PEDS 2007

Hybrid Passive Filter Design for Distribution

Systems with Adjustable Speed Drives
M.A.S. Masoum, SMIEEE, A. Ulinuha, S. Islam, SMIEEE, and K. Tan, MIEEE
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, WA, Australia

accurate filter modeling, the propagation of harmonics as well

Abstract--Drive systems inject significant low order harmonics as the impact of nonlinear drive systems on the rest of the
currents into distribution system and deteriorate the quality of power system needs to be considered.
electric power. This paper models variable frequency and PWM There are many solution approaches to compensate for
adjustable speed drives as harmonic current sources and harmonic injections of nonlinear loads [5], including (passive,
performs power flow analysis before filtering to identify highly
distorted buses and the spectrum of harmonic frequencies with active and hybride) filters, unified power quality conditioners
unacceptable THD levels as specified by IEEE-519 standard. The (UPQCs) and active power line conditioners (APLCs).
IEEE 30-bus system with penetration of nonlinear adjustable Passive filters are the easiest and most cost effective
speed drive loads is used to study the effectiveness of passive method for harmonic compensation. There are a large number
filters and to investigate the impact of their location and tuning of low-power nonlinear loads in single-phase power system,
frequencies on the quality of voltage and current waveforms. such as ovens, air conditioners, fluorescent lamps, TVs,
Simulation results before and after the installations of filters are
presented, compared and analyzed for different nonlinear computers, power supplies, printers, copiers and battery
loading and filter configurations. It is shown that the number, chargers. Low-cost compensation of these residential
locations and tuning frequencies of filters have major impacts on nonlinear loads can be achieved using hybrids of passive
the overall quality of the distribution system. filters (e.g., shunt or series combinations of a group of passive
filters). Three-phase power system is highly polluted by a
Index Terms-- Variable frequency, PWM, drives systems, large number of small rating to reasonable power level
power quality, THD, passive filter and harmonic power flow nonlinear loads such as adjustable speed drives and HVDC
I. INTRODUCTION
transmission systems in high power rating. These loads can be
compensated using either hybrids of passive filters or hybrids
RIVE systems are nonlinear devices with non-sinusoidal of active and passive filters depending on the nature of the AC
waveforms that inject low order harmonic currents into system. Compensation of single-phase high-rating traction
distribution system. Electric utilities are very concern systems are effectively performed with a hybrid of active
about the fast growth of large electric drives in the industrial filters. Vastly distributed single-phase nonlinear loads in
sectors of distribution system. Variable frequency and PWMI
drives are considered as one of the biggest contributors to three-phase
four-wire systems may be compensated using a
power quality problems due to their high-power ratings [1-3]. number of hybrids of passive filters, active filters or hybrids of
The nonlinear v-i characteristics of drive systems may result in passive and active filters.
triplen harmonic currents, neutral conductor problems (and This paper performs harmonic flow analysis in the presence
increased losses), transformer saturation (and overheating), of nonlinear drive systems to determine highly distorted buses
power-factor capacitor failures, unsatisfactory performance of and the most detrimental harmonic frequencies. A hybrid of
fuses, circuit breakers and relays (e.g., longer or shorter shunt passive filters (tuned at the dominated harmonic
tripping times depending on the harmonic magnitude and frequencies) is used to compensate for the injected harmonics.
spectrum), etc. Consideration of these problems requires The power quality of the system (including the overall THD
investigating their impacts on power system devices, loads and and individual THD levels of each bus) are examined before
equipments and, if necessary, suppression or prevention of and after the placement of the filters. The effects of filter
their generation. Consequently, harmonic filters are often location as well as the number of filter units are investigated.
utilized to eliminate or limit the injected harmonics [4-6]. The Variable speed drives are modelled as harmonic current
common approach is to place power filters at the terminal of sources and decouple harmonic power flow (DHPF) algorithm
the drive and tune them to attenuate the injected harmonic is performed to model the distorted power system. The IEEE
currents without considering their effects on the rest of the 30-bus system with a number of variable-frequency and PWM
power system. adjustable speed drives is used for the analysis and
For the power system consisting of a number of nonlinear simulations.
loads (e.g., variable speed drives), a vast variety of harmonic
currents with different orders, magnitudes and phase angles II. HARMONIC MODELING OF AC DRIVES
are injected at different locations (buses). Therefore, for
The literature is rich with documents on classification,
modeling and analyses of nonlinear drive systems [3-9].

1-4244-0645-5/07/$20.00©2007 IEEE 1707

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Modern electric drives utilize rectifier circuits and are acceptable THD levels experienced with CSI-based
classified as dc and ac drives. configurations (about 6%). Due to the high-frequency
DC drives employ controlled rectifiers to realize variable switching, the current waveforms of both types of drives are
dc voltages while ac drives usually have PWM inverters with acceptable and have low THD levels (e.g., less than 2%).
variable voltage and variable frequency technology. In ac
drives, a dc capacitor is normally applied between the rectifier Cost considerations- PWM-CSI drives have certain
and the PWM inverter to limit the low-ripple dc voltage. Many limitations that increase their overall cost. The dc inductor and
industrial loads such as the paper industry use controlled ac the large ac capacitor demand extra space and increase the
drives with voltage-source inverter (VSI) that operate based on cost. In addition, the ac capacitor may cause self excitation
PWM switching. However, the dc capacitor magnifies line with magnetizing inductor of the rotating machine. The self-
harmonics and may cause power quality problems. DC drives excitation problem may be solved by coordinating the dc
are directly connected to dc motors without a dc capacitor. inductor, ac capacitor and motor operating conditions, such
Therefore, dc drives have large equivalent inductances on the that the resonant frequency does not coincide with any
dc bus and cause less harmonic distortions on the line-side, as harmonic frequencies ofthe system and/or nonlinear loads.
compared to their counterpart ac drives. Furthermore, For analysis and modelling of small to moderate size power
harmonics distortions of ac drives become more severe under systems, detailed and accurate models of dc and ac drives can
light load conditions. One approach to improve the be utilized to generate accurate results. However, due to
performance of ac drives is to place an inductor on the dc bus memory storage and convergence problems of harmonic
in addition to the dc capacitor [3]. This will reduce reflection power flow algorithms, detailed nonlinear models of drive
of harmonics into lines from the VSI unit; however, there are systems should not be used for the simulation of large
cost and implementation issues. distorted distribution systems with high penetration of
A counterpart to the PWM-VSI electric drive is the current- nonlinear loads. This paper uses harmonic current sources to
source inverter (CSI)-based PWM-operated drive system; the model drive systems and employs a decoupled harmonic
dc bus includes a dc inductor (with no dc capacitor) and the power flow algorithm [10-13] to simulate the distorted
load side is connected to a three-phase ac capacitor in parallel distribution system that usually includes other nonlinear
with the motor [3]. With this improved configuration, the devices and/or loads. An inherent advantage of this simple
capacitor and dc inductor act as a filter unit while the ac approach (in addition to its simplicity, fast convergence and
inductor serves as an energy storage element. Comparison acceptable accuracy), is the possibility of using measured
between PWM-CSI and PWM-VSI electric drives can be waveform current (or voltage) of the drive to estimate the
performed based on output voltage regulation, line current harmonic model without the need for detailed models. This is
waveform, load-side voltage/current waveforms, and cost [7- particularly attractive for most electric utilities that have
9]: limited information about the configuration, types and number
of drive systems for their industrial customers. Table 1 shows
Voltage regulation- the line-to-line output voltages of PWM- the typical harmonic spectrum of variable-frequency and
CSI and PWM-VSI drives are: PWM adjustable speed drives used in this paper [8-9].
VrPw S =~ Vg
VPMCJ-~Vrms
D
= 1.732 Vg(1 D(1 TABLE 1
HARMONIC SPECTRUM OF TYPICAL VARIABLE-FREQUENCY AND PWM
VPWM-VSI S- DV =0612DVg ADJUSTABLE SPEED DRIVES
variable frequency drive PWM-adjustable speed drive
(675 kW, 439 kVAr) (350 kW, 175 kVAr)
where Vg is the equivalent dc source voltage and D is the duty h
magnitude phase angle magnitude phase angle
ratio of the inverter which is less than one. According to Eq. 1, [%] [degree] [%] [degree]
the CSI configuration has better voltage regulation capabilities 1 100 0 100 0
due to the substantial energy stored in the inductor as well as 5 23.52 111 82.8 -135
its boost characteristics. 7 6.08 109 77.5 69
11 4.57 -158 46.3 -62
13 4.2 -178 41.2 139
Line current harmonics- PWM-CSI drives inherently have 17 1.8 -94 14.2 9
low line harmonics. On the other hand, due to the reflection of 19 1.37 -92 9.7 -155
the dc capacitor in a VSI-based drive, the line current 23 0.75 -70 1.5 -158
25 0.56 -70 2.5 98
waveforms are highly distorted and become discontinuous in 29 0.49 -20 0 0
many cases, particularly under light load conditions. The total 31 0.54 7 0 0
harmonic distortion THD of VSI-based drives may be as high
as 60% with very high penetrations of 5th and 7t harmonics. III. DECOUPLED HARMONIC POWER FLOW
Output (load side) voltage and current waveforms- typical At the fundamental frequency, system is modeled using the
voltage waveforms of the VSI-based drives have high THD conventional (sinusoidal) power flow approach. The
values of about 400/ (with lowest harmonic order equal to the magnitudes and phase angles of bus voltages are calculated
switching frequency of about 5-10 kHz), as compared with using the following mismatch equations [10-13]:

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 currents, the harmonic load flow problem can then be
COS('51-'5j- 0j)0
1+1 I1
Pi_ Yjli VjlJ Vil1 1 J calculated using the following equation [ 13]:
i+1
yhvh =Ih
~~~~~~~~~~~~~(2)
(6)
Qi - E YIVl Vil sin(- j ) At any bus i, the rms voltage is defined as:
ill~~~~~~Jj
where
IVil = ( Vih)(7
~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~(7)
yJ1i = Y1i01 yj- ~~~~~if=i (3) where H is the maximum harmonic order considered. After
solving load flow for different harmonic orders, the total
harmonic distortion of voltage at bus i (THDV1) is computed as:
whilePi Qi V. and yci are the total active power, reactive
,

power, fundamental voltage and admittance of shunt capacitor

at bus i, and Yi,i+1 =1I(R1,i+1 + jXi,+1l) is the admittance of
THDvj (0o
:#

X1O00o (8)
line section between bus i and bus i+ 1. Vi
At harmonic frequencies, power system is modeled as
combination of passive elements and current sources. The
system can then be considered as a passive element with IV. HYBRID OF PASSIVE FILTERS
multiple harmonic injection currents. Linear loads are modeled The configuration and complexity of the filter depends on
with a resistance in parallel with an inductance to account for harmonic spectrum and nature of the distortion. If a nonlinear
the respective active and reactive loads at fundamental load is locally causing significant harmonic distortion, passive
frequency. Nonlinear loads are considered as ideal harmonic filters may be installed to prevent the harmonic currents from
current sources that generate harmonic currents and inject being injected into the system. These filters are inexpensive
them into the system. The admittance-matrix-based harmonic compared with most other mitigating devices. Passive filters
power flow is the most widely used method as it is based on are composed of only passive elements (inductance,
the frequency-scan process. In this approach, admittance of capacitance, and resistance) tuned to the harmonic
system components will vary with the harmonic order. If skin frequencies. In practice, passive filters are added to the system
effect is ignored at higher frequencies, the resulting hth starting with the lowest trouble harmonic (e.g., installing a
harmonic frequency load admittance, shunt capacitor seventh-harmonic filter usually requires that a fifth-harmonic
admittance and feeder admittance are respectively given by the filter also be included).
following equations [13]:
h Pli Qli Rf Rf Rf Rf Rf
Yli 2J 2
v7 h v7
L(5) aL(7)f L(l) LL(13) L(17)
Yi h I
(4) (
C5) C(7) (11
Cfl (13) C(17)
h I
Yl,i+l Ri1i+l + jhXi,i+l Fig. 1. Hybrid of passive filters employing five series-resonance filters tuned
at 5th 7th 1 Ith 13th and 17th harmonics
where Pli and Qli are the respective active and reactive linear
loads at bus i. Since drive systems mainly inject low order harmonics, a
The nonlinear load is treated as harmonic current sources hybrid filter block consisting of a number of band-pass filters
and the hth harmonic current injected at bus i introduced by the tuned to dominating harmonic frequencies [4] will be used
nonlinear load with real power Pn and reactive power Q, is: (Fig. 1). The resonant frequency of each shunt branch is:

Il = [(Pni + jQni) Vi ]* coh =2Azhf= 1 LhCh (9)

(5)
Ii1 = C(h)I11 where h is the order of harmonic that is being attenuated, f is
where If is the fundamental current and I is the hth the fundamental frequency, Lhf and Chf are filter inductor
harmonic current determined by C(h), which is the ratio of the and capacitor, respectively. For variable-frequency drives, two
hth harmonic to the fundamental current. C(h) can be obtained filter branches tuned at the 5th and the 7th harmonic are used
by field test and Fourier analysis for all customers along the (Fig. 1). For PWM adjustable speed drives (Table 1) all filter
distribution feeder [13]. branches are activated.
For decouple harmonic power flow calculation, loop
equations are written at each harmonic frequency of interest. V. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Each loop is formed including the source nodes. After The 23kV distribution system [14-15] is used in this paper
modifying admittance matrix and the associated harmonic (Fig. 2). A PWM-adjustable speed drive and a variable

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frequency drive (Table 1) are placed at buses 15 and 18,
respective. At the fundamental frequency, all loads including
nonlinear drives are considered as constant power loads. Three
cases will be considered.
ASD: PWM adjustable speed drive \ 31
Fig. 2. The IEEE 30-bus system used for simulations [14-15]
after the installation of Filter Bank 1 at bus 15 are shown in
Figs. 4 and 6 and Table 2. Therefore, by performing harmonic
load flow analysis, it may be possible to eliminate unnecessary
filter banks and reduce the overall cost of harmonic
compensation.
Case C. Impact ofFilter Location on Power Quality
To show the impact of filter locations on the overall power
quality of system, Filter Bank 1 is installed between the two
drive systems at bus 9. Based on the results (Fig. 5, Table 2),
poor placement of power filters will not only deteriorate their
performances, but might also hearten harmonic propagation
and cause additional power quality problems in other sectors
of the system (e.g., in buses 10-15 and 16-18 for Case C).
TABLE 2
SUMMARY OF SIMULATION RESULTS FOR THE IEEE 30 BUS SYSTEM (FIG. 2)
BEFORE AND AFTER THE INSTALLATION OF FILTER(S)

Case A. Harmonic Compensation with Two Hybrid Flirters before filtering after filtering (Case A)
minimum maximum minimum maximum
Harmonic analysis before the installation of passive filters 0.8382 pu 1.0003 pu 0.8295 pu 1.0003 pu
rms voltage at bus 15 at bus I at bus 15
indicate very high distortion of both voltage and current at bus 2
1.8492 % 6.5089 pu 1.0548 % 2.1691 %
waveforms (Fig. 3 and Table 2) due to the presence of the two THDv
at bus 5 at bus 15 at bus II at bus 18
ac drives with relatively high power ratings (Table 1). system THDv 3.1820% 1.4818%
According to the IEEE-5 19 standard [7], the individual after filtering (Case B) after filtering (Case C)
harmonic current injections at bus 15 (for 5th, 7th, 1 1th, 13th, minimum maximum minimum maximum
0.8337 pu 1.0001 pu 0.8469 pu 1.0002 pu
17th and I9th harmonics) and bus 18 (for 5th, 7th and 11th rms voltage at bus 5 at bus 2 at bus 15 at bus 2
harmonics) are higher than the allowable level of 400 and the THDv 1.2520 % 1.8629 % 1.0938 % 5.8453 %
electric utility has the right to reject (disconnect) these at bus 22 at bus 18 at bus 6 at bus 15
nonlinear loads. In addition, propagation of injected harmonic system THDv 1.4950 %0 1.8707 %
currents has resulted in unacceptable THDv levels (e.g., larger Voltage waveforms of bus 15 before and after filtering
that 5°O) at buses 12 to 15. Buses 11 and 16 to 18 are also 0.8
experiencing relatively high THDv of more than 400 (Fig. 6).
I

0.6 I
The common procedure is to require the consumers of 0.4 ,.
o 0.2 //
nonlinear loads (at buses 15 and 18) to installation passive
filter banks at the terminals of the AC drives. Figure 3 and Xo /

Table 2 show the simulation results after the installation of the _0.4

following filter banks, tuned at the dominated frequencies: -0.6-

* Filter Bank 1- A hybrid passive filter with five shunt -0.8L

-10 T
T
uncompensate
-filtered

branches tuned to the 5t, 7 , 11 th 13th and 17t harmonic

T/2 3T/2 2T 5T/2 3T
= penod

frequencies (Eq. 9 with f1=50Hz), installed at bus 15 with 0.06

Current waveforms of bus 15 before and after filtering

Rf = ] OOQ, Lf = ]OOmH (for all branches), C[5) 4. 05pF, 0.04

<
/ filtered t

C(7) = 2007iF, C(l 0. 84,uF, C(]3) = 0. 6,F, C"i) 0.3.5F.

* Filter Bank 2- A hybrid passive filter with only two shunt
branches tuned to the 5th and 7th harmonic frequencies -0.02

(Eq. 9 with f1=50Hz), installed at bus 18 with

Rf = IOOD, Lf = lOOmH (for allbranches), -0.04 / T2 2

C(5) = 4.051JF,C(7) = 2.07/iF = penod

5T/2 3T

According to Table 2, the performance of these filters are Fig. 3. Voltage and current waveforms at bus 15 before and after the
installation of two filter banks at buses 15 and 18 (Case A)
satisfactory; the maximum level of THDv has dropped from
6.51% (at bus 15) to 2.17% (at bus 18) while the average
system THDv is within the permissible limits of the IEEE-519
standard [7].
Case B. Harmonic Compensation with One Hybrid Flirter
This case examines the possibility of meeting IEEE-519
limits with only one filter bank. Simulations results before and

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 1 Voltage waveforms of bus 15 before and after filtering VI. CONCLUSION
Distorted distribution systems with nonlinear ac drive loads
are modeled and the impact of numbers, locations and tuning
frequencies of hybrid filters (consisting of shunt passive
_0.6
02 I
branches tuned at the dominating harmonic frequencies) are
investigated. A decoupled harmonic power flow algorithm is
used to simulate the distribution system and nonlinear ac
1
ol~~~~~~~~~~~~fI~
10 T T T 52 3

E~~~~~~~~~~~~~ft~
drives are modeled with harmonic current sources. This simple
approach is very practical and convenient for the analysis of
large distorted industrial systems with inadequate information
about the nonlinear loads (e.g., parameters and ratings of ac
0.04L drives). Simulation results indicate that the common approach
.-I
0.02 of placing filter banks at the terminals of each drive system is
0

0
not always the best and most economical solution. Simulation
ol
0
E results indicate that the number, locations and tuning
_0.02
frequencies of filters have major impacts on the overall quality
-0.04 of the distribution system. It might be possible to control and
-n ns
limit the overall system distortion, as well as the individual
u-ut6 T/2 T 3T/2
= penod
2T 5T/2 3T
bus THDv levels with fewer filter banks if system conditions
Fig. 4. Voltage and current waveforms at bus 15 before and after the before and after harmonic compensation are carefully studied
installation of one filter bank at bus 15 (Case B)
Voltage waveforms of bus 15 before and after filtering
and analyzed. This required fast and relatively accurate
1
algorithms and solution approaches, as presented in this paper.
0.8; g
VII. REFERENCES
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filtered
[3] Y. Yin and A.Y. Wu, "A Low-Harmonic Electric Drive System
T
T/2 3T/2
= penod
2T 5T/2 3T
[4] Based on Current-Source Inverter", IEEE Transactions on Power
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0.04_ [5] J.C. Das, "Passive Filters- Potentialities and Limitations", IEEE
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0.02
[7] Y.M. Chen, "Passive Filter Design using Genetic Algorithms", IEEE
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-0.041 ) T2 T 3T2 2T 5T2 3T
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[10] M. H. Rashid, Power Electronics, Circuits, Devices, and Applications,
| ~~~~~~~~ThD
reduction
2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1993.
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1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29
13
;3
Bus [15] J. J. Grainger and S. Civanlar, "Volt/var control on distribution systems
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Fig. 6. Comparison of THDv levels of the IEEE 30-bus system (Fig. 2) before III: The numerical result," IEEE Transactions on Power Apparatus and
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[16] Z. Hu, X. Wang, H. Chen, and G. A. Taylor, "Volt/VAr control in
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