PEDS 2007

Filter Design for Distribution

Systems with Adjustable Speed Drives

Hybrid Passive

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

as
the impact of nonlinear drive systems on the rest of the
Abstract--Drive systems inject significant low order harmonics
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).
Passive filters are the easiest and most cost effective
IEEE 30-bus system with penetration of nonlinear adjustable
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
transmission systems in high power rating. These loads can be
I. INTRODUCTION
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
four-wire systems may be compensated using a
drives are considered as one of the biggest contributors to three-phase
number
of
of passive filters, active filters or hybrids of
hybrids
power quality problems due to their high-power ratings [1-3].
and
active
filters.
passive
The nonlinear v-i characteristics of drive systems may result in
This paper performs harmonic flow analysis in the presence
triplen harmonic currents, neutral conductor problems (and
of
nonlinear
drive systems to determine highly distorted buses
increased losses), transformer saturation (and overheating),
and
the
most
detrimental harmonic frequencies. A hybrid of
power-factor capacitor failures, unsatisfactory performance of
shunt
filters (tuned at the dominated harmonic
passive
fuses, circuit breakers and relays (e.g., longer or shorter
is
used
to compensate for the injected harmonics.
frequencies)
tripping times depending on the harmonic magnitude and
The
of
the system (including the overall THD
power
quality
etc.
Consideration
of
these
spectrum),
problems requires
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/$20.002007 IEEE

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Modern electric drives utilize rectifier circuits and are

classified as dc and ac drives.
DC drives employ controlled rectifiers to realize variable
dc voltages while ac drives usually have PWM inverters with
variable voltage and variable frequency technology. In ac
drives, a dc capacitor is normally applied between the rectifier
and the PWM inverter to limit the low-ripple dc voltage. Many
industrial loads such as the paper industry use controlled ac
drives with voltage-source inverter (VSI) that operate based on
PWM switching. However, the dc capacitor magnifies line
harmonics and may cause power quality problems. DC drives
are directly connected to dc motors without a dc capacitor.
Therefore, dc drives have large equivalent inductances on the
dc bus and cause less harmonic distortions on the line-side, as
compared to their counterpart ac drives. Furthermore,
harmonics distortions of ac drives become more severe under
light load conditions. One approach to improve the
performance of ac drives is to place an inductor on the dc bus
in addition to the dc capacitor [3]. This will reduce reflection
of harmonics into lines from the VSI unit; however, there are
cost and implementation issues.
A counterpart to the PWM-VSI electric drive is the currentsource inverter (CSI)-based PWM-operated drive system; the
dc bus includes a dc inductor (with no dc capacitor) and the
load side is connected to a three-phase ac capacitor in parallel
with the motor [3]. With this improved configuration, the
capacitor and dc inductor act as a filter unit while the ac
inductor serves as an energy storage element. Comparison
between PWM-CSI and PWM-VSI electric drives can be
performed based on output voltage regulation, line current
waveform, load-side voltage/current waveforms, and cost [7-

9]:

Voltage regulation- the line-to-line output voltages of PWMCSI and PWM-VSI drives are:
VrPw
S =~ Vg
VPMCJ-~Vrms
D

VPWM-VSI

S-

DV

1.732 Vg(1

D(1

=0612DVg

where Vg is the equivalent dc source voltage and D is the duty

ratio of the inverter which is less than one. According to Eq. 1,
the CSI configuration has better voltage regulation capabilities
due to the substantial energy stored in the inductor as well as
its boost characteristics.
Line current harmonics- PWM-CSI drives inherently have
low line harmonics. On the other hand, due to the reflection of
the dc capacitor in a VSI-based drive, the line current
waveforms are highly distorted and become discontinuous in
many cases, particularly under light load conditions. The total
harmonic distortion THD of VSI-based drives may be as high
as 60% with very high penetrations of 5th and 7t harmonics.

Output (load side) voltage and current waveforms- typical

voltage waveforms of the VSI-based drives have high THD
values of about 400/ (with lowest harmonic order equal to the
switching frequency of about 5-10 kHz), as compared with

acceptable THD levels experienced with CSI-based

configurations (about 6%). Due to the high-frequency
switching, the current waveforms of both types of drives are
acceptable and have low THD levels (e.g., less than 2%).
Cost considerations- PWM-CSI drives have certain
limitations that increase their overall cost. The dc inductor and
the large ac capacitor demand extra space and increase the
cost. In addition, the ac capacitor may cause self excitation
with magnetizing inductor of the rotating machine. The selfexcitation problem may be solved by coordinating the dc
inductor, ac capacitor and motor operating conditions, such
that the resonant frequency does not coincide with any
harmonic frequencies ofthe system and/or nonlinear loads.
For analysis and modelling of small to moderate size power
systems, detailed and accurate models of dc and ac drives can
be utilized to generate accurate results. However, due to
memory storage and convergence problems of harmonic
power flow algorithms, detailed nonlinear models of drive
systems should not be used for the simulation of large
distorted distribution systems with high penetration of
nonlinear loads. This paper uses harmonic current sources to
model drive systems and employs a decoupled harmonic
power flow algorithm [10-13] to simulate the distorted
distribution system that usually includes other nonlinear
devices and/or loads. An inherent advantage of this simple
approach (in addition to its simplicity, fast convergence and
acceptable accuracy), is the possibility of using measured
waveform current (or voltage) of the drive to estimate the
harmonic model without the need for detailed models. This is
particularly attractive for most electric utilities that have
limited information about the configuration, types and number
of drive systems for their industrial customers. Table 1 shows
the typical harmonic spectrum of variable-frequency and
PWM adjustable speed drives used in this paper [8-9].
TABLE 1
HARMONIC SPECTRUM OF TYPICAL VARIABLE-FREQUENCY AND PWM
ADJUSTABLE SPEED DRIVES
variable frequency drive
PWM-adjustable speed drive
(675 kW, 439 kVAr)
(350 kW, 175 kVAr)
h
phase angle
phase angle
magnitude
magnitude

5
7
11
13
17
19
23
25
29

31

[%]

100

23.52
6.08
4.57
4.2
1.8
1.37
0.75
0.56
0.49
0.54

[degree]
0
111
109
-158
-178
-94
-92
-70
-70
-20
7

[%]

100

[degree]

82.8
77.5
46.3
41.2
14.2
9.7
1.5
2.5
0
0

0
-135
69
-62
139
9
-155
-158
98
0
0

III. DECOUPLED HARMONIC POWER FLOW

At the fundamental frequency, system is modeled using the

conventional (sinusoidal) power flow approach. The
magnitudes and phase angles of bus voltages are calculated
using the following mismatch equations [10-13]:

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1+1

Pi_

i+1

COS('51-'5j- 0j)0
1

YIVl Vil sin(- j

ill~~~~~~Jj

Qi - E
where

currents, the harmonic load flow problem can then be

calculated using the following equation [ 13]:

I1

Yjli VjlJ Vil

yj-

yJ1i = Y1i01
whilePi Qi

yhvh =Ih
~~~~~~~~~~~~~(2)
)

(3)

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
line section between bus i and bus i+ 1.
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
multiple harmonic injection currents. Linear loads are modeled
with a resistance in parallel with an inductance to account for
the respective active and reactive loads at fundamental
frequency. Nonlinear loads are considered as ideal harmonic
current sources that generate harmonic currents and inject
them into the system. The admittance-matrix-based harmonic
power flow is the most widely used method as it is based on
the frequency-scan process. In this approach, admittance of
system components will vary with the harmonic order. If skin
effect is ignored at higher frequencies, the resulting hth
harmonic frequency load admittance, shunt capacitor
admittance and feeder admittance are respectively given by the
following equations [13]:
h
Pli
Qli
Yli
2
2J

Yl,i+l

~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~(7)

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:

Vi

IV. HYBRID OF PASSIVE FILTERS

The configuration and complexity of the filter depends on

harmonic spectrum and nature of the distortion. If a nonlinear
load is locally causing significant harmonic distortion, passive
filters may be installed to prevent the harmonic currents from
being injected into the system. These filters are inexpensive
compared with most other mitigating devices. Passive filters
are composed of only passive elements (inductance,
capacitance, and resistance) tuned to the harmonic
frequencies. In practice, passive filters are added to the system
starting with the lowest trouble harmonic (e.g., installing a
seventh-harmonic filter usually requires that a fifth-harmonic
filter also be included).
Rf

(4)

(
C5)

Ri1i+l + jhXi,i+l

(8)

X1O00o

:#

THDvj (0o

L(5)

h I

Vih)(7

Rf

h v7

v7

Yi

At any bus i, the rms voltage is defined as:

IVil = (
~~~~~if=i

(6)

aL(7)f
C(7)

Rf

Rf

L(l) LL(13)
(11
Cfl

(13)

Rf
L(17)

C(17)

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
Since drive systems mainly inject low order harmonics, a
loads at bus i.
filter block consisting of a number of band-pass filters
hybrid
The nonlinear load is treated as harmonic current sources
tuned
to
dominating harmonic frequencies [4] will be used
and the hth harmonic current injected at bus i introduced by the
The
resonant frequency of each shunt branch is:
(Fig.
1).
nonlinear load with real power Pn and reactive power Q, is:
coh =2Azhf= 1 LhCh
(9)
Il = [(Pni + jQni) Vi ]*

C(h)I11

(5)

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
branches are activated.
distribution feeder [13].
For decouple harmonic power flow calculation, loop
V. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
equations are written at each harmonic frequency of interest.
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
Ii1

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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.

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).

ASD: PWM adjustable speed drive

31

Fig. 2. The IEEE 30-bus system used for simulations [14-15]

Case A. Harmonic Compensation with Two Hybrid Flirters

Harmonic analysis before the installation of passive filters
indicate very high distortion of both voltage and current
waveforms (Fig. 3 and Table 2) due to the presence of the two
ac drives with relatively high power ratings (Table 1).
According to the IEEE-5 19 standard [7], the individual
harmonic current injections at bus 15 (for 5th, 7th, 1 1th, 13th,
17th and I9th harmonics) and bus 18 (for 5th, 7th and 11th
harmonics) are higher than the allowable level of 400 and the
electric utility has the right to reject (disconnect) these
nonlinear loads. In addition, propagation of injected harmonic
currents has resulted in unacceptable THDv levels (e.g., larger
that 5O) at buses 12 to 15. Buses 11 and 16 to 18 are also
experiencing relatively high THDv of more than 400 (Fig. 6).
The common procedure is to require the consumers of
nonlinear loads (at buses 15 and 18) to installation passive
filter banks at the terminals of the AC drives. Figure 3 and
Table 2 show the simulation results after the installation of the
following filter banks, tuned at the dominated frequencies:
* Filter Bank 1- A hybrid passive filter with five shunt
branches tuned to the 5t, 7 , 11 th 13th and 17t harmonic
frequencies (Eq. 9 with f1=50Hz), installed at bus 15 with
Rf = ] OOQ, Lf = ]OOmH (for all branches), C[5) 4. 05pF,
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
(Eq. 9 with f1=50Hz), installed at bus 18 with
Rf = IOOD, Lf = lOOmH (for allbranches),

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

According to Table 2, the performance of these filters are
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

TABLE 2
SUMMARY OF SIMULATION RESULTS FOR THE IEEE 30 BUS SYSTEM (FIG. 2)
BEFORE AND AFTER THE INSTALLATION OF FILTER(S)

before filtering
minimum maximum
0.8382 pu
1.0003 pu
at bus 15
at bus I
1.8492 %
6.5089 pu
at bus 5
at bus 15
3.1820%
after filtering (Case B)
minimum maximum
0.8337 pu
1.0001 pu
at bus 5
at bus 2
1.2520 %
1.8629 %
at bus 22
at bus 18
1.4950 %0

rms voltage
THDv

system THDv

rms voltage
THDv

system THDv

after filtering (Case A)

minimum maximum
0.8295 pu
1.0003 pu
at bus 15
at bus 2
1.0548 %
2.1691 %
at bus 18
at bus II
1.4818%
after filtering (Case C)
minimum maximum
0.8469 pu
1.0002 pu
at bus 15
at bus 2
1.0938 %
5.8453 %
at bus 6
at bus 15
1.8707 %

Voltage waveforms of bus 15 before and after filtering

0.8

0.6

0.4

,.

o 0.2 //
Xo

_0.4
-0.6-

-0.8L
-10

T
uncompensate
-filtered

T/2

3T/2
=

0.06

penod

2T

5T/2

3T

Current waveforms of bus 15 before and after filtering

filtered

<
/

0.04

-0.02

-0.04

T2
=

penod

5T/2

3T

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)

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Voltage waveforms of bus 15 before and after filtering

_0.6

02

ol~~~~~~~~~~~~fI~
10
T
T
T
52

E~~~~~~~~~~~~~ft~

0.04L
0.02

.-I
0

ol

E
_0.02

-0.04
-n ns

u-ut6

T/2

3T/2
=

2T

5T/2

3T

penod

Fig. 4. Voltage and current waveforms at bus 15 before and after the
installation of one filter bank at bus 15 (Case B)

Voltage waveforms of bus 15 before and after filtering

1

0.8;

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
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
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
drives). Simulation results indicate that the common approach
of placing filter banks at the terminals of each drive system is
not always the best and most economical solution. Simulation
results indicate that the number, locations and tuning
frequencies of filters have major impacts on the overall quality
of the distribution system. It might be possible to control and
limit the overall system distortion, as well as the individual
bus THDv levels with fewer filter banks if system conditions
before and after harmonic compensation are carefully studied
and analyzed. This required fast and relatively accurate
algorithms and solution approaches, as presented in this paper.
VII. REFERENCES

[1]
[2]

-0.4
-0.6-0.8-

[3]
[4]

filtered

T/2

3T/2
=

0.04_

penod

5T/2

2T

3T

Current waveforTms of bus 15 before and after filtering

[5]

filtered

0.03

[6]
[7]

0.02

[8]
-0.041 )

T2

3T2

2T

5T2

3T

[9]

Fig. 5. Voltage and current waveforms at bus 15 before and after the
installation of one filter bank at bus 9 (Case C)
reduction
~~~~~~~~ThD

[11]

Uncompensated
1 liter (Case B)

-*

[10]

titers (Case A)

[12]
a

[13]

2D-

1_

LL[

[14]
1

11

13

15

17

19

21

23

25

27

29

13
;3

Bus

[15]

Fig. 6. Comparison of THDv levels of the IEEE 30-bus system (Fig. 2) before
and after the installation of one (Case B) and two (Case A) filter banks

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