A Novel Technique For Optimising Harmonics And Reactive Power With Load

Balancing Under Non-Sinusoidal Supply And Unbalanced Load Conditions

Sincy George, Member, IEEE
Department of Electrical Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology -Bombay,
Powai, Mumbai - 400 076, India
sincy@ee.iitb.ac.in

Vivek Agarwal, Member, IEEE

Department of Electrical Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology -Bombay,
Powai, Mumbai - 400 076, India
agarwal@ee.iitb.ac in

Abstract: Generally, conventional power factor corrections

techniques assume ideal conditions, viz. sinusoidal supply
voltage and balanced load. But vast majority of the domestic
and industrial loads present in the power distribution system are
non-linear and unbalanced. Under such conditions, attempt to
make the power factor unity result into a non-sinusoidal source
current, which increases total harmonic distortion (THD) in the
system. On the other hand attempt to make harmonic free
current may not result in unity power factor because of the
harmonics present in the supply voltage. Thus, there is a trade
off between improvement in power factor and reduction in
THD. With the introduction of power quality norms by various
utilities, it has become unavoidable to optimize power factor
while satisfying harmonics limits. In this paper, a novel
technique for optimisation of THD and power factor subject to
power quality constraints is presented. The algorithm uses
Lagrange multiplier technique to optimise the non-linear
equations. The algorithm calculates the control coefficients by
Newton Raphson method and is used to compute the desired
source current that balances the system besides optimising
power factor satisfying the load power while meeting the THD
limits. Knowing the load current, the compensating current to
be supplied by the shunt active power filter to the power system
is calculated. This technique, besides satisfying the power
quality norms, also balances the imbalance in the system. It is
applicable for single-phase and multi-phase system under
sinusoidal and non-sinusoidal supply conditions. The proposed
scheme does not use the widely used p-q theory and use simple
computational techniques. Simulation using MATLAB has
shown encouraging results. The scheme is being implemented in
hardware using DSP.

Key words: Power Quality and Harmonics, Power factor

compensation, Active Power Filters, DSP Control.
LINTRODUCTION

In electrical power distribution system, most of the loads

are inductive in nature. Residential loads and vast majority of
other single-phase loads cause imbalance in the system. The
increased uses of power electronic devices also impair power
quality in the grid. These non-linear loads draw nonsinusoidal currents from the system consequently voltage
drops are produced across impedances of transmission line,
transformer and generator causing non-sinusoidal voltages in
the system. This distorted voltage affects other linear or nonlinear loads connected to the system. Effect of these

0-7803-7754-0/03/$17.0002003 IEEE

harmonics and voltage imbalance on electrical and electronic

equipment is explained in various papers [l].
Harmonic contents vary randomly and consequently the
conventional compensating techniques such as the use of
passive LC filters to perform harmonic reduction are
ineffective [2]. Due to this many types of active filters have
been developed to compensate current and or voltage
harmonics viz. shunt active filter, series active filter or
combination of both [2-51. Controlling the injection of
current harmonic by the non-linear load can eliminate nonsinusoidal operation of the system. This can be achieved by
the installation of shunt active filters. In this technique, a
current source inverter is connected in parallel with the load.
This injects compensating current into the system to cancel
the undesired components of load current that are responsible
for harmonics and low power factor.
The quality and performance of these filters mainly depend
on the method used to generate the reference current for
compensation [6]. Most of these methods use p-q or d-q
transformation theory and assume a sinusoidal supply
voltage. Control methods adopted by others [7,8] assume a
non-sinusoidal supply, but use only positive sequence voltage
at the fundamental frequency to generate sinusoidal
references to ensure that the supply current is harmonic free
and power factor is unity. However, when the supply voltage
is non-sinusoidal, perfect harmonic compensation (PFC) does
not result into unity power factor (UPF) and vice versa. In
such conditions, non-linear optimisation technique [9,IO] is
found to be an efficient method to optimise the power factor
and total harmonic distortion (THD) satisfying the power
quality norms or guidelines. The method adopted in [9] also
uses p-q theory and is not applicable to single-phase
conditions. Also most of the proposed active filters are based
on analogue implementation.
In this paper, an improved control algorithm for the
reference current to the inverter under non-sinusoidal supply
voltage and unbalanced load condition is presented. This
algorithm is based on a non-linear optimisation technique and
does not use p-q or d-q transformation. This technique
considers harmonics in supply voltage for power factor
computation. It is more versatile and flexible and is
applicable to both single phase and multi-phase system with
linear, non-linear, balanced or unbalanced load conditions.

1537

The control signal is computed using TMS320LF2407A

DSP controller.
This paper is organized into the following sections. Section
I1 details basic concept of the proposed scheme. Section I11
presents the algorithm for the scheme under non-sinusoidal
supply conditions. The result of the computer simulations
using MATLAB is included in section IV. Section V details
conclusion.

calculates the reference compensating current and generate

control pulses for the inverter using DSP. This compensating
current when injected into the system cancels the undesired
component of load current that are responsible for the low
power factor and high THD.

I1 BASIC CONCEPTS OF THE PROPOSED STRATEGY

The block diagam of the proposed scheme is shown in

Fig.1. The power circuit of the scheme consists of a threephase non-sinusoidal supply voltage connected to an
unbalanced non-linear load.
Let the resulting three-phase supply voltage, v, contain a set
of harmonic components, nl and n2 . For phase a,

Fig. 1 Block diagram of the proposed scheme

and the corresponding unbalanced load current

set of harmonic current nl ,n3

where

,i contain a

aanis the arbitrary angle of supply voltage and

van
is

the phase angle of nth harmonic component of current.

For unity power factor, currents drawn should be in phase
, 0
with, and of the same shape, as the source voltage. i.e. y ~ , =
and the harmonics in current and voltage are of the same
order and their ratios equal. However in this case, THD may
not be within the acceptable limit of the utility or power
quality norms. By controlling these harmonic ratios, THD can
be controlled but the power factor may deteriorate. In
*
general, the desired source current ius with displacement
angle set to zero, and making the order of harmonics in
source current same as that of supply voltage may be written
as :
(3)
%l

where, I,,

= K,,,.Va,.

Similarly for phase b and c

K , , Kbn, KCn, the admittance of the compensating load,

are the control variable in phase a, b, and c respectively.
Therefore, the reference compensating current is calculated as

iac = ial

-1,

:c

. * = ib, -ibs * 'lee

* = I C. 1

;ibc

-1,

. *

(4)

111 CONTROL STRATEGY UNDER NON-SINUSOIDALAND

UNBALANCED CONDITIONS

Non- sinusoidal and unbalanced conditions are common in

a modern power system. In such conditions unity power
factor and power balance can be achieved by making the
source current identical in magnitude, in phase and of same
shape as that of voltage, in all phases. When the source
current is made to have the same shape as voltage, current
THD may not be with in the acceptable limit. To obtain
perfect harmonic compensation, current drawn from the
source need to be a perfect sine wave. In this case, unity
power factor is not obtained. By using the proposed optimal
strategy it is possible to optimise the power factor satisfying
power demand and harmonic limit. The relevant theory is
discussed below.

A. POWER UNDER NON-SINUSOIDAL SUPPLY AND

UNBALANCED LOAD CONDITIONS
When the supply voltage and unbalanced load current
contains harmonics, the complex apparent power is given by
the vector sum of active, reactive and distortion power. The
instantaneous power can be given as:
p ( t ) = vu (t).ja ( t ) + Vb(t).ib( t )+ vc (t).ic ( t )
(5)
These powers can be calculated by sequence component of
voltage and current as:
p ( t ) = v+ (t).i+( t )+ v- (t).i- ( t )+ vo (t).iO ( t )
(6)
where +, -00 represents positive, negative and zero
sequence components respectively.
Positive sequence component of power contains mean value
-

In the proposed scheme, a current source inverter is

connected in parallel with the load. The proposed algorithm

( p +) and an alternating component ( p , ) with zero mean

value. Similarly negative sequence and zero sequence

1538

components contain a mean value

III. Inequality constraints

( p - ,po and an

Let the total current harmonic distortion be limited to

THDiH,, The inequality constraint is given by

alternating component ( p - ,Po )

-

PO) = P + +P++P-+ P-+Po +Po

(7)

- - The average power is

given by pdc = p + + p - + p o .
Load balancing can be achieved by sharing the average
power demand equally among each of the phases as shown in
Fig. 2. The active filter supplies the balance power required
by the load.

The inequality constraint U, can be written as:

IV. Lagrangefunction

The objective is to minimise S, subject to the equality

constraint and the inequality constraint given by (9) and (1 1)
respectively. The augmented hnction L is given by:
(12)

where 2 and p are constants. Using the necessary and

sufficient condition for constraint local minima of L , the
unknowns can be found out. By using these unknowns the
reference source current for optimum power factor within
acceptable THD limit [ 131 is determined.

Fig. 2 Power balance diagram

B. OPTIMSATION TECHNIQUE

Lagrangian-multiplier technique [ 11,121 is used to

optimise the non-linear equation for reactive volt-ampere
subject to equality and inequality constraints [ 101.
I. Objectivefunction
Let the order of harmonics in supply voltage and desired
source current be n. The objective is to minimise apparent
input Volt-Ampere, S, in each phase and can be written as:

rV
SIMULATION RESULT UNDER NON-SINUSOIDAL AND
UNBALANCED CONDITIONS

To verify the proposed theory under unbalanced

conditions, simulation studies have been carried out using
MATLAB on a balanced three-phase, SO&, 415V (rms.)
trapezoidal voltage power supply system (THD 2 1.8%) with
an unbalanced rectifier load of 30kW.
400

--a

- b

Optimisation is applied to minimise Sas with control

variable Kan,so that power factor is maximum in each phase.
II. Equality constraints
The desired source current in each phase is calculated in
such a way that, it should supply only mean value of
corresponding instantaneous real power demanded by the
load after compensation. The compensating circuit supplies
remaining power demanded by the load. Therefore the
equality constraints for phase a can be written as:

-400

002

0025

0 03
Fio 3 fa\

1539

0 035
lime (sec)

0 04

Waveforms of non-sinusoidal supply voltage considered

for simulation is shown in Fig 3(a) and unbalanced load
current is shown in Fig. 3(b). Calculated 3-phase source
current at 5% THD after the compensation is shown in Fig.
3(c) and waveform of computed compensating current is
shown in Fig. 3(d). This compensating current is the
reference current for the inverter.

I
-100

0.02

I
I

0025

om
F , ~3(b)
.

1W

By using hysterisis control for the inverter, the sample

system is simulated. The optimised source current computed
and the source current obtained after compensation for 5%
THD case is plotted in Fig. 4 (a). Fig 4 (b) shows the
waveforms of source voltage, load current and source current
for phase a of the system.
80

0.035

0.025

0.03

Fig, 3 (cl

Reference

Time (sec1

50

-100 I
0.m

(-

0.04

0.035

0.005

0.01
Fig 4(a)

0.015
Time (sec)

I
0.02

I
0.04

Time (sec1

Fig 4. Waveform of reference and actual source current,

supply voltage, load current and source current after compensation.
-40 I

0.02

10.025

0.03
Fig 3(d)

0.035

0.04

fime (sec)

Fig 3 Wave forms of supply voltage, load current, reference source

current and compensating current

It may be noted from above figure that the source current

after compensation follows the computed current very
closely. Current harmonics in phase a, before and after
compensation is shown in Fig. 5(a) and Fig. 5(b) respectively.

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V CONCLUSIONS
60

From the results of the simulation detailed in section IV, it

is evident that the proposed control strategy is well suited for
balancing the power system besides reactive and harmonic
compensation to optimise the power factor satisfying the
THD. The technique presented here is verified
under
various conditions of input supply and load viz. linear, nonlinear and its combination under balanced and unbalanced
conditions. For implementation of the algorithm, a nonsinusoidal 3 phase, 60 V, 50Hz supply source is made by
clipping of sine wave using diodes and batteries. Control
algorithm is developed by an inter list of assembly and C
language. The compensating current is injected into the
system using 3-phase inverter Semikron SKH160. This is
being implemented using DSP controller TMS320LF2407A.

50

40

Q
3
- 30
.E
a
3

20

10

1 . e . f . t
4
6
8

*.*.......
10

12
Order of harmonics

14

16

18

Fig. 5(a) Harmonic spectrum of source current

in phase a before compensation

8
10
12
Order of harmonics

14

16

18

REFERENCES

20

Fig. 5(b) Harmonic spectrum of source current

in phase a after compensation
Summary of load current, voltage THD, current THD,
average power and power factor is shown in Table 1.
Table 1.
Summary of measured values before and after compensation

Phase
a
b
c

Load
current
(A)
60.201
37.338
26.998

Voltage
THD (in
p.u)
0.2027
0.2113
0.2120

Current
THD (in
p.u)
0.202
0.210
0.211

Average
power
(kW)
14.774
9.122
6.599

1.007
0.997
0.997

a
b
c

42.099
41.906
41.898

0.2027
0.2113
0.2120

0.050
0.050
0.050

10.136
10.136
10.136

0.988
0.987
0.987

Power
factor

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~~
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