HARMONICS AND SYSTEM NATURAL FREQUENCIES
. - YOUSIN TANG ALEX Y. WU
GLOBAL ENGINEERING COMPANY
ATLANTA, GA
ABSTRACT: High harmonic contents in power distribution
systems are usually due to system resonances at. harmonic
frequencies. This paper investigates harmonic resonance
related problems under various system operating conditions
using an accurate computer model. Three harmonic reduction
methods are examined to observe their effectiveness. These
methods are installation of harmonic filters, harmonic
cancellation by the AIA and AIY transformer configuration,
and low voltage capacitor resizing. To demonstrate these
applications, an actual industrial distribution system with
field harmonic measurements is presented. The results of the
'
case study are also presented.
1. INTRODUCTION
The harmonics are sustained currents and voltages that have
frequencies at multiples of the fundamental frequency (60
Hz). These harmonics are largely produced by the non-linear
characteristics of the static power converters in variable
speed drives. In strictly balanced, six-pulse based drive
systems, only 6n+l, where n=O, I , 2, ..., harmonic
components will be presented by Fourier analysis. These
harmonic components are called characteristic harmonics. In
the cases of non-ideal operation condition, non-characteristic
harmonic components can also present. In the industrial
environment, low frequency harmonics, such as 5th, 7th, 1 1th
and 13th, may cause problems.
Harmonic currents can cause additional heating to the
equipment, however the total heat will not be more than 4%
of the heat produced by the fundamental component. When
capacitor banks are installed for power factor improvement,
the power system will exhibit one or more nature frequencies
due to a RLC network system formed by the capacitor bank
and the remaining power distribution system. If one of the
harmonic currents produced by the non-linear load is close to
one of the nature frequencies, resonant conditions will occur.
There are two types of resonant conditions:
Series resonant: The total impedance at the resonant
frequency reduces to the resistive component only. The
equivalent impedance seen by the harmonic current would be
very low. A high harmonic current will flow at. the resonant
frequency.
Parallel resonant: The shunt capacitance reactance equals
the system equivalent shunt inductive reactance at the
0-7803-6501-1/01/$10.0002001 IEEE.
resonant frequency. The total impedance seen by harmonic
current would be very high. A high harmonic current will
-
circulate in the capacitance inductance loop.
IEEE 5 19- 1992 provides the recommendations for the
maximum current and the maximum voltage distortion limits
at the point of common coupling (PCC) with the utility
system. These recommended limits are shown in Figure No.
2 and Figure No. 3 respectively. It is important to ensure that
these limits be observed.
IEEE C37.99-1980 describes the capabilities and limitations
of the capacitor banks as follows:
0 Up to 110% of the rated terminal rms voltage, including
harmonics.
0 Up to 180% of the rated rms current, including
harmonics.
0 Up to 135% of the rated reactive power caused by the
combined effect of the terminal voltage and the
harm on ic vo Itages.
It is important that all capacitor banks are operated within
their capabilities.
With the growing use of variable speed drive systems in
industry applications, the harmonic related distribution
system problem is becoming an important issue to electrical
engineers. This paper presents a harmonic case study for an
industry plant based on various operating system conditions,
and intends to provide some practical guidelines to deal with
harmonic problems.
2. HARMONIC EVALUATION TECHNIQUES
Many harmonic study techniques have been developed in
modern power system analysis. Among them several
techniques are commonly used:
Harmonic Spectrum Indices: The harmonic spectrum is used
to describe the system harmonic level. Following harmonic
distortion indices are commonly used:
% of Individual Harmonic = !k x 1 Ooo/o
VI
51

&vi
Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) = -x 1ooo/o
4 3. HARMONIC STUDY FOR AN INDUSTRIAL
where V I is the fundamental component, and vk is harmonic
component at harmonic order k.
Harmonic Voltage and Current Calculations: This is to
evaluate system harmonic voltages at system buses and
harmonic currents at system branches by conducting
harmonic load flow study. Harmonic sources are usually
modeled as harmonic currents injected at non-linear load
locations. The accuracy of the results depends on the
accuracies of the system model and harmonic source model.
Frequency Scans: In this method, a unit harmonic current
injected at a harmonic source bus, and the frequencies of
harmonic current will sweep in a frequency range of interest.
The system response at any location can be observed. The
results can reveal the system resonant conditions. If any of
the resonant frequencies is. close to a harmonic source
frequency, one can predict a high harmonic component in the
system.
Harmonic Measurentent: Harmonic components and
harmonic distortion level can be determined by harmonic
measurements using harmonic analyzers and wave analyzers.
The instruments shall provide magnitudes and phase angles
of harmonic voltages and currents. The harmonic
measurement of harmonic sources can be crucial to harmonic
study. This is because practically all non-linear loads are
usually operated under non-ideal operating conditions. The
Figure I: Industrial Power Distribution System
52
magnitudes and phase angles of produced harmonics may be
significantly different from theoretically calculated results.
DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM
Industrial power distribution systems with non-linear loads
usually contain high harmonics. This paper demonstrates how
a comprehensive harmonic study is conducted for the
purpose of reducing the system harmonic levels to comply
with national standard, and preventing harmonic resonant
conditions at medium and low voltage buses.
3.1 Study System Description
A simplified one-line diagram of the power distribution
system under consideration is shown in Figure 1 . The system
has four major 13.8 kV buses called Bus A, B, C, D, and a
generator Bus, called Bus C. The utility supplies power via
two three-winding transformers. To meet power factor
requirement, there are four 7.2MVAR 13.8kV capacitor
banks on Bus A, B, D and E respectively. The four buses
feed approximately 90MW total load via 123 secondary
distribution transformers. About 30% of the total load is
harmonic producing loads, such as DC drive and variable
speed drive systems. They are distributed in two groups at
Bus B and Bus E respectively. A major variable speed drive
system, which is also a harmonic producing load, will be
connected to the Bus D in the near future. Due to the
presence of capacitor banks, potential harmonic resonances
that can cause high harmonic levels may occur.
Bus D Bus E
7.2MVAR
 Table I : Measured Harmonics at Non-linear Loads
3.2 Harmonic Study Methodology
In order to reach accurate results, the system must be
appropriately modeled. The following methodology is used
in the study.
Measure harmonics at all 13.8 kV bus feeds and major
bus tie branches.
Establish the present system harmonic load flow
computer model with harmonic sources modeled as
current injections at all harmonic source locations.
Perform a system harmonic calculation by harmonic
load flow study and compare the calculated results with
the field measurements at bus tie branches and load
feeders. If the calculated results are close to the field
measurements, the computer model can be accepted for
the harmonic study.
Use the accepted computer model from (3) to calculate
harmonics under various system operating conditions,
and determine harmonic reduction measures.
Use the frequency scan method to examine system
resonant conditions and verify the results of harmonic
reduction measures.
3.3 Harmonic Evaluation in Present System
3.3.1 Field Harmonic Current Measurements
Table 1 shows some of the harmonic spectrum measured at
the non-linear loads. The Sh harmonic is the highest
component at all non-linear loads.
3.3.2 Present System Harmonic Load Flow Modeling
The current injections of the harmonic source model are
placed at those non-linear load feeders. The harmonic load
flow study is then performed as Case 1A. The study gives
voltage and current harmonics in the system. Compare the
calculated results with field-measured data at bus ties, utility
tie and feeders. It is confirmed they are close. This validates
the system model. Table 2 shows the harmonic currents at the
utility tie. The two highest components are the 5th and 7th
harmonics. By using the frequency scan technique, the
system resonance is close to 7th harmonic frequency as
shown in Figure 2 . This is a parallel harmonic resonance.
Table 3 shows the comparison of IEEE STD 5 I9 harmonic
current limitation with system harmonics. It indicates that
although individual harmonic components satisfy the limits,
the total harmonic distortion (THD) level just exceeds the
required limit.
3.3.3 Harmonic Reduction with Harmonic Filters
To reduce total harmonic distortion at the utility tie, a
harmonic reduction measure is necessary. Two tuning
reactors are added to capacitors at harmonic source locations,
Bus B and Bus E. The series connection of the reactor with
the capacitor forms each harmonic filter. The reactors are
sized to achieve single-frequency harmonic filters at the
desired frequency. Since the highest harmonic component
generated from all harmonic sources is the 5th harmonic
order, the reactors are tuned to form 5th harmonic filters.
With the installation of tuning reactors, the harmonic load
flow study is performed as Case 1B. Table 2 shows the result
of harmonic current at the utility tie. All harmonic
components and THD are reduced significantly, which satisfy
the required limitation as shown in Table 3. The frequency
scan result shown in Figure 3 indicates magnitudes of the
resonances are much lower than those in Case IA, and none
of the resonant frequencies is close to the system harmonic
frequencies.
53
 1.0 3.0 5.0 7.0 9.0 11.0 13.0 15.0 17.0 19.0 21.t
Harmonic

Figure 2: Resonant Condition at Utility Tie in Case 1A

Frequency Scan - Injection on BUS-B

Figure 3: Resonant Condition at Utility Tie in Case 1B

54
 supplying power to the drive systems. In the case without
Table 2: Harmonic Currents a t Utility harmonic cancellation, all six transformers are A N
configuration. In conjunction with or without harmonic filters
I Harm. I Case 1A I Case 1B I (at Bus B, D and E) for each above scheme, there are four
cases to be considered here. Specifically, they are:
147.794 147.434
Case 2A: without harmonic cancellation, without harmonic
0.000 0.000
filter,
8.280 0.000
7.562 1.570 Case 2B:' with harmonic cancellation, without harmonic
I 9 I 0.000 I 0.000 I filter,
1 11 I 0.776 1 0.069 I Case 2C: without harmonic cancellation, with harmonic
I 13 I 0.106 I 0.099 1 filter,
1 15 I 0.000 1 0.000 1 Case 2D: with harmonic cancellation, with harmonic filter.
I 17 I 0.029 I 0.237 I
The study is based on the assumption that the drive controls
21 0.000 I 0.000 (firing angles) within each pair of harmonic cancellation are
23 0.004 0.032 identical although the load sizes are not the same. The results
25 0.001 0.009 of harmonic study are shown in Table 4, and their IEEE STD
519 compliance at the utility interface is shown in Table 5 . It
should be noted that the results of harmonic cancellation is
Table 3: Comparison of Harmonics (%) to IEEE Std 519 under the ideal situation. In reality, the effectiveness of the
cancellation would be less than that of ideal conditions. The
Harm. harmonic cancellation scheme can reduce the system
harmonic level noticeably. However, the reduced harmonic
level may still be too high as in Case 2B. With the harmonic
filters, the harmonic level is effectively reduced to a very low
level, and the harmonic cancellation scheme becomes
insignificant when comparing Case 2C with Case 2D.
ICase 1BI 1.081 0.071 0.161 0.021 01 1.091

Table 4: Harmonic Currents a t Utility

3.4 The Effect of Harmonic Cancellation by A/A and
A/Y Transformers
The harmonic current cancellation can be achieved by
employment of A/A and A/Y transformer pair for non-linear
loads. To achieve ideal cancellations, the operating
conditions of non-linear loads at both transformers must be
the same. Therefore, the magnitudes and phase angles, as
well as firing delay angles, of non-linear loads at both
transformers should be the same. Under such ideal condition 9 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
all harmonic components of 6n+l, where n=l, 3, 5, ..., will 11 2.468 2.468 0.622 0.622
be cancelled at transformer primary side. This is because the 13 I 0.3 151 0.3151 0.8631 0.863
corresponding harmonics, such as Sh and 7th, 171h and 191h, 15 I 0.0001 0.0001 0.0001 0.000
etc., are out of phase by 180 degrees in each pair. In reality, 1- 17 I 0.071) 0.0361 0.5471 0.2431
since the load sizes and drive operating conditions at the I 19 I 0.0001 0.0001 0.2861 0.0161
transformer secondary are not identical, the harmonic I 21 I 0.oool 0.oool 0.0001 0.oool
components intended to be fully cancelled can be only
partially cancelled.
23 I 0.0041 0.0041 0.0241 0.024
25 I 0.OOll 0.0011 0.0111 0.011
In this new case study, a new production line with total
lOMW non-linear load is added to the system at Bus D. Two
schemes are considered: with or without harmonic
cancellation. In the harmonic cancellation scheme, six
transformers form three pairs of A/A and A N transformers
 Table 5: Comparison of Highest Harmonics (%) to indicates high harmonic level at some of the transformer-
IEEE Std 519 capacitor circuits. The harmonics at one of these capacitors
are shown in Table 6 for Case 3A. The transformer size is
Harm. 1500 kVA and the capacitor size is 500 kVAR. The 71h
Order 2 t o 10 1 1 to 16 1 7 t o 2 2 2 3 t o 3 4 >34 THD harmonic is as high as 53% of the fundamental current. This
IEEE high harmonic component indicates a harmonic resonant

I
Limits 6.00 2.75 2.50 1.00 0.50 7.50
Case2A 19.85 1.70 0.05 0.00 0.00 20.93
I Case 2B I 10.201 1.701 0.021 0.001 0.001 10.891
I Case2C I 3.711 0.591 0.381 0.021 0.00) 3.801
I Case 2D I 2.231 0.59) 0.171 0.021 0.001 2.351
3.5 Effect of Capacitors at Low Voltage Buses
Low voltage capacitor banks provide flexible VAR control
by switching on-off with associated loads. However, with the
presence of non-linear loads in the system, the capacitors
may cause series resonance with its immediate upstream
transformer as illustrated in Figure 4. At high frequencies, the
equivalent impedance of the inductive load and capacitor will
become capacitive. This capacitive impedance, along with
transformer impedance, forms an RLC series branch. At a
certain frequency the reactance of the impedance can be zero.
The frequency is a series resonant frequency. If the resonant
frequency is close to one of the system harmonic frequencies,
the harmonic current can easily penetrate into the branch.
This can result in very high level of harmonics and cause
condition. Since there is no harmonic filter, the harmonic
currents from the sources are further magnified by the
resonance, and penetrate into the transformer-capacitor
circuit. Figure 5 shows the frequency of the dominant
resonance at the 7'h harmonic.
To reduce the harmonic level, the harmonic filter can be
considered as in previous section. However, as an alternative
harmonic reduction measure, a careful resizing of the
capacitor may also achieve the objective. In Case 3B and
Case 3C, the capacitor size is changed to 400 kVAR and 300
kVAR respectively. The harmonics are reduced significantly
to relatively low levels as shown in Table 6. The system
resonant conditions are shown in Figure 5 and 6 for Case 3A
and Case 3C respectively by the frequency scan method.
With the capacitor resizing, the magnitude of original
resonance at 7th harmonic frequency is substantially reduced
in Case 3C as shown in Figure 6.
Table 6: Harmonic Currents at a 480V Capacitor
I Case 3B I I
Case 3A
1 CapipCIO I
Case 3~

1
excessive heat at the transformer and related equipment. It Cap.=500 Ca;i;(10
'may also cause some control equipment malfunctions.
Harm.
kVAR
I
%of I %of1
Order Amus Fund. Amus Fund. Amm Fund.
1 %of I 1
1 610.0631 - 1j(.l061 - i(64.3881 -
Harmonic I 3 0.000 0.00% 0.000 0.00% 0.000 0.00%
Flow I 13.8kV 5 24.302 3.98% 16.412 3.38% 10.645 2.92%
7 323.006 52.95% 125.1 92 25.75% 52.523 14.41%
9 0.000I 0.00%I 0.000I 0.00%I 0.000I 0.00%I
T 4 8 0V 11 9.9751I 1.64%1 12.9051 2.65%1 24.7851 6.80%1I
I I I I

13

Capacitor -r -I + Load
15
17
19 I I I I I I
21 0.0001 O.OO%l 0.0001 O.OO%l 0.0001 O.OO%l
23 0.003 0.00% 0.003 0.00% 0.003 0.00%
Figure 4: Transformer-Capacitor Circuit 25 0.003 0.00% 0.003 0.00% 0.003 0.00%
ITiE

In this system, a total of 10 MVAR capacitor banks are

added to many 480 V buses at the secondary of distribution
transformers for power factor correction enhancement. The
individual sizes of the capacitor banks vary from 100 kVAR
to 500 kVAR based on transformer sizes and loads.
Assuming there is no harmonic filter, the harmonic study

56
1.0 3.0 5.0 7.0 9.0 11.0 13.0 15.0 17.0 19.0 21.0
Harmonic

Figure 5: Resonant Condition at 480V Capacitor with 5OOkVAR in Case 3A

Frequency Scan - Injection on BUS-B

1.0 3.0 5.0 7.0 9.0 11.0 13.0 15.0 17.0 19.0 21.0

__________ -______-___-
Harmonic _________

Figure 6: Resonant Condition at 480V Capacitor with 3OOkVAR in Case 3C

57
 4. CONCLUSIONS

With increasing non-linear loads, harmonic cQntents tend to

be high in power distribution systems. When a system
contains power correction capacitors, system resonances at
harmonic frequencies can cause serious problems. The major
problems are 1) violation of the IEEE compliance
requirement at utility coupling points, 2) excessive heat on
power equipment, 3) control device malfunctions. To
mitigate harmonic problems, harmonic reduction measures,
such as harmonic filters, harmonic cancellations by A/A and
A/Y transformer configuration, and capacitor resizing are
often used. This paper examined these methods.
This paper demonstrates that an accurate harmonic current
model is essential to harmonic current analysis. This accurate
model can be achieved by closely matching its results with
the field harmonic current measurements.
The effectiveness of harmonic cancellation by AJA and A/Y
transformer scheme is often limited due to non-ideal
operating conditions in applications. The maximum
cancellation requires identical load sizes at both transformers,
as well as identical operations on both drive systems. In
reality, it is difficult to achieve. Low voltage capacitor banks
should be carefully sized, otherwise series resonant
conditions may occur. Under certain circumstances, resizing
relevant capacitors can effectively reduce harmonics.
Harmonic filters are usually a very effective way to reduce
harmonic levels.

5. REFERENCES
IEEE Std. 5 19- 1994, “IEEE Recommended Practice
and Requirements for Harmonic Control in Electrical
Power systems”
J. Arrillaga, D. A. Bradley and P. S . Bodger “Power
System Harmonics”, John Willey & Sons, 1985
A. A. Mahmoud & R. D. Shultz “A Method for
Analyzing Harmonic Distribution in AC Power
Systems”, IEEE Trans. on Power Apparatus and
Systems, Vol. PAS- 101, No. 6, June 1982.
A. P. Meliopoulos & G. J. Cokkinides “Effect of
Modeling on the Accuracy of Harmonic Analysis”,
IEEE Trans. on Power Delivery, 1991.

58