POWER QUALITY IN AC DRIVE

Student report
Group 1a: Jrme Clavel, Ossama Hjaji, Sadok Kechaou, Danijel Matejevi, Marko
Petkovi

EPFL - Autumn 2014

Lab in electrical energy systems

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Power quality in AC drive

Lab Report

Introduction
This lab is designed to help us students to understand the harmful effect of connecting
a motor directly to the grid and also study the harmonic distortion produced by the
power electronic converter.
This report consists of three parts. The first part focuses on a water pumping assembly.
The second one examines the direct application of an induction motor, available in the
laboratory, to emulate the pump. Finally, the third part represents the evaluation of
the effects of the variable speed of the motor on the distribution network.

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Load
The load represents the first part of our study. It is in fact a pump that pumps water to
a water-tower at height of 20m. The motor proposed for this application is an induction
motor (rated at 220V/380V) fed by the Swissgrid distribution grid of 400V/50Hz.
The datasheet of the pump provides the fact that its water debit is 25m 3/h when
operating at angular speed of 1420rpm with an efficiency of = 92% and the
gravitational acceleration is considered to be g = 9.8N/kg.
To properly size the system and decide whether the induction motor proposed will
suffice for our application we first have to determine some parameters of the pump,
such as, the work done, the power output, the input power etc.
First, let us consider the work done. By knowing the water debit and the height at which
we have to rise the water we can find the work done in one hour.
= 25

3 [3 ]
=

= = 253

[]

Also, knowing the density of the water we can easily deduce the mass of the water in
one hour as well as the power output during that same hour.
=

[]

=
1000

= 25000
[3 ]
3

Thus, the work done in one hour would be,

= = 4.9
The corresponding power in one hour can be easily deduced once we have the work
done,
=

[] 4.9
=
= 1361.1
[]
3600

This would of course be the useful power, the one needed for the water to be pumped
and it of course does not mean that the power supplied to the pump is going to be the
same but it will be larger as there is a certain efficiency of the pump which is, as said
before, 92%. So the input power can easily be deduced.
=

= 1479.47

This is the power that would finally be provided by the induction machine if this one
proves to be adequate for the task.
When coupled with some load some torque will of course appear. This constant torque
can be obtained by applying the fact that the pump turns at 1420rpm. So the torque in
our application is,

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=

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= 9.96

As we do not have a real water-tower and the real load to test our application we can
instead emulate this load. The load should be emulated on a DC motor available in the
lab. A good DC motor to use would be a shunt one. We were confronted with a choice
between a series excitation motor or, a shunt one, but knowing that series motor can
reach a runaway speed if the load is suddenly decoupled, a shunt motor would be a
better choice.

Motor and loading transient of the motor

The motor proposed for our application is an ABB induction motor with the following
characteristics on its nameplate:
-

Supply voltage: 380V, Y connection, f = 50Hz

Useful power Pu = 1.5kW, absorbed current Iabs = 3.5A, power factor cos = 0.79

While running under these conditions, the motor should develop a speed of 1420 rpm.
From the nameplate of the motor we can easily find some very important parameters
of the induction motor such as the number of pole pairs, slip, rated torque and the
efficiency.
The number of pole pairs can be deduced easily knowing the frequency of the grid.
=

=2
60

The slip can also be easily found since we know that the rated speed of the machine is
1420rpm
=

1500 1420
=
= 0.053

1500

To find the torque we need to find the power supplied to the motor which will in turn
also give us the efficiency of the motor itself.
= 3 cos = 3 cos = 3 400 3.5 0.79 = 1913.38
Thus, the efficiency is,
=

= 0.784

Finally, the torque that the motor supplies is,

= 10.087
Even though the efficiency is quite low the motor appears to suffice for our needs. It is
a small motor, thats why its torque is low, bigger motors usually have a higher
efficiency.

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In order to establish the loading transients of the motor we have to put the motor
through few operating modes and tests. These will give us a possibility to determine
the parameters of the motor. The tests done on the motor are:
-

No load test.
Loaded motor where the load torque is proportional to the speed.uu
Blocked rotor or short circuit test.

After doing these tests, we will be able to establish the equivalent Thevenin scheme of
the motor.
The first test conducted was a no load test. This provided us the following results,
0 = 2.19; 0 = 414.2 0 = 280; cos 0 = 0.18

In the second test, the load was proportional to the speed which gave us the following
results,
= 3.47; 0 = 412.1 0 = 2010; cos 0 = 0.81
These values correspond to the rated working conditions of the machine. We can notice
some mismatch between the values measured and the nameplate values but we have
to take into consideration the precision of the measuring devices as well as the fact that
the machine was already running for some time before the tests were done.
Finally, the blocked rotor or short circuit test was done. For this test an
autotransformer was used. Using the AT, we increased the voltage until reaching the
rated current absorbed by the machine. This gave us the short circuit voltage. Apart
from that, we could directly measure the stator resistance by connecting an ohmmeter
and measuring the resistance. One must take into consideration the fact that the cables
used for measurement provide a certain resistance as well. The values we found are the
following,
= 3.44; = 80.1 = 360; cos = 0.73; = 4.6

Once all the measurements are done, we can find the equivalent scheme and the
different elements of this scheme.
From the short circuit test we can determine the stator leakage inductance. Usually,
this inductance is the half of the total short circuit inductance, so we have,
=

= 13.43

= (cos + sin ) = 9.8 + 9.17

= 9.17

= 4.58

As said, we already found the stator resistance so we have the stator impedance,
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= 4.6 + 4.58

From the no load test we can now deduce the magnetizing inductance and iron
resistance,
=

0
30

= 109.32

0 = 0 (cos 0 + sin 0 ) = 19.6 + 107.53

And the no load impedance is the sum of stator impedance and the magnetizing
branch,
0 = +
= 0 = 15 + 102.95
=
1

{ }
1
{ }

= 721.58

= 105.13

With the short circuit test we will define the final parameters needed, the rotor
resistance and leakage inductance,
= +

1
1
1

1
1
1
+

= +
= 5.57 + 4.49

So, finally we have all the elements of the equivalent circuit at our disposition,

= 4.6; = 4.58; = 721.58; = 105.13; = 5.7;

= 4.49

These elements can give us the equivalent voltage of the Thevenin scheme as well as
equivalent current flowing in the machine.
=
=

2 + ( + )2

( + ) + ( + )2

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With equivalent impedance being,

=

+
= +
+ ( + )

Of course, at the start the slip is equal to 1 so the current and torque equations would
reduce to,

=
=

( + )2 + ( + )2

= 16.58

3 2
2
[( + )2 + ( + )2 ]
60

= 29.33

We can see that the starting current and torque are huge and very small respectively.
On one side, the current is 4.74 p.u. which is very dangerous for the machine and on
the other side the starting torque is insufficient for the load to be applied.
Torque-speed characteristics
35

30

Torque [Nm]

25

20

15

10

500

1000

1500

speed [rpm]

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Torque-speed characteristics
300

250

Torque [Nm]

200

150

100

50

50

100

150
speed [rpm]

200

250

300

These values are of course too high for real-life applications, especially when we know
that the induction machine is loaded by a DC machine. Thus, we have to consider a
new approach.
This new approach consists of considering a load resistance Rl in series with the rotor
branch of the induction machine. Knowing that the starting torque should be around
10Nm we can compute the value of this resistance.
=

3 2
2
[( + + )2 + ( + )2 ]
60

= 9.96

Solving this quadratic equation we get two values of resistance, one negative which we
do not even consider and another around 40
We find the following values for starting current and torque:
Figure 1: Torque-speed curve, f = 50Hz and 10Hz

= 7.46
= 5.9
These are more realistic values and we see that the starting torque is not high enough
for the induction machine to operate the pump. Now, we need to apply the frequency
converter in order to be able to start the machine slowly, have more torque and reach
the operating area for our application.
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Torque-speed characteristics
12

10

Torque [Nm]

500

1000

1500

speed [rpm]

Figure 2: Torque-speed curve, f = 50Hz

Torque-speed characteristics
30

25

Torque [Nm]

20

15

10

50

100

150
speed [rpm]

200

250

300

Figure 3: Torque-speed curve, f = 10Hz

We can also define the operating line or curve for the machine. In the low-slip region,
the induction machine has almost linear behaviour. Knowing that the machine
operates at 1420rpm rated speed,
10.087 = + , = 1420
0 = + , = 1500
= 0.126; = 189.13
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Running the motor with a frequency converter

The frequency converter which is used in this study has a circuit scheme which is
shown in fig. 5.

Figure 4: Frequency converter

In order to make the connections with the AC motor and the power grid we proceed
following the notations on the scheme. The connections are made and this is shown in
fig. 6.

Figure 5: Connections

The parameters of the converter are already set and therefore we can proceed with the
study.
After starting the motor could observe that the stator current has an almost sinusoidal
waveform with a small amount of ripples. This is due the fact that the stator windings
of the motor are supplied by a PWM inverter which gives an almost sinusoidal output
voltage. In comparison to the input line current we noticed that the waveform is
dramatically deformed and is far away from the ideal sinusoidal. This deformation is a
consequence of using a diode bridge rectifier. The comparison is shown in fig. 7.
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Figure 6: Waveform comparison

An another observation which we could made is that the total harmonic

distortion is very low for the stator current where it is very high for the input current
of the converter. The comparison is given in fig. 8.

Figure 7: Voltage-current distortion comparison

The frequency converter allows us to change the rotation speed of our AC drive.
This is achieved by changing the voltage frequency of the stator side. During the change
of frequency we could observe that the stator voltage has also changed. The ratio of the
stator voltage and frequency has to be a constant value in order to avoid saturation of
the machine. The linear dependency is measured in several points and the results are
given in the following graph

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500
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
13.4

Stator Voltage [V]

Stator voltage depending of the stator frequency

19.7

39.8

42.7

50.4

Stator Frequency [Hz]

The frequency converter used in this study always maintains a rotation speed
which is set by the user. By changing the load torque the converter will impact on the
electromagnetic torque in order to have a constant rotation speed. This principle can
be shown on the following equation:

During the study we observed that for the case when we decrease the load torque
the stator frequency will also decrease. Because the rotation speed has to be constant
we know that the electromagnetic torque has also decreased. By increasing the load
torque we observe that the frequency has also increased. From the previous reasoning
we know that the electromagnetic toque must have increased. With this observation
we validate that the electromagnetic torque depends on the rotor frequency throughout
the stator frequency range.

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Frequency Analysis
In order to have a better understanding of the pollution to the network by using a diode
bridge rectifier, here will be presented the frequency analysis of the line current at the
distribution line and the voltage at the motor terminal. This will be done by calculating
the total harmonic distortion (THD). Because in the literature we can find several
definitions for THD, here will be presented two definitions.
The THD-F which is defined by:
THD-F =

22 +32 +42 +52 +62 +72 +82

1

And
THD-R =

22 +32 +42 +52 +62 +72 +82

12 +22 +32 +42 +52 +62 +72 +82

= 1+2

For a low distortion the difference between THDR and THDF is negligible.
According to the results for the distribution line we had during the study and which are
shown in figure 3, we can estimate the values for all the harmonic. We have estimated
the following values:
F1=0.5 H2=0.48 H3=0.45 H4=0.40 H5=0.30 H6=0.25 H7=0.20 H8=0.10

By applying these values we get the following results:

THD-R = 0.8723 =87.23%, THD-F= 1.7837= 178.37%
The calculated value for THD-R corresponds to the one which is measured and
therefore we conclude that our estimation is correct.
At the motor terminal we have that the stator voltage varies as a function of time steps.
By decomposing the signal into its fundamental harmonics we can draw the harmonic
spectrum which is show in fig 9 by applying the following formula in per unit values:

For v = 5, 7, 11, 13

= 0 For v = 2,3,4,6,8,9,10,12,

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0.7

0.6

Voltage

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

10

15

20

25

30

35

Figure 9: Harmonic distortion of stator voltage

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Remedy
In this study we observed the behaviour of an AC machine which is feed by a frequency
converter with a diode rectifier in the front end. During the testing we could see that
the input current which is taken from the grid contains harmonics which have impact
on the grid and that those harmonics contribute to its pollution which should not be
acceptable. Another drawback of this configuration is that the active and reactive
power flow is possible only from the grid to the network. In some cases where our AC
drive acts as a generator this configuration does not allow to return of energy to the
grid. This cases for instances appear when our AC application works in the regenerative
breaking mode. This is fairly common in elevator applications. One solution for such
converters is to implement a breaking resistor which will dissipate the returned power
in form of heat losses. Because this is not very efficient due to the fact that we actually
lose power another approach will be introduced.
A much better solution would be to have instead of a three phase diode rectifier a PWM
rectifier which can with proper control of the switching elements, reverse the power
flow from the AC drive directly to the supply grid. Converters with such a topology are
known as Active Front End Converters. The topology which corresponds to those
converters is given in fig. 10.

Figure 10: Active Front End Converters

The proper control of the PWM rectifier relies on the Pulse Width Modulation principle
which enables the possibility to vary the width of the control impulses. The control is
achieved by having one carrier signal which in most cases is a triangular signal and
three reference signals which are sinusoidal. This signals have a phase shift of 120
degrees. By comparison of the carrier signal and the reference signals the control unit
decides which switches will be in the conducting mode or in the not conducting mode.
This principle is illustrated in fig. 11. This configuration has several benefits which are:
Reverse of active power into the grid, reactive power management and reducing of
lower harmonics. The reverse of active power improves the global efficiency of the
application when such a topology is used because the active power is returned into the
supply grid and can be used by another application. The reactive power management
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is achieved by controlling the phase shift between the grid voltage and the current. This
way we can compensate the reactive power taken from the grid and if necessary also
produce reactive power in order to give it to local applications which consume some
amount of reactive power. This is illustrated in fig 12.
Another great benefit is that the harmonics which cause pollution appear only at higher
frequencies. This is due the fact that the current which is drawn from the grid has an
almost sinusoidal waveform with very small ripples. The harmonics of higher order can
also be eliminated by using active filters.

Figure 11: PWM

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Figure 12: Reactive power compensation

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Operating in turbine mode

As mentioned before using an active front end converter and an asynchronous
induction motor we can deliver active and reactive power to the grid, with a three phase
diode bridge rectifier it is impossible to inverse the direction of the current. Here will
be explained the case of a pumped hydro storage plant with an active front end
converter. The condition to achieve an active power flow from the induction machine
to the grid is that the rotating speed of the rotor has to be greater and in the same
direction as the rotating electromagnetic field of the stator. In that case we will have a
negative slip of the induction machine and the flow of the active power to the grid. This
power is provided by the turbine which is connected to the motor shaft. Because of
different conditions which can appear during energy production the active front end
convertor has to fulfil additional conditions in order not to lose synchronism with the
grid:

The converter must always match the frequency which is imposed by the
grid.
The converter has to match the line voltages of the grid.
The phase angle has to be equal

For the applications where the asynchronous machine is directly connected to the grid
without a frequency converter in order to generate reactive power we will need
additional capacitors in between the line voltages. This reactive power is needed for the
excitation of the asynchronous machine but also for the grid which can demand
reactive power. This is due the fact that our asynchronous induction machine cannot
generate reactive power by itself. This configuration is shown in fig. 13.

Figure 13: Induction machine-grid connection

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Conclusion
In this Lab, we managed to emulate a specific load using a DC motor. To do so we had
to use a Frequency converter connected to the AC motor. The purpose of the converter
is to shift the characteristic of the AC motor for it to be able to provide the DC motor
with its nominal torque. The main drawback when using a frequency converter is the
harmonic distortion of the line current that pollutes the grid. This distortion can be
avoided by using PWM rectifier instead of diode rectifier. The last part of this report
focuses on another functioning mode when you actually provides power to the grid,
this mode results in many adjustments which are different whether you use a converter
or not.

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