528 IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 9, No. 3.

September 1994

Evaluation and Reduction of Harmonic Distortion

Caused by Solid State Voltage Controllers of Induction Motors

Leszek S. Czamecki, SM, IEEE Owen T.Tan,SM, EEE

Electrical and Computer Engineering
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803

-
Abstract The harmonic distortion caused by a solid state AC The SHF used as a CoFi device has some drawbacks, however,
voltage controller of an induction motor drive is evaluated. A when it is installed in a system where harmonic distortion is
conventional shunt harmonic filter (SHF)for harmonic reduction caused by drives equipped with SSVCs, especially, if the supply
for a group of such drives is compared with a harmonic blocking voltage is also distorted. One of these disadvantages is caused by
compensator (HBC). It is shown that the HBC is more efficient in the peculiarity of harmonic distortion in such a system. This
harmonic reduction than the SHF, especially, with distorted peculiarity is illustrated by the results of modeling an induction
supply voltage. Moreover, the designer has more control over the motor with supply voltage harmonics in section 2. Consequently,
HBC than the SHF perfonnance. The HBC, however, has a if the supply voltage is distorted, harmonics with high rms value
higher power rating than the SHF. may be present in the supply current. Also, amplification of some
voltage harmonics can be observed at the supply bus after an SHF
Key Words: Induction motors; AC voltage controllers; Harmo-
is installed.These topics are discussed in section 3.
nics; Reactive power compensation; Harmonic filters.
Consideringthe above, a shunt harmonic filter may not provide
satisfactory reduction of the waveform distortion. Therefore, as
1. Introduction an alternative to the SHF, this paper considers a CoFi device with
a different structure, designated here as the !harmonic blocking
Squirrel cage induction motors equipped with solid state vol- compensatof (HBC), that is capable to overcome the short-
tage controllers (SSVCs ) have long been rewgruz,ed to have a comings of shunt harmonic filters.
very low power factor and poor efficiency of energy conversion 8s An HBC is built per phase of a shunt capacitor which compen-
well as to cause strong harmonic distortion of the supply current sates the reactive power of the load, and a series frlter tuned to
[11. Nonetheless, these drives are still in use when simplicity and
the fundamental frequency. It resembles the well-known
high reliability are of primary interest and control accuracy is not electromagnetic interference (EMI) filter [5] but is rated to
a main concern [2]-[4]. The drawbacks associated with these
compensate the load reactive power. It forms a low impedance
drives normally do not present a serious technical problem since
shunt path for the load-generated current harmonics and a high
the power ratings involved are relatively low. However, in uses
impedance choke for supply voltage harmonics.
when a group of such drives is involved, power factor and power
The paper deals with the current distortion and degradation of
quality may be significantly degraded. Under these circumstan- the power factor caused by the SSVC of an induction motor. It
ces, installation of a device at the supply bus to reduce the overall
discusses the performance of a conventional SHF when applied
reactive power and total harmonic distortion may be economically
for reducing the harmonics generated by a group of variable
justified.
speed drives. The design and properties of an HBC are presented
Installation of a shunt harmonic filter is the most common
and compared to those of the SHF.
remedy for load-generated harmonic distortion and low power
factor. The filter is tuned to one or more frequencies in the
2. Induction motor with solid state
vicinity of frequencies of the load current harmonics. It provides a
low impedance path for these harmonics so that the SHF protects
voltage controller
the supply system against the injection of current harmonics
From the
point Of view, Of an
generated in the load. Such a circuit that provides compensation
of the reactive power and f i l t h g of harmonics will be
induction motor drive equipped with an SSVC are of particular
referred to as 'CoFi' device. concern, namely, the increase of the supplied reactive power and
the generation of current harmonics with motor speed reduction.
94 WM 103-2 EC A paper recommended and approved These CharaCteriStiCS affect the power quality at the Supply bus
by the IEEE Electric Machinery Committee of the and are therefore of primary concern for the analysis of propexties
IEEE Power Engineering Society for presentation of the CoFi devices.
at the IEEE/PES 1994 Winter Meeting, New York,
January 30 - February 3, 1994. Manuscript sub- The analysis of the squirrel cage induction motor equipped with
mitted July 30, 1993 ; made available for printing an SSVC is here simplified by neglecting the effects of waveform
January 4, 1994. distortion on the electric torque. This reduces the accuracy of the
computed motor speed at a given firing angle of the SSVC
thyristors, and hence, the accuracy of the calculated reactive
power and current distortion of the supply. Fortunately, these
quantities do not have to be known very accurately if the primary
0885-8969/94/!§04.00Ca 1994 IEEE

concem is to evaluate the effects of speed control on the power
factor and supply quality. The CoFi device has to be designed
relative to an expected value of the overall reactive power of all
drives and other loads. Since the speed adjustments of the
individual drives are usually at random, the expected value of the
total reactive power to be compensated and the level of load-
generated current harmonics can only be evaluated with relatively
low accuracy.
Fundamental reactive power.
The variation of the fundamental reactive power supplied to the
motor equipped with SSVC is investigated here for typical loads
of the drives where the load torque varies with the square of
motor speed. If the synchronous angular speed is taken as the
base speed in the per-unit system, i.e., w, = 1 pu, the load torque
at angular speed wm = (1- s) is given by
=To(l - s ) ~ (1)
where To is the load torque at synchronous speed and s is the
rotor slip.
For speed reduction with a sinusoidal motor voltage, i.e.,
without SSVC but using an autotransformer, for instance, the
stator voltage Us is lowered from rated value U, The increase in
slip s causes a change in the motor current Is- To find this current
at a given speed, the motor voltage U, required to develop an
electric torque equal to the load torque TIhas to be known.
The relationship between the motor voltage U, and the
operating slip is illustrated in Fig1 obtained by simulation of a
NEMA class D induction motor with the maximum torque T ,
occurring at a slip of 0.74 and the load torque satisfying eqn.( 1)
with To = Tmm 12. Fig. 1 also shows the increase in motor current
I, and decrease in active power P, with a reduction of motor
speed from rated value
When an SSVC is installed between a sinusoidal supply source
with rated voltage U, and the motor, the rms value of the
hdamental motor voltage Ul has to be reduced with speed
reduction to the same value of U, for the case without SSVC.
PU
'r
Fig.I . Motor voltage U,, current I,, active power P,
and reactive power Q, versus slip s (without SSVC)
Under the assumption previously made, the fundamental
component of the supply current, I , , has to be approximately
equal to the corresponding stator current I, without SSVC, i.e., I,
=I,. This is because the active power is transmitted to the motor
equipped with SSVC only at the bdamental frequency. If the
529
increase of power loss with harmonic distortion caused by the
SSVC is taken into account, the value of the fundamental current
Z, would be slightly higher than I,. However, this increase is
neglected here.
If the power loss in the SSVC is neglected, i.e., the active
powers on both sides of the voltage controller are assumed to be
the same, the displacement angle (, of the fundamental current
has to fulfill the relationship
U,I, cos 4, = u,z,cos (, (2)
where (s is the displacement angle with sinusoidal motor voltage
so that
(,
= arc cos{(U, /lJ,)cos 4J (3)
(,
which implies that the angle increases with a reduction of the
sinusoidal motor voltage U,. Thus, the source is loaded with the
fundamentalreactive power Q, given by
Q, = U, I, sin [arc cos{(v, /U,)cos 4J] (4)
The dependence of the source reactive power Q, on the speed is
s h o w in Fig.2 *ere the fundamental reactive powere, is
Fig.2. Motor voltage U,and reactive power ratio Q,,Q,
versus slip s (with SSVC)
referenced to its value Q, at rakd sinusoidal motor voltage and
slip:
Q, = U,Z,sin{arc cos(A,)] (5)
with A, denoting the motor power factor at rated sinusoidal
voltage U, and current I ,
The increase of the source reactive power with a reduction of
the motor speed and power output is not the only drawback of
this drive. Another disadvantage is the highly distorted supply
current due to the harmonics whose level increases with speed
reduction.
Current distortion
Harmonic distortion of the supply current caused by the SSVC
with motor speed reduction was computed for particular values of
the thyristors' firing angle ak under steady-state conditions
reached at slip sk The analysis is based on the method suggested
in Ref. 141, where the differential equations of the motor in
particular time intervals determined by the thyristors' witching
sequence are simplified with the assumption that the magnetfig
and rotor branches of the motor equivalent circuit are replaced by
530
a sinusoidal back emf. Its complex rms value is assumed to be
equal to that of the voltage across the magnetizing branch at slip
Sk
The motor equations are solved with an integration step equal
to 1/5 12 of the fundamental period for a sequence of values of
the firing angle until at a = ak the fundamental component I, of
the stator current is equal to the sinusoidal stator current I, at slip
sk and sinusoidal motor voltage U, The waveforms of the supply
current and motor voltage obtained from this integration provide
the input data for the harmonic analysis by using the Discrete
Fourier Transform and for the computation of the voltage and
current distortion as well as the power factor at the supply bus.
The current harmonic distortion (CHD) and the power factor at
the supply bus as functions of slip s are shown in Fig.3. This
Fig.3. Harmonic distortion of supply current and voltage, and
power factor R versus slip s
figure illustrates the peculiarity of the waveform distortion in a
system with an induction motor equipped with SSVC, especially
if compared with the distortion caused by acldc 6-pulse
converters. Considering that the CHD caused by an ad& 6-pulse
converter cannot exceed 31%, the CHD caused by the SSVC is
not only higher, but also occurs where the source current may still
be high. For acldc converters the highest CHD occurs at a low
supply current.
Because of this, an induction motor equipped with SSVC
harmonic order. For example, Ref.[6] showed this resistance to
increase by 3.3 times for the Sth, 5.2 times for the 7th, 10.6 times
for the 1 lth, and 14.6 times for the 13th harmonic.
3. Shunt harmonic filter
Installation of a shunt harmonic filter at the supply bus is a
widespread measure for harmonic reduction and power factor
improvement. The filter forms a shunt path of low impedance for
harmonics to which the filter is tuned.
Let Q, be the expected fundamental reactive power in per-unit
of the group of motors equipped with SSVCs supplied from the
same bus including the reactive power contributed by other loads.
A shunt harmonic filter is usually designed to compensate a
reactive power Qc which is related to Q, by a coefficient k,, i.e.,
Qc = k c e l . (6)
The choice of the k, value is a matter of trade-off between
compensator cost and filter effectiveness. With a smaller value of
kb the rating of the filter capacitors and their cost decline,
however, this reduces the effectiveness of harmonic reduction.
Expressing this trade-off in economical terms is a complex matter
since the harmonic effect on the cost increase is very difficult to
assess. Thus k, rather has to be chosen such that when the
reactive power is sufficiently reduced, the distortion level
satisfies the specifications as set forth in the IEEE Harmonic
Standard [7].
In the case considered, where the 5th harmonic is the lowest
characteristic harmonic, the filter is usually tuned to frequencies
in the vicinity of the 5th and 7th harmonics. Also, the filter may
contain a high pass branch as well. This practice is standard for
addc converters, however, as will be shown, it may be contro-
versial for drives with SSVC. In this case, the 7th harmonic of
the supply current has a relatively high rms value only in the
speed range where the voltage distortion is low and harmonic
reduction is not needed.This is shown in Figd for slip s = 0.13.
I -1. ospu, cno-22.1%
PF-0.39, UI0-3.5%
WCIPIION~CS, pu
n: UOLT'AGE: CURRENT:

results in a much higher voltage harmonic distortion (VHD) than 1: 0.97 1.07

an acldc converter of comparable rating when supplied from a

2:
3:
I:
---
5: 0.0_3 0.22
system of comparable short circuit power. The plot of the VHD SI 0.y 0.08
for a motor supplied from a bus with short circuit power of 40- 9:
10:
--
times the apparent power rating of the motor is illustrated in 11:
L 2
-- 0.03
13: 0.01 0.03
Fig.3. Although the curves shown in Fig.3 may vary with motor 11: -
-
---
15:
type, they demonstrate the main characteristics of the effects of 16:
17:
18:
the SSVC drive on the supply. 19:
20:
--
These results show that if a group of drives with SSVC consti- 21: -
tutes a substantial part of a consumer load, it may degrade power
$3; 0.61

quality. Therefore, an equipment for power factor improvement Figd. Voltage and current waveforms, and their spectra
and harmonic reduction should be installed under these for slip s = 0.13
circumstances. Without a proper CoFi device, the high current
harmonics not only contribute to bus voltage distortion, but also
In the speed range where voltage distortion exceeds an
acceptable level so that harmonics should be reduced, the 7th
to an increase of power losses in the distribution transformers.
current harmonic declines and does not have any noticeable effect
Note that harmonics increase the power loss more than
on the voltage distortion. The 1 lth, not the 7th harmonic is the
proportionally to the square of their rms value. This is because
second dominant harmonic in this speed range , This is illustrated
the equivalent resistance of a transformer increases with the
 531
in Fig3 for s = 0.33. The domination of the 1 Ith harmonic over Fig.6 demonstrates a drastic amplification of the 7th order har-
the 7th one in the range of high supply current is a peculiarity of monic because of series resonance of the filter with the supply
the waveform distortion in systems with induction motors system inductance. This resonance occurs at frequency w = up
equipped with SSVC, as compared to systems with addc such that
converters. The significant l l t h harmonic may prompt filter ImPc,ti@$ = 0, (8)
designers to tune the second filter to the 1 Ith harmonic frequency
where ZcoFi(jw) is the impedance seen by the system voltage
rather than the 7th.
E6ql, referred to as the CoFi impedance, and given by
1 - 1 . 2 4 ~ ~ . CH0=36.7%
OF-0.17, UHO-6.5%
HCI R ! NI cs. PU
0i
n: UOLTRGE: CURRENT:
I:
2:
0.37
- 1.17 If the system impedance Z,(jw) is known, the resonance
3:
I:
-- frequency wp can be selected by the designer to avoid the
5:
6:
7:
--
0.05 0. 41
0.04
situation shown in Fig.6. However, any reconfiguration of the
E: - supply system may change this impedance and thus the wp value.
9: -
LO:
11:
-
0.03 0.10 Moreover, Fig.6 shows that load current harmonics lower than
12:
13:
14:
--- the 5th order and generated by the SSVC due to an asymmetry of
15: -
16:
17: 0.02
- 0. a4
the supply voltage or a nonuniform firing of thyristors are
LE: - amplified. Some current harmonics of orders between 5 and 11,
19: -
70:
21:
-
-
0.01
in particular the 7th, can be amplified as well. This is because a
22: -
23: 0.01 0.03
_I__._ . resonance of the SHF with the supply system has to occur below
each tuning frequency, and cannot be avoided since the filter
Fig.5. Voltage and current waveforms, and their spectra
reactance X&$ is capacitive in the entire range of frequency
for slip s = 0.33
below the 5th harmonic and in a certain range below the llth
Let the SHF impedance for the frequency w = 2Mbe denoted harmonic.
by Z,&w), and the supply system impedance at the filter bus be Even worse, the filter may not only amplify the current
approximated by Z,Qw) = R, + j d , If the SSVC generates a harmonics generated in the SSVC, but also the voltage harmonics
current spectrum JQw), then the current spectrum Zow) in the originated in the supply system. If the supply system has a
supply source with the shunt filter connected to the bus is given spectrum component Eo@),then the voltage
by the system to load current ratio (SLCR), defined as
U ( j w ) = m E ( j w ) =a(jw)E(jru), (IO)
b( j w ) E- I ( j 0 ) = zF(jw) ,,Z
, (iw)
(7)
J(iwl Z,(jw) + Z F ( j w )
is observed at the bus where the filter is installed. The ratio
The plot of Ib(jw/w,)l with wI denoting the fundamental angu- sow), designated as the bus to system voltage ratio (BSVR), is
lar frequency, for the shunt harmonic filter which is composed of identical to the system to load current ratio, bow). Thus,
two branches a and b tuned to the 5th and llth harmonic eveqthmg concerning the amplification of load-generated current
fi-equencies is shown in Fig.6.The filter parameters were calcu- harmonics also applies to the amplification of supply-originated
voltage harmonics.
Apart from the amplification of voltage and current harmonics
discussed above, the SHF forms a sink for some supply voltage
harmonics. This is because of the high admittance value at series
resonance in the loop formed by the SHF and the system
reactance. The magnitude of the loop admittance, You) =
l/'ZcoFi(jw),for the filter parameters considered is shown in
Fig.7. As a consequence, current harmonics with high rms value
1 2 3 4 6 6 7 8 9 11 13 o/ol may occur in the supply current even at a very low level of the
~~~~
supply voltage harmonics. In the case considered, the 4th and 6th
Fig.6. Magnitude of bow'w,) for harmonic filter current harmonics may occur in the supply current even if the
tuned to 5th and 1 Ith harmonics presence of these harmonics in the system voltage is insignifi-
cant.
lated for a bus with a short circuit power S,, equal to 40-times
Thus, shunt harmonic filters which are very efficient for
the expected apparent power of the induction motor group, under
suppressing load-generated current harmonics to which the filter
the assumption that the filter branches a and b contribute equally
is tuned, may be unreliable when the supply voltage is distorted
to the reactive power Q, compensation. The ratio of the system
or the load current contains harmonics below the tunkg
reactance to resistance for the fundamental harmonic, wlLJRs, at
frequencies. Also, the SHF performance and the supply system
the bus was assumed to be 7, and the reactors used in the filter
response may be out of the designer's control since any change m
have Q-factor w,L.R = 60.
~

532
the system impedance may result in a resonance for a certain
harmonic.
Fig.7. Magnitude of admittance Y(jw/oJ
viewed by system voltage
4. Harmonic blocking compensator (HBC)
For improving the effectiveness of reducing harmc C
distortion, especially, if the supply voltage is also distorted, the
supply from the load not only for harmonics, but also for fast
transients on both sides of the HBC.
For a high Q-factor of the components, the frequency
properties of an HBC are mainly determined by the reactive
components SO that for the sole evaluation of these properties the
active power loss in the compensator can be neglected. The
simplified equivalent circuit of the HBC is shown in Fig.10. In
analyzing the properties of the HBC it is assumed that the
coupling transformer has a toroidal core of high permeability so
that the coupling factor k is higher than 0.99. The leakage
inductance of the windings is ( 1 4 ) times lower than the
magnetizing inductance L p i.e., less than 1% of L p thus its
effect on the properties of the compensator is negligible.
Moreover, the transformer can be built such that its magnetizing
inductance L p is significantly higher than the system inductance
L,.

E
CoFi device should have a structure with shunt and series

y
r
impedances Z, and Z, respectively as shown in Fig.8 and

JW)
I U

za Loadbus Fig. 10. Simplified equivalent circuit of HBC

'L E&)
With these assumptions and the coupled circuit LbCb tuned to
the fundamental tiequency, i.e., I/G~CJ= 3 2 = 1, the SLCR,
I
b(jm), in eqn.(7) is equal to the BSVR, now), in eqn.(lO):
Fig.8. General structure of single-phase system
with CoFi device
employed in the E M suppressors [SI.If a choke is used for the
series component of the CoFi device, the effectiveness of This equation can be approximated by the real function b(m):
harmonic suppression improves, however, at the expense of the
hdamental voltage drop across the choke.
A series resonance at the fundamental fiequency in the series
branch substantiallyeliminates this drawback since it reduces the
line voltage drop dub.Such a harmonic suppressor with series
resonance circuit LbC, coupled through a transformer and tuned

with 02 = 1 4 1 + m12L,,CJ. The function b(o) has two poles

Fig.9. Harmonic blocking compensator
to the fundamental frequency, along with a shunt capacitor C,
which is rated for compensating the load reactive power, is here
designated as a harmonic blocking compensator (Hl3C). Its struc-
ture per phase and parameter symbols are shown in Fig.9.
Because of the series resonance for the fundamental
frequency, the impedance Zb(jw) can be substantially increased
for harmonics nithout reducing the fundamental coniponent of
the load voltage. A high value of this impedanc isolates the
where the amplification of both the load current Jaw) and the
system voltage EBm) approaches infinity. One of these poles, ms,
is in the subharmonic range, i.e., us< m1 while the other, m,,,is
in the harmonic range, i.e., a,, > CO, Their location can be
selected by the designer. The pole mh should be chosen such that
the compensator is protected against resonance at any harmonic
frequency, i.e., its value should be much lower than the second
harmonic frequency, 2 0 , . Both resonance frequencies ms and
of the HBC are located below the second harmonic frequency,
d i l e the resonance frequencies of the circuit with the SHF are in
the harmonic range as shown in Fig.6. Therefore, the plot of tlie
SLCR function boo) has to be drawn with the frequency axis
expanded below 201, shown in Fig. 1 1. The function bow) for the
SHF in Fig.6 is monotonic in this range. Observe also, that the
loop admittance Uow) viewed by the supply voltage has poles at

the same frequencies as the SLCR function bow), i.e., at
frequencies ws and ah.For frequencies higher than wh, i.e., in
the liarmonic range, admittance YQw) is inductive and declines
uniformly to zero value, similarly as the SLCR function bQo).
Thus the supply voltage related distortion of the supply current
has to be lower than the voltage distortion. Since any resonance
does not occur above frequency ah,the change of admittance
Yaw) with frequency is of a minor importance.
Fig. 11. Magnitude of b@/', for HBC
The value of pole a,,should be a matter of concern if there is a
possibility of subharmonic electromechanical oscillations. In par-
ticular, this compensator should not be installed if a cyclocon-
verter fed induction motor generating subharmonic currents is
connected to the supply.
The capacitance C, is determined by the reactive power Q, to
be compensated:
a' = QJ(wl',Z,, (13)
while the choice of w, and wh determines the C,l and L,
parameters, namely
c; = (0;/ w;-IN1 - 0; / w;,c,
Lp = w12/(a;ah2cd
and hence L i = l/Ci as well. From eqns.(13) and (14) the para-
meters of the function b(a) given by eqn.( 12) can be expressed as
follows:
Thus the poles asand wh are the only parameters of b(w), so that
variation of the SLCR, b(a), and BSVR, a(@, with the frequency
is completel! determined by the choice of a, and w h values.
These values determine all parameters of the equivalent circuit of
the HBC shown in Fig.10 so that their selection also affects the
active po\ver loss and component ratings. The parameters of the
resonance branch L, and C, for the calculated values of L,' and
C,' depend on the chosen transformer turns ratio !I.
For example, let the HBC be assumed to compensate the
fundamental reactive power of the same motor with SSVC as
analyzed in section 2 and whose reactive power Q, at rated slip is
533
0.57 pu. Since the reactive power Q, increases with speed
reduction as shom in Fig.2, it was assumed that the HBC
compensates this power at a level of Q, = 1.8 Q, = 1.03 pu, so
that c, = 1.03 pu. Assuming that CO, = 0 . 3 ~ 0and, ah= 1.8w,,
equations (14) and ( 1 5) result in the compensator parameters:
C,'=2.10pu,L,'=0.47pu,Lp=3.3pu, wo=0.354a,
and the Ib(o/oJI values for the harmonic frequencies:
lb@l = 3.04, IbrJ)I = 0.40, 1b(4)/ = 0.18
lb(s)l= 0.11, lb(6)I = 0.07, lb(7)l = 0.05
Comparison of these values with those in Fig.6 for the SHF
shows that the HBC is much more efficient in attenuating all
characteristic and noncharacteristic harmonics, except the 2nd
harmonic. The amplification of the 2nd harmonic can be lowered
with the reduction of wh. However, while wh is selected, the
active power loss in the compensator and its component ratings
should be considered.
Compared to the SHF, the HBC has an advantage with respect
to the power loss. The power loss in the HBC is caused almost
exclusively by the reduced fundamental current in the series
branch of the compensator since the reactive and harmonic
currents mainly flow through the shunt capacitive branch,
whereas the power loss in the SHF is caused by the reactive
fundamental component and current harmonics in the resistance
of the filter reactors. The sum of these two currents is usually
much higher than the reduced line current. Moreover, the
equivalent resistance of the SHF reactors increases with the
harmonic order, so that the power loss caused by harmonic cur-
rents increases accordingly.
The power loss in the HBC is proportional to the resonance
resistance of the series branch at the fundamental frequency. The
transformer should be built with a toroidal core of high
permeability so that the required inductance Lp can be obtained
with windings of a relatively low number of turns and large cross
section. It is operated, moreover, as a current transformer in the
short circuit mode which reduces core loss. To avoid fmo-
resonance phenomena in the resonance circuit LbCb the reactor
L, has to be built as a linear inductor with sufficient air gap
length which results in an increase in the number of tums to
obtain the required inductance. Therefore, its equivalent
resistance referred to the primary side, R,', is the main
component of the resonance resistance in the compensator series
branch. It can be evaluated if the inductor's Q-factor, q6. at the
fundamental frequency is known, i.e., R,' = LbYqb.
For qb = 60, the resistance R,' in the example considered is
equal to 0,008 pu. At the assumed compensation level, the
maximum rms value of the reduced line current, I,mar, which
occurs at rated slip with the motor overcompensated, cannot be
higher than 0.93 pu. Therefore, the power loss in the inductor L,
is in the order of 0.7% of rated load power. In the adjustable
speed range, the line current is substantially lower than I, ~ \ i t h
the power loss reduced quadratically.
When comparing the power rating of the HBC and SHF, it is
noted that the rating of capacitor C , at the same level of reactive
power compensation is lower than the total power ratings of the
capacitors used in the SHF since the filter inductors in the SHF
534
increase the reactive power. The power ratings of capacitor C,
and inductor L, in the resonance branch of the HBC are given by
s, =s, =U,I, =I L & >
whose value is considerably high. In this example it amounts to
0.42 pu of the power rating of capacitor Ca. Considering that the
power rating of this capacitor is lower than the total capacitor
rating of the SHF, the HBC in this example requires capacitors
with the total rating of approximately 30% higher than that of the
SHF.
The rating of the HBC, or equivalently its cost, can only be
reduced at the expense of an increment in the 6Q) value. It
implies that the choice of poles usand U,, should be based on a
trade-off between the 2nd harmonic suppression and the compen-
sator cost. Finally, when designing the LbCb circuit, the trans-
former turns ratio n can be chosen such that the voltage U, of
capacitor C, given by
has an appropriate order of magnitude. This may affect the con-
struction and cost of the compensator.
5. Conclusions
A group of induction motors equipped with solid-state voltage
controllers burdens the power system with highly distorted
current with low power factor. Apart from the 5th harmonic, the
11th rather than the 7th harmonic is the main disturbing
component of the supply current and voltage. The level of
distortion may be higher than that in a system with acldc conver-
ters of comparable power rating. If these drives constitute a
significant part of the system load, the installation of an
equipment for reactive power compensation and harmonic
suppression is more needed than in the case of systems with acldc
converters and may be economically justified.
The hannonic distortion caused by drives with SSVC are more
difficult to be filtered out with shunt harmonic filters than that
caused by ac/dc converters because of the dominant 1Ith harmo-
nic. The perfonnance of SHFs may be strongly degraded by load
current harmonics to which the filter is not tuned, and by supply
voltage harmonics. Moreover, the filter performance may be
unpredictable with any change in the supply system parameters
due to reconfiguration of the power system network.
A harmonic blocking compensator prevents the amplification of
any harmonic, except the 2nd of both the load current and the
supply voltage. This method of compensation and harmonic
suppression puts the performance of the CoFi device entirely
under the designer's control. The HBC improves the supply
quality at Uie load bus not only because of the harmonic
suppression, but also of the strong attenuation of other non-
hamionic components of the voltage such as spikes and notches.
The HHC, however, is relatively more expensive than a shunt
harmonic filter.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support of
Louisiana Power & Light Company and Central Louisiana
Electric Company for the research on the subject presented in this
paper.
References
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Biographies
Leszek S. Czamecki (SM85) received the M.S and Ph.D.
degrees in electrical engineering, and the D.Sc.degree from the
Silesian Technical University, Gliwice, Poland in 1963, 1969 and
1984, respectively. Since 1984 he worked for two years in the
Power Engineering Section, Division of Electrical Engineering,
as a Visiting Research Officer. In 1987 he joined the Electrical
Engineering Dept. at Zielona Gora Technical University. In 1989
he joined the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, as an Associate
Professor. His research interest includes network analysis and
synthesis, power flow in nonsinusoidal systems, compensation
and power quality improvement.
Oweti. T. Toti (M68-SM83) received his Ph.D. degree in
electrical engineering from Eindhoven University of Technology,
the Netherlands. He had six years of industrial experience before
entering a university career, and is presently Professor of
Electrical Engineering at Louisiana State University, Baton
Rouge, LA. His main research interest is in the area of power
systems and electric machinery. Dr.Tan is a member of the Royal
Institute of Engineers, and Eta Kappa Nu.