switchboard 132 kV-B would be reduced. This is because the three 132-kV substations in the electrical network of the smelting plant are somewhat isolated by the two current-limiting reactors R11 and R12. VI. H ARMONIC S ENSITIVITY S CAN Impedance/frequency scans are determined at the points where the harmonic sources, i.e., the rectier transformers are connected. For this calculation, all potline loads are disconnected in the model. This will accentuate the presence of parallel resonances in the network, as the studies are performed with practically no load on the system, i.e., minimal damping. Using the impedance scanning tool, provided in IPSA, the harmonic impedance sensitivity at the 132-, 33-, and 11-kV voltage levels was derived for the individual cases listed in Table I. Space limitations do not allow inclusion of the impedance scans for the 33- and 11-kV busbars. Harmonic impedance plots indicate that, for the 33- and 11-kV voltage levels, the impact of the variation of the generation lineup and the introduction of the harmonic lters are practically negligible. This is due to the impedance buffer of the step-down transformers. As an example, the simulated harmonic impedance plots at the 132-kV voltage level for cases 01-A and 01-B are shown in Figs. 3 and 4, respectively. The harmonic impedance plots show that, without the harmonic lters in service, large resonance peaks occur. The impedance plots reveal two dominant parallel resonances between the 27th and 28th harmonics and between the 17th and 18th harmonics for the 132-kV voltage level with a peak impedance of 620 and 550 . With the introduction of the three 26-Mvar shunt harmonic lters, signicant damping will be provided for the three 132-kV substations, where the impedance at the peak resonance point is reduced to 130 . VII. H ARMONIC F ILTER D ESIGN This section presents the conceptual design procedure for the single-tuned and damped high-pass lters employed in the proposed harmonic lter conguration for the aluminum

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Fig. 3.

Case 01: Simulated harmonic impedance up to the 100th harmonic for 132-kV substations.

Fig. 4.

Case 02: Simulated harmonic impedance up to the 100th harmonic for 132-kV substations.

smelting plant. The lter components, i.e., capacitor, inductor, and resistor, are calculated from the following parameters, which will be discussed in this section: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) branch tuning harmonic order hn ; branch type: tuned or damped; branch size (in megavars); branch quality factor Q; number of branches.

The general design procedure of passive harmonic lters and some of the main practical issues associated with them are discussed in the technical literature [5][10]. A. Harmonic Filter Types A discussion on the main features of the two most widely used types of passive shunt lters, namely, single-tuned and damped high-pass lters, is provided next. Single-Tuned Filter: A single-tuned lter is a capacitor designed to trap a certain harmonic by adding a reactor such that XL = XC at the tuned frequency fn . This conguration is shown in Fig. 5. For a single-tuned lter tuned to the hn harmonic with the capacitor size QC (in megavars), the capacitor reactance at

Fig. 5. Typical conguration of a single-tuned lter.

fundamental frequency is XC = kV 2 . QC XC . h2 n Xn Q (1)

To trap the hn harmonic, the reactor should have a size of XL = (2)

The reactor resistance is found as R= (3)

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 47, NO. 2, MARCH/APRIL 2011

The lter size is dened in terms of the reactive power produced at fundamental frequency Qlter = = kV 2 kV 2 = C XC XL XC X h2
n

(9) (10)

h2 n

kV 2 h2 h2 n = 2 n QC . 1 XC hn 1 ICh = IFh

The current in the capacitor is (11)

Fig. 6. Typical conguration of a damped high-pass lter.

where IFh is the lter current at harmonic order h. The current in the reactor is ILh = R
2 R 2 + XL h

where Q is the quality factor of the lter and a typical value is between 30 and 100 [11], [12]. A high Q lter is usually tuned to one of the lower harmonic frequencies, e.g., 5th harmonic. Filter size is dened in terms of the reactive power produced at fundamental frequency Qlter = = kV 2 kV 2 = C XC XL XC X h2
n

IFh =

Q Q2 + (h/h2 n)

IFh

(12)

where h is the harmonic order and hn is the lter tuning order. The current in the resistor is calculated as [11] IRh = = XLh
2 R 2 + XL h

(4) (5)

IFh =

h hn

Q2 + (h/h2 n)

IFh

(13) (14)

h2 n

kV 2 h2 h2 n = 2 n QC . 1 XC hn 1

h ILh hXL = ILh . hn Q R

2 RIR = h h=1

In this conguration, the capacitor, inductor, and resistor are series connected, and each element must be capable of carrying the capacitor (lter) current, i.e., IRh = ILh = ICh . (6)

Power loss in the resistor is PR = XL R (hILh )2 .

h=1

(15)

For a single-tuned lter, the use of an inductor in series with a capacitor results in a voltage rise at the capacitor terminal given by [11] VC = h2 n h2 n1 Vbus1 (7)

B. Harmonic-Filter Conceptual Design For the smelting plant under consideration, each rectier consists of a 12-pulse diode bridge. The lowest order characteristic harmonics are therefore expected to be the 11th and 13th harmonics. Some 5th and 7th harmonics will be produced as the rectier transformers are not ideal due to manufacturing tolerances. The current operating philosophy of potlines 5, 6, 7, and 9 is to use standby rectier transformers in normal operating conditions. Noncharacteristic harmonics such as the 5th, 7th, 17th, and 19th are therefore present and have a magnitude comparable to those of the 11th and 13th when summed at each individual switchboard. Harmonic lter banks are typically tuned to approximately 2%10% below the desired harmonic frequency. If a lter is tuned exactly at the frequency of concern, an upward shift in the tuned frequency will result in a sharp increase in impedance, as seen by harmonics. Tuning the harmonic lter at a frequency slightly lower than the desired frequency allows for the operation of the lter bank in the event of the removal of a few capacitor units. In order to mitigate the low-order 5th and 7th harmonics, a damped high-pass lter tuned at the 4.8th harmonic was initially investigated. With this arrangement, it was realized that the harmonic lter makes no contribution to the suppression of the 7th harmonic. The second alternative considered was to replace the single arm with two damped arms tuned at the 4.8th and 6.8th harmonics. In this case, the magnitude of the 5th harmonic voltage remained the same before and after

where Vbus1 is the fundamental component of the voltage at the busbar to which the harmonic lter is connected. Damped High-Pass Filter: A typical conguration of a damped high-pass lter is shown in Fig. 6. The capacitor and reactor reactances can be calculated from (1) and (2) but the resistance is reciprocal to that given in (2) which is R = Xn .Q (8)

For a damped lter, typical values of Q vary between 0.5 and 5 [11], [12]. With a high Q, e.g., Q = 5, the ltering action is more pronounced at the tuning frequency, while at higher frequencies, the lter impedances rise steadily; hence, the lter has little impact on the higher order harmonics. With lower values of Q, e.g., Q = 0.5, the response at the tuning frequency is as good, but as the frequency increases, the impedance is nearly constant; therefore, higher order harmonics are mitigated as well. To mitigate two major harmonics such as 11th and 13th harmonics with the use of only one damped lter, it is necessary to select a fairly high Q in the range of 1050 [12]. With a very high Q, the damped lter resistance increases and losses may become an important issue.

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TABLE IV VARIATION OF THE TOTAL HARMONIC VOLTAGE DISTORTION VERSUS NUMBER OF FILTER ARMS

ltering. The best conguration is therefore found to be the use of two arms tuned at the 4.8th and 6.8th harmonic, but the damped lter for the 4.8th harmonic is replaced with a singletuned lter. To achieve an acceptable THDV and acceptable individual harmonic components, the quality factors of the tuned and damped lters are found as 100 and 10, respectively. To mitigate the 11th and 13th harmonics, it was observed that the lter design can be simplied by combining the lter arms for the 11th and 13th harmonics into a single arm tuned at the 10.8th harmonic. With this arrangement, the 11th harmonic is nearly eliminated and the 13th is reduced to acceptable limits. The quality factor of this lter is set to 10. An alternative would have been to tune the lter to about the 12th harmonic; the associated total harmonic voltage distortions are shown in Table IV. Table IV summarizes the total harmonic voltage distortion using various lter congurations and different tuning frequencies. The system conguration corresponds to an outage of ST18 under summer conditions at 45 C and with connection to the main grid. In all cases, a constant lter size of 26 Mvar at each 132-kV switchboard is considered. The lter size was determined to eliminate the reactive-power import from the main grid and minimize the ow of reactive power through the two incoming grid transformers. In the table, instances where the THDV exceeds the acceptable limit of 3% are highlighted in bold. As indicated in this table, by tuning the lter to the 12th harmonic, the total harmonic voltage distortion is slightly higher than that achieved by the proposed lter conguration, i.e., tuning the lter at the 10.8th harmonic. The concept of using a single damped lter to mitigate the 11th and 13th harmonic has been emulated for the mitigation of the 17th and 19th harmonics. In this case, with a single damped arm tuned at the 16.7th harmonic, the total harmonic voltage distortion can be maintained within the permissible limits. Inspection of Table IV reveals that the optimal harmonic lter conguration comprises four branches (arms). The optimal design is highlighted with cells in gray pattern. Designing the

harmonic lter with ve arms marginally increases the THDV compared with the use of four arms (assuming the total lter megavar remains the same). A harmonic lter with ve arms is also more expensive. Note that, for this study, all the lters are sized the same. The intention of sizing lters the same is to use only lters that are standardized. With this approach when installing the units in the eld, it will be more practical to order them all sized at the same value. This will assist with carrying spares, e.g., capacitor units. The effectiveness of using three damped lters tuned to the 6.8th, 10.8th, and 16.7th harmonics instead of three singletuned lters of the same size and the same tuning orders is shown in Fig. 7 (in both cases, a single-tuned lter tuned to the 4.8th is used as the fourth branch). This gure shows that, with three damped lters, the peak resonance point is signicantly decreased, which conrms the choice of lter branches proposed for the smelting plant. For comparison, the impedance plot for the case of having no lter in service is also shown. With four single-tuned lters, the peak resonance is increased, which indicates a parallel resonance caused by the single-tuned lters. Using the equations stated previously, the parameters of the proposed harmonic lter can be determined as stated in Table V. A schematic diagram of the proposed harmonic lter is shown in Fig. 8. This lter conguration is proposed for all the three 132-kV substations. C. Harmonic Impedance Plot for the Proposed Harmonic Filter If shunt harmonic lters are not selected carefully, they can resonate with existing electrical components and cause additional harmonic currents. In order to ensure that the proposed harmonic lter does not cause any new resonance point on the system, a harmonic impedance sensitivity plot for the lter was produced, as shown in Fig. 9.

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Fig. 7. Harmonic impedance plot for the 132-kV switchboard 132 kV-C. TABLE V PARAMETERS OF THE PROPOSED HARMONIC FILTER CONFIGURATION

Fig. 8. Schematic diagram of the proposed harmonic lter conguration.

Fig. 9. Harmonic impedance characteristics of the proposed harmonic lter.

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TABLE VI HARMONIC CURRENTS FLOWING THROUGH THE CAPACITOR

Common traits observed in the impedance plot of the proposed harmonic lter conguration are as follows. 1) Low impedance at the 11th and 13th harmonicsthe characteristic harmonics of the 12-pulse rectier. 2) Low impedance at the 5th and 7th harmonics. 3) A shifted resonance peak at the 8th harmonic, due to ltering of the 7th harmonic. 4) A shifted resonance peak at the 14th harmonic, due to ltering of the 17th harmonic. 5) The shifted resonance peaks produced by the harmonic lter are located at the noncharacteristic harmonics, and the resulting impedance is fairly small, i.e., 160 for the 8th and 60 for the 13th harmonic. 6) Low impedance above the 17th harmonic. Based on these characteristics, it can be concluded that the proposed lter does not, by itself, cause any new resonance point on the system and that no voltage amplication is caused by the lter.

3) The peak voltage does not exceed 120% of the rated: Vpeak < 1.2V1 , where V1 is the fundamental capacitor voltage which implies that VCh < 1.2V1 .
h

(18)

The reactive power does not exceed 135% of the rating: QC < 1.35QC1 , where QC 1 is the fundamental reactive power generated by the capacitor. This implies that QC = QC1 h
h

Vh V1

=
h=1

1 Ih h I1

=
h=1

2 Ih pu

1.35. (19)

D. Harmonic Filter Rating So far, in this section, it has been shown that the proposed harmonic lter conguration is effective in avoiding the resonance problems and bringing the system into compliance with IEC standards. With the optimal lter conguration discussed earlier, lter currents and voltages should be analyzed to check the rating of lter elements (capacitor, resistor, and reactor) in the presence of harmonics. Capacitors: ANSI/IEEE Standard 18 Shunt power capacitors [13] states that a capacitor can be continuously operated in the presence of harmonics provided that the following are satised. 1) The peak current does not exceed 130% of the rated current: Irms < 1.3I1 , where I1 is the fundamental capacitor current which implies that Irms = I1
2 1.3. 1 + T HDi

(16)

These requirements reect the fact that the capacitor of a lter tuned to a certain harmonic frequency will absorb parts of other harmonic frequencies and that safety factors are therefore required. Note that IEEE Standard 18 has a more comprehensive requirement than the corresponding IEC standard for the capacitors (IEC 60871-1 [14]) and is therefore used for determining the rating of the lter components. Another safety measure which can be applied in conjunction with the aforementioned requirements is to have the capacitor bank rated at a voltage higher than the busbar voltage to which it is connected. This allows the lter to perform successfully in the event of system overvoltages and capacitor/lter bank unbalance conditions. The harmonic currents owing through the harmonic lters connected to the three 132-kV substations 132 kV-A, 132 kV-B, and 132 kV-C are shown in Table VI. This table shows that the rms current through the capacitor and the reactive power generated by the capacitors are practically 1 p.u. and, hence, within the 1.3- and 1.35-p.u. limits required by IEEE Standard 18. The current harmonics are taken from the harmonic studies carried out in the IPSA simulation tool. As an example, the system conguration is for an outage of ST18 at 45 C ambient temperature with connection to the main grid. Note that the per unit values are on the proposed capacitor megavar rating. Table VII shows the harmonic components of the capacitor voltages calculated as VCh = ICh XC . h (20)

2) The rms voltage does not exceed 110% of the rated: Vrms < 1.1V1 , where V1 is the fundamental capacitor voltage which implies that Vrms = V1
2 1.1. 1 + T HDv

(17)

The maximum peak voltage indicated in the table is 1.18 p.u., which is within the 1.2-p.u. limit of IEEE Standard 18. This table also shows that the capacitor rms voltages are within the 1.1-p.u. limit.

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 47, NO. 2, MARCH/APRIL 2011

TABLE VII HARMONIC VOLTAGES ACROSS THE CAPACITOR

TABLE VIII HARMONIC CURRENTS FLOWING THROUGH THE RESISTOR

TABLE IX HARMONIC VOLTAGES ACROSS THE REACTOR

Tables VI and VII demonstrate that the capacitor rms currents and voltages are practically at 100% of their ratings. The peak harmonic voltages across the capacitors are close to the 1.2-p.u. limit, and it would be advisable to allow some safety margin for the capacitor operation during abnormal conditions. In general, of all the four ratings discussed previously, the peak capacitor voltage is the limiting factor in most practical harmonic lter designs. A safety margin can be provided by choosing the capacitors with higher voltages, i.e., 145-kV harmonic lters for the 132-kV busbar voltage. To allow for some margin in the case of system overvoltages during steady-state conditions, circuit breakers with a rated voltage of 170 kV are recommended for the proposed harmonic lters. A local dedicated circuit breaker will also be required. By allowing this safety margin, the manufacturing tolerances in the capacitors are accounted for. Resistors: The resistor bank has to be rated to withstand the current drawn in the presence of harmonics. The power loss in the presence of harmonics can be signicantly higher than that at fundamental frequency. If a resistor bank is not rated appropriately, it will burn out. The current through the resistors can be calculated using (13). The resistor currents are indicated in Table VIII. The required kilowatt rating of the

resistor banks to withstand these currents are calculated using (15) and tabulated in the last column of the table. Reactors: For the single-tuned lter, the current owing through the reactor is identical to that of the capacitor. For the damped lters proposed for this system, R XL , as shown in Table V. For both single-tuned and damped lters, the current through the reactors are therefore practically the same as the current through the capacitors shown in Table VI. The reactors must therefore be rated to withstand the same currents as the capacitors. Unlike resistors, the shunt reactors used in damped lters have generally signicantly lower losses at harmonic frequencies compared with those at fundamental frequency, and the reactor losses at harmonic frequencies can be neglected. To ensure that the stresses across the reactor do not exceed the design capability, the rated voltage across the reactor should be specied as VL =
h=1

ILh XLh =
h=1

ILh hXL .

(21)

Considering ILh = ICh and recalling Table VI for the capacitor currents, the reactor voltages can be calculated as shown in Table IX.

BADRZADEH et al.: DESIGNING PASSIVE HARMONIC FILTERS FOR AN ALUMINUM SMELTING PLANT

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VIII. C ONCLUSION This paper has presented the results of the harmonic analysis and harmonic lter design conducted for an aluminum smelting plant to address concerns raised due to the expansion of the smelting load. It was shown that, under (N-1) and (N-2) generation outages and without harmonic lters in service, the harmonic voltage distortion levels exceed those required by IEC 61000-3-6 (for the 400- and 132-kV voltage levels) and IEC 61000-2-4 (for the 33-kV voltage levels). With the introduction of three identical 26-Mvar shunt passive lter banks, the harmonic voltage distortion levels are maintained well within the IEC limits during (N-1) and (N-2) generation outages and when all ve rectier transformers are in service for each potline. With an outage of one of the rectier transformers, the harmonic distortion levels marginally exceed the acceptable IEC limits. The studies show that a four-branch harmonic lter comprising four equally sized branches is a practical and realizable design to maintain the harmonic levels within the IEC-specied limits. Identical lters were proposed for each of the three 132-kV substations. The proposed lter conguration makes it possible to build lters from identical components. The proposed harmonic lter includes three damped lters tuned to the 6.8th, 10.8th, and 16.7th harmonics and a single-tuned lter tuned to the 4.8th for the suppression of the 5th harmonic. With the use of three damped lters, the resonances caused by the lter are very small and no voltage amplication is caused by the lter. The ratings of the proposed harmonic lter were checked against IEEE Standard 18. It was conrmed that the rms and peak voltage, the rms current, and the reactive power generated by the capacitor in the presence of harmonics are maintained within the limits specied by ANSI/IEEE Standard 18. To allow some margin for overloading of the capacitor, the option of increasing the harmonic lter rated voltage to 145 kV was recommended. To allow for some margin in the case of system overvoltages during steady-state conditions, circuit breakers with a rated voltage of 170 kV were recommended for the proposed harmonic lters. A local dedicated circuit breaker would also be required. R EFERENCES
[1] Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC)Part 3-6Limits: Assessment of the Connection of the Distorting Installation to MV, HV and EHV Power Systems, IEC Standard 61000-3-6, 2008. [2] Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC)Part 2-4Environment: Compatibility Levels in Industrial Plants for Low Frequency Conducted Disturbances, IEC Standard 61000-2-4, 2002. [3] E. W. Kimbark, Direct Current Transmission. New York: Wiley, 1971. [4] A. Mansoor, W. M. Grady, A. H. Chowdhury, and M. J. Samotyi, An investigation of harmonics attenuation and diversity among distributed single-phase power electronic loads, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 467473, Jan. 1995. [5] D. A. Gonzalez and J. C. McCall, Design of lters to reduce harmonic distortion in industrial power systems, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. IA-23, no. 3, pp. 504511, May 1987. [6] A. B. Nassif, W. Xu, and W. Freitas, An investigation on the selection of lter topologies for passive lter applications, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 17101718, Jul. 2009. [7] J. C. Das, Passive harmonic ltersPotentialities and limitations, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 232241, Jan./Feb. 2004. [8] E. Makram, E. V. Subramaniam, A. A. Girgis, and R. Catoe, Harmonic lter design using actual recorded data, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 29, no. 6, pp. 11761183, Nov./Dec. 1993.

[9] M. F. McGranghan and D. R. Mueller, Designing harmonic lters for adjustable speed drives to comply with IEEE-519 harmonic limits, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 312318, Mar./Apr. 1999. [10] S. M. Merhej and W. H. Nichols, Harmonic ltering for the offshore industry, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 533542, May/Jun. 1994. [11] G. J. Wakileh, Power Systems Harmonics: Fundamentals, Analysis and Filter Design. New York: Springer-Verlag, 2001. [12] J. Arrilaga, D. A. Bradley, and P. S. Bodge, Power System Harmonics. New York: Wiley, 1985. [13] IEEE Standard for Shunt Power Capacitors, Standard 18, 2002. [14] Shunt Power Capacitors for AC Power System Having Rated Voltage Above 1000 V. General Performance, Testing and RatingSpecial RequirementsGuide for Installation and Operation, IEC Standard 60871-1, 2005.

Babak Badrzadeh (S03M07) received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 1999 and 2002, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, U.K., in 2007. After spending a short period as an Assistant Professor at the Technical University of Denmark, he joined the Transmission and Distribution Division, Mott MacDonald, Glasgow, U.K., as a System Analysis and Network Planning Engineer. Since March 2010, he has been with Power Plant Solutions, Vestas Technology R&D, rhus N, Denmark, where he is acting in different capacities for various wind-power plant projects. He has published several articles and presented tutorials on different areas of power systems and power electronics. He has prepared two two-part educational courses for the IEEE eLearning library on high-power variable-speed drives and HVdc transmission systems. His areas of interest include power system electromechanical and electromagnetic transients, applications of power electronics in power systems, wind power plants, and modeling and simulation. Dr. Badrzadeh was a Guest Editor for the special issue of the IEEE Industry Applications Magazine on high-power variable-speed drives. He is an active member of several IEEE Power and Energy Society and IEEE Industry Applications Society working groups and task forces.

Kenneth S. Smith (SM07) received the B.S. degree in engineering science (with rst class honors) and the Ph.D. degree for his work on the analysis of marine electrical systems from the University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, U.K., in 1988 and 1992, respectively. After completing his doctorate, he held academic teaching posts at the University of Aberdeen and at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, U.K., where he was appointed as an Honorary Professor in 2009. Since April 2002, he has been with the Power Systems Analysis Section, Transmission and Distribution Division, Mott MacDonald, Glasgow, U.K., where he is currently the Technical Manager for the power systems studies group. Dr. Smith is a Chartered Electrical Engineer (U.K.) and a Fellow of The Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Roddy C. Wilson (M06) received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, U.K. He joined YARD Limited in 1984. Between 1993 and 1997, he was with Foster Wheeler Energy Limited. Since 1997, he has been with Mott MacDonald, Glasgow, U.K., where he is currently the Business Development Manager of the Transmission and Distribution Divisions Power Systems Analysis Section. Mr. Wilson is a corporate member of The Institution of Engineering and Technology and a Charted Electrical Engineer (U.K.).