Electric Power Quality

Tutorial
Part II: Sources and Mitigation
Schemes

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Sources of Power Quality

Problems

Nonlinear Loads
Sources of Harmonics
Sources of Flicker
Sources of Sag
Different Converter Schemes

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Proliferation of Nonlinear Loads

Impact customer loads, distribution feeders
and substation equipment.
Impacts individual customers neighbors and
ultimately the source.
Lack of National standards complicate the
issue.
Utilities, customers and suppliers need to work
together.
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Sources of Harmonics
Power Electronic Devices
Phase-angle regulators in lighting/heating
controllers
Rectifiers/Inverters
Adjustable speed motor drives
Interface of wind /solar power converters
with the utility
HVDC systems
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Sources of Harmonics & Flicker

Ferromagnetic devices
Transformers (saturation non-linearity)

Arcing Devices
Fluorescent lamps
Arc welders
Arc furnaces

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Sources of Sags
Starting of Heavy Loads
Large motors

Brown Outs
Large loads

Fault clearing times on distribution

feeders: 5 to 15 cycles.
Sags range from 20 to 50%.

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Effects of Sags
Voltage sags not perceptible to human eye.
Sensitive electronic equipment affected by
voltage sags.
Sags interrupt service to loads such as
automated processes for many hours.
Results in loss of revenue of millions of
dollars.
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Sags
Need compensation devices to avoid interruption.
Need to evaluate the role of protective devices.
Reclosings after a fault
Operating speed of circuit breakers, fuses and reclosers.

Need to analyze causes for faults.

e.g.: Tree falling.
Multiple reclosings maybe questionable from power
quality perspective.

Adopt optimum tree trimming policies.

8/44

Phase-angle Regulators
Example: Lamp dimmer

Comments:
Current distortion can be reduced by proper sizing of the choke.
THD and radiated EMI is low for triggering angles close to 0
and 180 (i.e., full or zero brightness)
THD and radiated EMI is highest for angles to 90 (halfbright).
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Lamp dimmer circuit waveforms

10/44

Spectrum of current drawn by lamp dimmer circuit

High frequency components which lead to EMI are reduced by the choke.
11/44

Single-phase Rectifiers
Examples: Computer power supplies, Battery chargers

Typical computer power supply front-end

The rectifier conducts only when the line voltage magnitude exceeds
the capacitor voltage.
The capacitor gets charged by drawing current at the peak of the
voltage cycle and gets discharges slowly into the switching regulator
between the voltage peaks.
Thus the circuit draws short pulses of current during line voltage
peaks.
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Current Drawn by a Computer Power Supply

13/44

Sequence Classification of Harmonics

In AC systems, the current

and voltage waveforms have
rotational symmetry.
even harmonics will not be
present.

Power system harmonics are

hence predominantly the
odd, i.e 3rd, 5th, 7th, etc.

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Three-phase Rectifiers
Six-pulse Rectifier

Used in motor drives, traction, electrochemical plants, etc.

The high inductance in the dc side causes the dc current,
Id to be essentially constant.

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Three-phase Rectifiers (cont.)

Six-pulse Rectifier
The Fourier series for the line current for a diode
rectifier is:

ia ( t)

2 3
Id

1
1
1
1

sin

sin5

sin
7

sin
11

sin
13

...

5
7
11
13

For symmetrical ideal triggering, only harmonics of the

order 6n1 are present in the AC side currents.
The presence of source reactance and commutation
effects lead to smoother current waveforms.
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Supply voltage and current waveforms for three-phase bridge

with highly inductive load
17/44

Twelve-pulse Rectifier (cont.)

Used in high power motor drives, traction, hvdc converters, etc.
The Fourier series for the line current for a twelve-pulse diode
rectifier is:
2 3
1
1

ia (t )
I d sin t sin 11t sin 13t ...

11

13

For symmetrical ideal triggering, only harmonics of the order

12n1 are present in the AC side currents.

Supply voltage and current waveforms for twelve pulse bridge with highly inductive load
18/44

Cycloconverters
Used in large mill drives in cement and mining industries.
The characteristic harmonics generated are:
f h pm 1 f 6nf 0
fo=output frequency of the cycloconverter;
m=1,2,3, ;

n=0,1,2,

The harmonic spectrum

varies as the output
frequency is varied.

Typical input current harmonics of a six-pules cycloconverter with 5-Hz output frequency
19/44

Integral-cycle Controllers or Pulse Burst Modulation

(PBM)
This technique is used in applications such as heating, ovens,
furnaces, etc.
Subharmonics are predominant. DC component can also be
present.
High frequency harmonics above 200 Hz are practically
absent.

Pulse-burst-modulation power conditioning .

Current wave: n=6; g=4/6
Harmonic spectrum for g6/8.
Currents generated by a typical PBM system.
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A Demonstration That a Balanced 3-Phase Load Can

Result In Neutral Current

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Mitigation Schemes
Types of filters - passive and active.
Passive filters
harmonic analysis using driving point impedances,
use of capacitors as passive filters,
use of series RLC components as passive filters.

Active Filters
Static Var Compensators
FACTS and Custom Power Devices for power
quality

22/44

Types of Filters
Passive filters
provide low impedance path to ground at resonance
frequency,
use tuned RLC components,
economical.

Active filters
inject harmonic currents (or voltages) out of phase
with the ambient harmonics,
use components such as switches and amplifiers,
expensive.
23/44

Passive Filters

Series tuned circuit offers very low impedance at

resonance frequency
Parallel tuned circuit offers very high impedance
at resonance frequency
24/44

Capacitor as a Filter
A shunt capacitor is the simplest form of
passive filter
economical,
also provides reactive power (Q) compensation.

Guidelines for sizing capacitive filters

resonance between capacitor and circuit inductive reactance
should not occur exactly at an integer multiple of fundamental
frequency.
sensitivity of resonant point to drift in capacitor value should
be investigated,
voltage and var support provided should not be excessive,
IEEE Standard 18 should be consulted for sizing and
placement of capacitor.
25/44

Active Filters - Voltage and Current Type

Voltage type (left) and current-type active filters.

Voltage type active filter

capacitor (dc source),
voltage source inverter (VSI).

Current type active filter

inductor (current source),
current source inverter (CSI).
26/44

Shunt Active Compensation Principle

IS
IF

IL

27/44

28/44

Shunt PWM Active Filters

IL

IS

IL

IF

+
IF

Source

Load

=
Filter

IS

Gyugyi 76
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Active Filters - Technology Overview

Active filters are also referred to as active power
line conditioners.
Reference [3] gives an extensive literature survey of
existing and proposed line conditioning
methodologies.
Active filters may also be classified depending on
their correction method.
correction in time-domain,
correction in frequency domain.

Table 1 in [3] gives a summary of the various

publications in the area of active filters - a few
entries of which are shown here in Table 1.
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Active Filters - Technology Overview

In Table 1,
Type indicates voltage type (V) or current type (I),
P.E. Device indicates the power electronic switch used.
Table 1: Summary of publications on active power filters [3].

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Static Var Compensator

Consists of electronically switched capacitor and/or
inductor.
Some SVC technologies
Thyristor Controlled Reactor (TCR) with fixed capacitor (FC)
TCR with thyristor switched capacitor (TSC).

The Adaptive Var Compensator (AVC), developed

at the University of Washington, is essentially a
bank of TSCs.

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FACTS and Custom Power Devices

The other families of power electronic devices, very
closely related to the active filters, are
Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) devices,
Custom Power Devices.

FACTS devices are intended for [4]

greater control of power transmission,

maximize utilization of existing transmission lines,
reduction of generation reserve margin,
prevention of cascading outages,
damping of power system oscillations.

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Static Condenser (STATCOM)

Figure 22: Functional
block diagram of a
STATCON.

FACTS and Custom Power Device

reactive power compensation,
voltage regulation (by reactive power compensation),
harmonic current compensation.

Behaves as a voltage source connected in shunt to

the power system through an inductor.
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Dynamic Voltage Restorer (DVR)

Figure 23: Functional

block diagram of a DVR.

FACTS and Custom Power Device

voltage regulation (by series compensation),
harmonic line voltage compensation.

Behaves as a voltage source connected with the power

line.
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Solid State Breaker (SSB)

Figure 24: Functional schematic of a solid state breaker.

Custom Power Device

for instantaneous fault clearing,
subcycle reclosing,
zero current/voltage closing.
36/44

Adaptive Power Quality Compensator

Decouple reactive and harmonic
compensation
Arrange Converters so that
slow switching reactive converter bears most of
the stress
fast switching harmonic converter handles
lower voltages and currents.

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Shunt Compensator Implementation

IS

A
B
C

Source

Load

LH
C

IL

HP
Filter

IH
LQ

IQ

S ensing
&
Control

P W M inverter
- phase A
G ate s ignals

Stepped-w ave inverter

-reactive compensator

38/44

Shunt Compensator Simulation Results

Compensation of Rectifier Load

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Shunt Compensator Simulation Results

Operation of reactive converter

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Shunt Compensator Simulation Results

Current sharing between reactive and PWM converters

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The Adaptive Var Compensator (AVC)

No harmonics or transients are introduced by the AVC.
Compensates on cycle to cycle basis
power factor control,
voltage control.
Voltage flicker control

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The Adaptive Var Compensator (AVC)

Essentially a bank of switched capacitors.

AVC is a bank of electronically switched capacitors in a binary ratio.

Capacitors are in a binary ratio (1:2:4).

SCRs switched at zero current and zero voltage
crossing.

43/44

References
1.

2.

3.

4.
5.

S. S. Venkata, G. T. Heydt, Proceedings of the NSF

Workshop on Electric Power Quality, Jan. 1991,
Grand Canyon, AZ.
J. Arrillaga, N. R. Watson, S. Chen, Power System
Quality Assessment, John Wiley & Sons, England,
2000.
R. C. Dugan, M. F. McGranaghan, H. W. Beaty,
Electrical Power Systems Quality, McGraw-Hill,
USA,1996.
G. T. Heydt, Electric Power Quality, Stars in a
Circle, USA, 1991.
E. Acha, M. Madrigal, Power Systems Harmonics:
Computer Modeling and Analysis, John Wiley &
Sons, England, 2001.
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