IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 59, NO.

1, JANUARY 2012

281

Optimal C -Type Passive Filter Based on

Minimization of the Voltage Harmonic
Distortion for Nonlinear Loads
Shady Hossam Eldeen Abdel Aleem, Ahmed Faheem Zobaa, Senior Member, IEEE, and
Mohamed Mamdouh Abdel Aziz, Senior Member, IEEE

AbstractIn its broadest sense, passive filters have been a very

potent technique for power system harmonic suppression because
of their possible different frequency response characteristics that
can achieve a certain required harmonic filtering target, also due
to their simplicity and economical cost. This paper presents an
application of FORTRAN feasible sequential quadratic programming to find the optimal sizing of parameters of C-type passive
filters for minimizing the total voltage harmonic distortion of nonlinear loads, where maintaining a given power factor at a specified
range is desired. The optimal design of the C-type passive filter
as an alternative to the conventional passive filtering techniques
is introduced, and a detailed comparison of the results between
an uncompensated system and a C-type filter are discussed by
means of different numerical examples, considering source and
load nonlinearities, while taking into account compliance with the
IEEE standards 519-1992 and 18-2002.

ICH

Index TermsC-type passive filter, FORTRAN feasible sequential quadratic programming (FFSQP), harmonics, passive filter,
power quality.

VS

N OMENCLATURE
RLH , XLH
GLH , BLH
RSH , XSH
ZCH
ISH
IS
ILH
IC

Load resistance and reactance in ohms at harmonic number h.

Load conductance and susceptance in mhos at
harmonic number h.
Transmission system resistance and reactance in
ohms at harmonic number h.
The hth harmonics C-type filter impedance in
ohms.
Average value of the supply current in amperes at
harmonic number h.
Root-mean-square (RMS) value of the supply
current in amperes.
Average value of the load harmonic current in
amperes.
RMS value of the main capacitor current in
amperes.

Manuscript received October 20, 2010; revised January 17, 2011; accepted
March 23, 2011. Date of publication April 7, 2011; date of current version
October 4, 2011.
S. H. E. Abdel Aleem is with the Higher Institute of Engineering, 15th of
May, Helwan, Egypt (e-mail: engy-shady@hotmail.com).
A. F. Zobaa is with the School of Engineering and Design, Brunel University,
UB8 3PH Uxbridge, U.K., and also with Cairo University, Giza 12613, Egypt
(e-mail: azobaa@ieee.org).
M. M. Abdel Aziz is with the Department of Electrical Power and Machines,
Cairo University, Giza 12613, Egypt.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIE.2011.2141099

ICN

PL
PS
DPF
VLH
VSH
VL

VC
VC
VCP

Average value of the main capacitor current in

amperes at harmonic number h.
Nominal RMS main capacitor current based on
the rated kilovolt-ampere reactive (kVAR) and
voltage in amperes.
Load active power per phase in watts.
Supply active power per phase in watts.
Displacement power factor (PF) in percent.
Average value of the load voltage in volts at
harmonic number h.
Average value of the supply voltage in volts at
harmonic number h.
RMS value of the load voltage (line to neutral) in
volts.
RMS value of the supply voltage (line to neutral)
in volts.
RMS main capacitor voltage in volts.
Nominal RMS main capacitor voltage in volts.
Main capacitor peak voltage in volts.
I. I NTRODUCTION

N IMPORTANT factor in the world industrial headway

during the last several years is the increasing of certain
types of loads that result in power quality problems for the
customer and the supplier alike. Power quality issues, harmonic
pollution, and interference problems are becoming potentially
serious; thus, the minimization of the harmonic level is required. In this form, the power quality is a set of constraints that
allows electrical systems in any industrial plant to function with
reliable and continuous expected quality without any additional
loss of performance due to any kind of abnormalities, and it is
actually the quality of the voltage that is being intended in most
cases [1][4].
The IEEE standard 519 clearly states that harmonic currents
should be reduced to minimize voltage distortion since the
power supply system can only control the quality of the voltage
and has no control over the currents that particular loads might
draw. Therefore, the norms in the power quality area are voted
to maintaining the voltage at the point of common coupling
(PCC) with the utility, within certain limits; these limits generally refer to aggregate harmonics, helping to assure efficiency
and reliability for industrial applications [5], [6].
Harmonic pollution is developed by most modern electronic
loads, which can be found in all worldwide industrial facilities.

0278-0046/$26.00 2011 IEEE

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These electronic loads use power electronic devices, which are

responsible for generating harmonic currents. With the incremental sophistication of nonlinear loads, which are typically
characterized into two types of harmonic sources, i.e., the
harmonic current and voltage sources, the degradation of the PF
of the load increase in the transmission-line losses, and hence,
the reduction of the transmission network efficiency are all
expected. Moreover, the level of the voltage harmonic distortion
in distribution networks will significantly increase [7].
For these reasons, different researchers have studied the
proper limitation of harmonic disturbance levels, and among
several techniques used to reduce these harmonic disturbances,
the most frequently managed are the tuned passive filters, due
to their simplicity and economical cost.
In traditional filtering methods, single-tuned and high-pass
filters are employed to mitigate harmonic currents injected.
Single-tuned filters provide strong attenuation at a specific
resonant harmonic frequency but create parallel resonance.
Moreover, high-pass filters attenuate high-order harmonic currents; however, they cannot be tuned to a lower order harmonic
due to their expected large kilowatt losses. When single-tuned
and high-pass filters are employed together to control a harmonic load, they resonate at some frequencies. Moreover, they
cannot satisfy the requirements of the randomly varying loads.
In this paper, the C-type filter is investigated as an alternative approach, to avoid the taints of traditional passive
techniques and the essential equations required for the filter
design, advantages and disadvantages are identified, and then,
the effectiveness of using the C-type filter under various cases
of study is demonstrated. An optimal design of the C-type
passive filter is made based on minimization of the total voltage
harmonic distortion of the nonlinear load, where maintaining
the load PF at an acceptable specified range ( 90%) is desired. The most important concepts to be illustrated involve the
evaluation of harmonic voltage limits on the overall system.
These limits are typically evaluated at the PCC between the
supplier and the customer. In the IEEE standard 519-1992, the
objectives of the nonlinear-load harmonic current limits are to
limit the maximum individual harmonic voltage to 3% of the
fundamental voltage and the total harmonic distortion of the
voltage to 5% on power systems that are 69 kV and below [8].
The optimal design of the C-type filter is a complex and defying tickler since it often involves various conflicting objectives
and constraints. Thus, the selection of an optimal solution can
be treated as a nonlinear programming problem.
The FORTRAN feasible sequential quadratic programming
(FFSQP) optimization technique is used for optimal design and
to establish the suitability and the effectiveness of the C-type
filter.
The FFSQP routine is held as a new approach for solving constrained nonlinear optimization problems; it guarantees
many benefits. It has the ability to achieve an improvement in
solution accuracy, provides convergence to the global solution,
and is considered a very robust and fast method when solving
for the minimization of the maximum of nonlinear objective
goals subject to general constraints [9][11].
Various numerical cases are introduced to demonstrate the
performance of the proposed optimization in a wide range.

Fig. 1.

Circuit model illustrating the configuration of the C-type filter.

II. C-T YPE PASSIVE F ILTER

The C-type filter was first investigated in FranceEngland
Interconnection high-voltage direct current (HVDC) project
as a new strategy for harmonic manipulations and then in
Intermountain and QuebecNew England HVDC projects. The
conventional HVDC transmission system is fabled of a rectifier
portion, a direct-current line, and an inverter portion. During
the commutating process of the family of the thyristors used, a
large number of harmonics will be generated. Therefore, it is
necessary to carry out harmonic suppression [2].
Fig. 1 illustrates a circuit model of an installed C-type filter.
In what follows, the equations that express the filter components
R, X, CMain (CM ), and CAuxiliary (Ca ) will be investigated.
The main feature of the C-type filter that differs from other
passive filters topologies such as the second- and third-order
filters, which are the main types used in the HVDC projects, is
its components L and Ca , which resonate at the fundamental
frequency, and thus, the power loss on the damping resistor R
will be reduced. In other words, this capacitor (Ca ) is sized
so that the magnitude of its capacitive reactance is equal to
the magnitude of the inductive reactance at the fundamental
frequency in order to prevent fundamental current from flowing
in R; therefore, the kilowatt losses in the filter are eliminated,
and thus, the filter acts as a capacitor at the fundamental
frequency.
As frequency increases, the inductor starts to resonate with
CM + Ca , which makes the filter act as a single-tuned filter
with a damping resistor.
At high frequencies, the inductor magnitude becomes larger
than its magnitude at the fundamental frequency, and the current will flow through the resistive branch, resulting in a filtering service similar to that of the first-order filter, which makes
the C-type passive filter topology appear as a combination of
various passive filter topologies [12][16].
The impedance of the C-type passive filter varies with the
harmonic order, where h is the order of the harmonic presented
and X is the magnitude of the auxiliary capacitive reactance,
which is equal to the magnitude of the inductive reactance, and
it can be illustrated as follows:



R jX h h1
X
 j CM .


ZCH =
h
R + jX h h1
Hence, separating the real and imaginary parts of the ZCH
and rearranging and setting the real part of this impedance as
RF and the imaginary part as XF yield
ZCH = RF + jXF

ABDEL ALEEM et al.: C-TYPE PASSIVE FILTER BASED ON MINIMIZATION OF HARMONIC DISTORTION

283

For simplification considerations, let

RF (h ) = nh XS
n = 

1
1
ISPU (h )

2

(5)

By substitution of (1) and (2) in (4) and (5), two equations with
two unknowns, i.e., R and X, are attained as
 XCM 2
+ (nh XS )2

R(h ) = h
(6)
nh XS
 X 2
CM
+ (nh XS )2

 .
X(h ) = hXCM  
(7)
h h1
h

Fig. 2.

Solving (6) and (7) simultaneously, we get

 XCM 2
+ (nh XS )2

R= h
nh XS
 XCM 2
+ (nh XS )2

 .
X = hXCM  
h h1
h

Equivalent circuits for driving C filter equations.

where
2
 
R X h h1
2
 
[R]2 + X h h1
 

R2 X h h1
XCM
.
XF =

 
1 2
2
h
[R] + X h h
RF =

(1)

(2)

If the reactive power supplied by the C-type filter is known,

the value of XCM will be directly calculated from the following
equation:
XCM =

2
VS1
.
QC

To determine the other parameters of the C-type filter, i.e.,

R and X, Fig. 2(a) illustrates a simplified circuit model of
a C-type filter installed at a bus, in which the fundamental
frequency reactance is XS (h = 1). The maximum fraction of
the current injected at the tuned harmonic order of the filter,
i.e., h , which can be permitted to flow through the supply
reactance, is denoted as ISPU (h ).
The filter reactance is zero at the resonant tuned frequency
(XF (h ) = 0). Thus, the C-type filter in Fig. 2(a) can be
replaced by a pure resistance at h = h , as shown in Fig. 2(b),
i.e.,
h XS

RF (h ) = 

1
ISPU (h )

(9)

III. P ROPOSED S YSTEM C ONFIGURATION

The C-type filter has a relatively strong attenuation for harmonic currents at certain resonant frequencies by introducing
low impedance for the harmonic current path, although it is not
as good as that of a single-tuned filter. However, the C-type
filter does not result in a parallel resonance [12][14]. Fig. 3
shows the principle of operation of the C-type filter for the
harmonic current source.
The Thevenin voltage source representing the utility supply
and the harmonic current source representing the nonlinear
load are

vSH (t)
(10)
vS (t) =
iL (t) =

iLH (t).

(11)

The hth harmonic Thevenin source impedance is

ZSH = RSH + jXSH
and the hth harmonic load impedance is
ZLH = RLH + jXLH
or by admittance

2

(3)
1

where ISPU (h ) is a factor varying in the range 0.10.9; thus, if

the filter must attenuate 70% of the seventh harmonic current, as
an example, this means that ISPU = 0.3 and h = 7. Moreover,
at h = h , XF = 0, which means that
 

R2 X h h1
XCM
.
(4)
2 =
 
1
h
[R]2 + X h
h

(8)

YLH = GLH jBLH .

IV. C OMPENSATED S YSTEM A NALYSIS
After some algebraic manipulations for the system under
study shown in Fig. 3, the compensated load PF is given as

2
GLH VLH
PL
h
= 

(12)
PF =

2
VL IS
I2
V
h

SH

LH

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 59, NO. 1, JANUARY 2012

Fig. 3. Principle of operation of the C-type filter for a harmonic current source.

where
ISH =

[N1 ] + j[N2 ]
[D1 ] + j[D2 ]

VLH =

[N3 ] + j[N4 ]
[D1 ] + j[D2 ]

(13)

distorted waveform relative to the fundamental voltage and is

given as


2
VLH
VTHD =

h1

VL1

(17)

N1 = VSH (RF + RLH ) + ILH A3

V. M ULTICONSTRAINTS AND O BJECTIVE O PTIMIZATION

N2 = VSH (XF + XLH ) + ILH A4

N3 = VSH A3 ILH (A1 RF A2 XF )
N4 = VSH A4 ILH (A1 XF + A2 RF )
D1 = A1 XF (XLH + XSH ) + RF (RSH + RLH )
D2 = A2 + RF (XSH + XLH ) + XF (RLH + RSH )

(14)

so that
A1 = RSH RLH XLH XSH
A2 = RLH XSH + RSH XLH
A3 = RF RLH XLH XF
A4 = RF XLH + RLH XF .
To demonstrate the system performance indications for a
C-type filter, the transmission efficiency has been introduced,
which is given as
=

PL
PS

2
GLH VLH

=
2
2
ISH RSH + GLH VLH
h

Most research papers introduce a predetermined filters tuned

resonant frequency [inductor resonating with CM + Ca ] and
then build all the system performance on it. This paper introduces a different topology in which there is no predetermination
of the filter resonant frequency, but searching for the optimum
one, which leads to the optimum results required, while taking
into account compliance with the IEEE standard 519-1992 for
harmonic currents and the IEEE standard 18-2002 for capacitor
specifications for its continuous operation, the constraints may
be detailed as follows.
1) Source nonlinearity is represented in the source harmonic
currents as ISH and voltages as VSH .
2) Load nonlinearity is represented in harmonic load currents as ILH and voltages as VLH .
3) The IEEE standard 519-1992. According to the IEEE
standard 519-1992, harmonic voltage distortion on power
systems of 69 kV and below is limited to 5.0% of VTHD
with each individual harmonic limited to 3%.
4) The IEEE standard 18-2002. According to the IEEE
standard 18-2002 [17], capacitors are intended to operate
at their rated voltage. Considering that the main capacitor
rated voltage is VCN , then

(15)

and also the transmission losses PLOSS , which is given as

2
PLOSS =
ISH
RSH .
(16)
h

To identify the harmonic content, the voltage total harmonic

distortion (VTHD) at the compensated load terminals has been
introduced. It is considered a good identifier for harmonic
components. Basically, the VTHD is defined as a measure of
the voltage effective value of the harmonic components of a

ICN =

VCN
XCM

(18)

SCN =

2
VCN
.
XCM

(19)

Capacitors will be capable of continuous operation provided that none of the following limitations are exceeded:
a) 135% of nominal RMS current IC based on the rated
kilovolt ampere and voltage, i.e.,

2
IC =
ICH
h

ABDEL ALEEM et al.: C-TYPE PASSIVE FILTER BASED ON MINIMIZATION OF HARMONIC DISTORTION

where ICH is the capacitor current at harmonic number h and is given as

ICH =

[VSH RLH ILH A1 ] + j[VSH XLH ILH A2 ]

;
[D1 ] + j[D2 ]

(20)

b) 110% of the rated RMS voltage, i.e.,


2
VC =
VCH
h

where VCH is the capacitor voltage at harmonic number h and is given as

VCH = ICH

XCM
;
h

c) 120% of rated peak voltage, i.e.,




XCM
VCP =
(ICH )
; and
h
h

d) 135% of the nameplate kVAR, i.e.,

QC = VC IC .
It must be clear that the auxiliary capacitor is just
for tuning the inductor at the fundamental frequency
to bypass the resistor and is not exposed to the system
rated voltage; thus, its peak voltage is very small,
and all of its rating does not exceed the standard
limits (this is why it is commonly called an auxiliary
capacitor).
Thus, the object function for the C-type filter optimization,
complying with the previous constraints, is presented as follows.
Minimize VTHD (XCM , X, and R)
subject to:
VTHD (XCM , X, and R) 5%;
Each individual voltage harmonic is limited to 3%; and
PF (XCM , X, and R) 90%.
VI. FFSQP O PTIMIZATION T ECHNIQUE
Zhou et al. presented a new procedure based on the nonlinear
optimization theory called the FFSQP, which is actually composed of a set of FORTRAN subroutines for the minimization
of the maximum of a set of smooth objective functions subject
to general constraints; the target is simply to find a point
satisfying the objectives and the constraints [11].
If the initial guess proposed by the user is infeasible for
some inequality constraint or some linear equality constraint,
the FFSQP first suffices a feasible point for these constraints;
subsequently, the followed iterations provided by the FFSQP
all satisfy these constraints. Moreover, nonlinear-equality constraints are converted into inequality constraints (to be satisfied
by all iterations), and the maximum of the objective functions
is replaced by an exact penalty function, which penalizes
nonlinear-equality constraint violations only.

285

The FFSQP package provides two algorithms based on sequential quadratic programming modified to generate feasible
iterations as mentioned in [11]:
1) FFSQP-AL: the monotone line search, in which a certain
Armijo-type arc search is used and the objective function
decreases with iterations one by one after feasibility
for nonlinear-inequality and linear constraints have been
reached; and
2) FFSQP-NL: the nonmonotone line search along a
straight line, in which the objective function decreases
within at most four iterations.
The superior function used in both searches is the maximum
of the objective functions if there is no nonlinear-equality
constraint. Furthermore, all real variables and arrays must be
defined as a double precision in the routine that calls the FFSQP.
The user must provide subroutines that define the objective
targets and constraints and may provide either subroutines to
compute the gradients of these functions or needs that the
FFSQP estimate them by forward finite differences, and they
are simply demonstrated as follows [11].
1) Objective Subroutine f : subroutine that computes the
values of objective functions;
2) Constraints Subroutine g: subroutine that computes the
values of constraints;
3) Objective-Gradient Subroutine: subroutine that computes gradients of the objectives functions f ; alternatively, it can be replaced by grobfd, which computes
finite-difference approximations; and
4) Constraint-Gradient Subroutine: subroutine that computes gradients of the constraint functions g; alternatively,
it can be replaced by grcnfd, which computes finitedifference approximations.
VII. F ORMULATION OF THE S EARCH A LGORITHM
The optimum values of R, X, and XCM must be found to
fulfill the main objective required. Thus, a numerical optimization technique, i.e., the FFSQP, has been used to determine their
values.
The FFSQP routine was chosen because it is robust, assumes
no smoothness, and guarantees fewer steps for the different
functions evaluation; it also represents improvement in the
solution accuracy. It is based on the objective comparison. At
each iteration step, it generates a new point to replace the old
point if that was worse.
The suggested search algorithm is demonstrated as follows.
1) Determine the specifications of the FFSQP subroutine.
2) Construct the needed subroutines to develop the FFSQP
search.
3) Choose the first value of the increment factor n, which is
a factor varying in the range 0.10.9, i.e.,
n = 

1
1
ISPU (h )

2

.
1

It is suggested that the step of n is 0.05.

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4) Choose the first value of the standard manufactured reactive power rating of capacitors in kVAR, i.e.,

TABLE I
FOUR CASES OF AN INDUSTRIAL PLANT UNDER STUDY

QCi = {QC1 , QC2 . . . QCj }

where j is the number of discrete values available for
the particular voltage rating used and i has a starting
value of 1.
It is commonly suggested in low-voltage industrial
applications that the step of QCi is 50 kVAR [6].
5) Calculate XCMi for a C-type filter from the following
equation:
XCMi =

2
VS1
.
QCi

6) Substitute the first value of XCMi , with the first value of

n, into the equations for R and X, i.e.,
 XCM 2
+ (nh XS )2

R= h
nh XS
 XCM 2
+ (nh XS )2

 .
X = hXCM  
h h1
h
7) Substitute the values of XCMi , R, and X into the objective function, and calculate the minimum (VTHD), while
complying with the constraints.
8) Run the search algorithm considering the filter components values to be the initial values at the beginning of
each search.
9) Repeat with the second value of n at the same QCi (e.g.,
n = n + 0.05).
10) Use the search algorithm to solve the objective function
for the minimum (VTHD) at optimum h .
11) If i = j, stop; otherwise, replace i by i + 1, and go to
step 1.
12) The algorithm will halt when a feasible point is reached
or when the stopping criterion is achieved; this criterion
is the relative variance in the objective function, and it is
defined in the search algorithm as
108 .
13) After stopping, scan through the local minimums to get
the global minimum (VTHD) satisfying the constraints.
14) Determine the compensator parameters values corresponding to the global solution.
15) Use the obtained optimum values to evaluate some other
functions that explain the system performance when installing a C-type passive filter.
VIII. S IMULATED R ESULTS AND T HEIR D ISCUSSION
Four cases of an industrial plant (see Table I) were simulated
using the FFSQP optimization method. The numerical data
were taken from an example in IEEE publications [8], where
the inductive three-phase loads are 5100 kW and 4965 kVAR.
The 60-cycle supply bus voltage is 4.16 kV (2400 volts line to
neutral).

TABLE II
UNCOMPENSATED SYSTEM RESULTS IN THE FOUR CASES

TABLE III
SIMULATED RESULTS IN THE FOUR CASES FOR THE OPTIMIZATION
PROCESS FOR THE C-TYPE FILTER

The source and load harmonics were assumed to be timeinvariant quantities and were arbitrarily chosen to have more
harmonic content than that suggested in many previous publications [5], [6].
Table II shows the uncompensated system results to be
defined and compared with C-type filter compensation results.
The system analysis has been evaluated for different study
system configurations that indicate the system performance
with the C-type filter installed at the load side.
For the uncompensated system, a small harmonic current
can cause a very high voltage distortion, as shown in Table II,
because of the nonlinearity relation between them [18].
The comparison of the results given in Tables II and III show
that the general serving of the method is satisfactory, providing
improvement in the overall performance.
Table III shows that the proposed technique results in dipping in the supply current, lower transmission loss, higher

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287

TABLE IV
MAIN CAPACITOR DUTIES (IEEE STANDARD 18-2002)

Fig. 4.

Harmonics contents of the load voltage after compensation: case 1.

Fig. 5.

Harmonics contents of the load voltage after compensation: case 3.

transmission efficiency, and higher load PF than the uncompensated system cases shown in Table II.
It is obvious that the total harmonic voltage distortion is
dramatically reduced, satisfying the required objective function
and complying with the IEEE standard 519-1992. Figs. 4
and 5 show the values of the load harmonic voltage after
compensation in cases 1 and 3, respectively. It is obvious that
the resultant values all come out well within standard limits.
Thus, the main advantage of the presented method consists of
less harmonic power but much higher power quality in all the
electrical portions owned by the end user.
Table III shows that the C filter improves the PF and the
DPF, decreases the VTHD, and reduces harmonic currents, thus
preventing the proliferation of these currents in the network,
compared with the uncompensated system.
The IEEE standard 18-2002 specifies the prediscussed continuous capacitor ratings; Table IV shows the calculated capacitor limits compared with the standard limits for all cases. The
comparison of the calculated and standard limits shows that
all values lie within the standard limits; additionally, to avoid
the voltage rise at the fundamental frequency and due to the
harmonic loading, it is usually a good idea to use capacitors
with higher voltage rating [5].
Based on the results and the experience gained from this
study, these observations are based on the concept of constrained minimization of the VTHD for harmonic current
source loads.
For equal short-circuit capacity systems, the additional supply voltage harmonic contents for the same harmonic load will
result in the following.
1) Higher RMS load voltage VL as its fundamental component increases; the active load power consumption
increases as the harmonic load voltage increases, which
represents excessive loading for the network.
2) Higher line current passes to the compensated load; thus,
the higher transmission losses and voltage drop as the

line current increases. Therefore, the overall transmission

efficiency decreases.
3) Lower load PF, as the line current passed through the
compensated load increases.
4) Higher load VTHD level, because of the increase in
its harmonic content with respect to the fundamental
component.
5) More harmonic currents IC should be supplied by the
C-type filter, and thus, the capacitor kVAR increases,
which will reflect on the compensator investment cost.
The results shown in Table IV indicate that the capacitor
will be more stressed according to the IEEE standard
18-2002.
Results for lower short-circuit capacity systems with the
same supply voltage harmonic contents and the same load
harmonic currents will result in the following.
1) Lower RMS load voltage VL as its fundamental component decreases; thus, the useful power gained from the
source will be reduced, as less voltage is supplied to the
load.
2) Lower line current passes to the compensated load; paradoxically, a significant increase is observed in the transmission voltage drop, although IS decreases, and this is
because of the higher transmission impedance.
3) Higher load PF, as the line current passed through the
compensated load decreases and less voltage is supplied
to the load.
4) Higher load VTHD level, because of the increase in
its harmonic content with respect to the fundamental
component.
IX. C ONCLUSION
The FFSQP is considered a new routine for solving constrained nonlinear problems. The design is based on fulfilling a certain objective, which is minimizing the total voltage

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harmonic distortion. It provides improvement in the solution accuracy and effectiveness of the developed algorithm to achieve
convergence to the global solution.
Four cases have been tested, and the general performance of
the method used is satisfactory, providing improvement of distortion levels and PF correction compared with other published
results. The analysis is also compatible for more general loads,
even if the structure is more complicated than that in Fig. 3. It
suffices to use proper GLH and BLH characteristics.
Passive filters provide strong attenuation for harmonic currents at a specific harmonic frequency but suffer from the possibility of occurrence of resonance, and also, high-pass filters
attenuate high-order harmonics components but suffer from the
additional losses when tuned to a low harmonic frequency;
other solutions beginning from the combination of both up to
using active filters as well will be expensive.
The C-type filter has a good suppression at the tuned frequencies and does not result in a parallel resonance; moreover,
it is applicable to randomly varying loads such as arc furnaces,
because it offers lower losses when tuned to low frequencies
and mitigates characteristic and noncharacteristic harmonics
and interharmonics that may be injected [13].
Unlike the passive filter, the C-type filter is more durable
against tuning-frequency variations. Thus, there is less concern
for manufacturing tolerance [16].
The general system performance when using C-type filters
has been implemented and discussed. The results have discussed the effect of increasing the source harmonic voltage
levels on the system performance for two different systems
short-circuit capacities. Finally, the simulated results have
demonstrated the robustness and the viability of the proposed
design procedure.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank J. L. Zhou, A. L. Tits,
and C. T. Lawrence of the Electrical Engineering Department
and Institute for System Research, University of Maryland,
College Park, MD (System Research Center TR-92-107r2),
who provided the FFSQP package.
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Shady Hossam Eldeen Abdel Aleem received

the B.Sc. degree from Helwan University, Helwan,
Egypt, in 2002 and the M.Sc. degree from Cairo
University, Giza, Egypt, in 2010 (both in electrical
power and machines).
From 2003 to 2010, he was an Instructor with
the Higher Institute of Engineering, 15th of May,
Helwan, where he has been a Teaching Assistant
since 2010. Currently, he is working in the field of
electric machines, electric circuits, and engineering
mechanics. His areas of research include harmonic
problems in power systems, power quality, cables, electric machines, and
engineering mechanics.

Ahmed Faheem Zobaa (M02SM04) received the

B.Sc.(Hons.), M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical
power and machines from Cairo University, Giza,
Egypt, in 1992, 1997, and 2002, respectively.
From 2007 to 2010, he was a Senior Lecturer
in renewable energy with the University of Exeter,
Cornwall, U.K. He was also an Instructor from 1992
to 1997, a Teaching Assistant from 1997 to 2002, and
an Assistant Professor from 2003 to April 2008 with
the Department of Electrical Power and Machines
and the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University,
where he has also been an Associate Professor since April 2008. Currently, he
is also a Senior Lecturer in power systems with Brunel University, Uxbridge,
U.K. His main areas of expertise are power quality, photovoltaic energy, wind
energy, marine renewable energy, grid integration, and energy management.
Dr. Zobaa is an Editor-in-Chief for the International Journal of Renewable
Energy Technology. He is also an Editorial Board member, Editor, Associate
Editor, and Editorial Advisory Board member for many international journals.
He is a registered Chartered Engineer and European Engineer. He is also a
registered member of the Engineering Council U.K., Egypt Syndicate of Engineers, and the Egyptian Society of Engineers. He is a Fellow of the Institution
of Engineering and Technology. He is a member of the Energy Institute (U.K.),
the International Solar Energy Society, the European Society for Engineering
Education, the European Power Electronics and Drives Association, and the
IEEE Standards Association.

ABDEL ALEEM et al.: C-TYPE PASSIVE FILTER BASED ON MINIMIZATION OF HARMONIC DISTORTION

Mohamed Mamdouh Abdel Aziz (M80SM05)

received the B.Sc. (Hons.), M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical power and machines from Cairo
University, Giza, Egypt, in 1970, 1972, and 1975,
respectively.
He was an Instructor from 1970 to 1972 and
a Teaching Assistant from 1972 to 1975 with the
Department of Electrical Power and Machines, Cairo
University, where he is currently a Professor. On
the technical side, he has authored or coauthored
many refereed journal and conference papers. His
areas of research include cables, contact resistance, harmonics, power quality,
photovoltaic systems, and wind-energy systems.

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