Active Power Filter Control Circuit based on the Instantaneous Active and Reactive

Current id-& Method

Vasco Soares Pedro Verdelho and (31 Marques

Dep. de Engenharia Electrotecnica e Automa@o Dep. de Engenharia Electrotecnica e de Computadores
Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa Instituto Superior Tecnico
R. ConsoEmidio Navarro, 1, 1900 Lisboa, PORTUGAL AV.Rovisco Pais, 1, 1096 Lisboa, PORTUGAL
Email: veasamail.telepac.pt Email: pcverdelho@st.utl.pt

Abstract - This paper presents the control circuit of a shunt Steady state and transient responses are shown to
active power filter based on the instantaneous active and highlight the stability of the voltage regulation system, the
reactive current i& method. The presented method is

@::z ~ ? i c \
performance of i& method and the frequency
compared with the instantaneous active and reactive power p-q
method under several mains voltage conditions and for independence.
different harmonic injection highpass filters. The i& method
as an excellent harmonic compensation performance and il Load
ACmains is
presents the advantage of being frequency-independent. The
DC voltage regulation system is analysed and its synthesis is
performed. Extensive simulation results are used to show the
stability of the voltage regulation system and to establish the Filter
superior performance of i& method based compensator. current

I. INTRODUCTION
Static converters and a number of low-power electronic-
-based appliances are nonlinear loads that generate a great
disturbance in the AC mains. The harmonic current content
vary randomly, consequently, the conventional solutions
such as the use of passive filters to perform a harmonic
reduction are ineffective. The most effective solution is the SUPPlY
voltage
use of active power filters which proved to be the most
effective devices to compensate the harmonics and I
I
asymmetries of the mains currents caused by nonlinear 1

loads. One type of active power filter widely used are the
shunt active filters (Fig. 1). In this field several works have
been realised [1]-[7].
In this paper the active power filter performance is
evaluated with respect to the mains harmonic content and
highpass filter effectiveness under several mains voltage
conditions. The performance measure by the total harmonic
distortion (THD) is presented for two control methods: the
instantaneous active and reactive current id-iq method [ 11
and the instantaneous active and reactive power p-q method
[2]. Besides the superior harmonic compensation
performance shown by the id-& method, the mains frequency
independence enable the operation of the active power filter
in a large frequency range without any adjustment. This is
achieved by a synchronous rotating frame derived from the
mains voltages without the use of a phase-locked-loop (PLL).
A large number of active power filters are implemented
with a PLL [4]-171, so, using the i& control method many
synchronization problems are avoided and a truly frequency-
-independent filter is achieved.
Active power filter
Fig. 1. Basic compensation scheme
STATEANALYSIS
11. IDEALSTEADY
In this section it will be exposed an ideal analysis in
steady state conditions of the active power filter. It is
assumed that the voltage source inverter (VSI) has a unitary
transfer function, so the converter currents ici, where i stands
for the phase number, follows instantaneously the reference
currents ic,*.The steady state analysis using the fast Fourier
transform for the two control methods that are presented are
now briefly explained.
A. Insfantaneous active and reactive power p-q method
The active power filter currents ic, are obtained from the
instantaneous active and reactive powers pl and ql of the
nonlinear load. This is achieved by previous calculation of
the mains voltages U, and the nonlinear load currents il, in a
stationary reference frame, i.e., in ap components by (l), (2)

0-7803-3840-5197/$10.000 1997 IEEE 1096

and (3). A null value for the zero voltage and current angle is sensible to voltage harmonics and unbalanced
variables is considered. vollage sources, therefore d&dt may not be constant.

t
a

(2) Fig. 2 . Instantaneous voltage and current vectors

Due to geometric relations then (7) becomes

(3)

Consequently, the instantaneous active and reactive

powers pl and ql can be expressed by
(4)
After performing the elimination of the average power
coniponents by highpass filters (HPF) the powers pc and qc
are obtained. The converter currents are first calculated by
(5) and finally by (6).
(5)
1;] J&-q [
=
1
. -up i:].[ ]
One of the advantages ofthis method is that the 0 angle is
calculated directly from the main voltages and thus enable
the method to be frequency-independent.Avoiding the use of
a PLL it can be achieved ai large frequency operating range
limited chiefly by the cutoff frequency of the VSI.
Furthermore, a large number of synchronisation problems
with unbalanced and nonsinusoidal mains voltages are also
avoided. Performing the elimination of the average current
components by highpass filters the currents icd and ic, are
obtained. The converter currents are first calciulated by (9)
and again by (6).

B. Instantaneous active and reactive current iCiqmethod

In this method the currents ic, are now obtained form the C. Numerical simulations
instantaneous active and reactive currents ild and il, of the In the simulations the nonlinear load is a thrlse-phase full
nonlinear load. In the same way, the calculation of the mainsconverter. It is assumed that the currents are independent of
voltages ZI, and the polluted currents il, in ap components the mains voltages and there is no ripple on the rectifier DC
must be performed as in Section 11-A. However, the dq load current. Considering a maxiimum harmonic ordler of 25 and
current components are derived form a synchronous a firing angle of 60" the rectifier currents has EL THD value
reference frame based on the transformation (7) where 0 of 33,4 %. The active power filter performance: is analysed
represent the instantaneous voltage vector angle. under several mains volta,ge conditions. Under balanced
sinusoidal voltage conditions a first harmonic; system of
positive sequence is considered. In case of the unbalanced
sinusoidal voltage conditions a 10 % unbalanced system is
(7) considered. Finally, for the balanced nonsinusalidal voltage
conditions the systems considered are: a first harmonic
Fig. 2 shows the instantaneous voltage and current vectors positive sequence, a fifth harmonic negative sequence and a
in the stationary and rotating frames. The transformation seventh harmonic positive sequence with, respectively, 1/10
and 1/14 amplitude related to the first harmonic.

1097
 The highpass filters used to eliminate de DC components
in the nonlinear load powers pl and ql or load currents l l d
and il, are analog Butterworth type. They have a cutoff
frequency equal to one half of the mains frequency Cf,=fi2,
F 5 0 Hz) to assure the elimination of the DC components, a
small phase shift in harmonics and a sufficiently fast
111. SYSTEM CONTROL AND MODELLING
The active power filter proposed in Fig. 5 has a hysteresis
current regulator to achieve the current injection of the
reference currents ic,' or icd' and ic,*.
ACmam IS

transient response. To minimize the influence of the HPF Nonlmear load

phase responses, alternative highpass filters (AHPF) can be
obtain through a lowpass filter (LPF) of the same order and 1 L --+,,'__-_ --_-
I L - - - +,+--- - - -1 1
cutoff frequency, simply by the difference between the input I
I
L Ul, uz,U3 I (

signal and the filtered one. 1 I 1

The graphs shown in Fig. 3 and 4 summarize the total

harmonic distortion values for all the conibinations between
the voltage conditions and filter types.
From the results presented is confirmed that performance
of the instantaneous active and reactive current id-& method
is equal to the instantaneous active and reactive power p-q
method under sinusoidal voltage conditions. Nevertheless,
under unbalanced or nonsinusoidal voltages conditions the
id-&control method lead always to better results. Among the
filters used it can be verified that the best performance is
achieved with the fourth order AHPF.
Park Transfannation

icq*
d q - 123

icd* ilqnh
I I I
I
I
ilq nh
+ I
I
12 edc I

-s a10

0
F 6
4

'a
2
Fig. 5. Active power filter control circuit.

-
0
2nd 2nd 4ih 4i-
HPF AHPF HPF AHPF edc

Filter type
0
Balanced 0Urbalamed 0Non-
sinusoidal
edc'
1 - 1 1 idlh+
1- ild Butterworth - + +
lowpass filter --o icd'
ild Ih+ ild nh

-
Fig. 3 . Total harmonic distortionfor the p-q control method.
I transformation I , 9 iqtM=O
123 - dq

111, 112, lli icq*

z 6 Fig. 6. Park transformation and harmonic current injection circuit.

4
2
The currents icd* and ic,* are obtained from the Park
0
md znd 4ih 4ih
transformation and current harmonic injection circuit and
HPF AHPF HPF AHPF from the DC voltage controller. In accordance with Fig. 6
Filter type
the Park transformation perform the transformations
Balanced 0Unbalanced 0N o w described in (3) and (S), thereby the load currents ild and il,
sinusoidal
are obtained. The first harmonic load currents of positive
sequence are transformed to DC quantities. The first
Fig. 4. Total harmonic distortionfor the i& control method. harmonic load currents of negative sequence and all the
harmonics are transformed to non-DC quantities and
undergo a frequency shifi in the spectrum. Consequently, the
DC quantities are the first harmonic currents of positive

1098
sequence i l d l h + and il,lh+ which represent the harmonic
current systems that must be preserved in the mains.
The currents i l d and il, are filtered by the fourth order
Butterworth LPF resulting in the currents ildlh+ and ilglh+. By
the difference between the input signal and the filtered one
the currents ildnh and iIqnl2 are obtained.
The voltage regulation in the converter DC side is
performed by a proportional-integral (PI) controller. Its input
is the capacitor voltage error edcv-edcand through the
regulation of the first harmonic active current of positive Fig. 7. Block diagram ofthe DC voltage regulator.
sequence idlh+ it is possible to control the active power flow
in the VSI and thus the capacitor voltage edc. The reactive Under this conditions the closed-loop transfer function is
power flow may be controlled by the first harmonic reactive
current of positive sequence iqlh+. However, considering that
the primary end of the active power filters is just the
elimination of the harmonics caused by nonlinear loads then
the current iqlh+ is set to zero. The voltage component u d is
always the voltage space vector (Fig. 2), and under balanced
sinusoidal voltage conditions the relation between the
voltage space vector and the mains voltage U is The variables kp and kI are proportional and integral gains
of the PI controller. With a null active power flow in the
converter (14) may be simplified giving

Assuming that the active power flow from mains to the VSI adC
-- =
is equal to the active power in the DC side, i.e., neglecting
the losses in the inductances and switching devices, then

p = uaic, N ek i,
(11) 'The design of the PI controller is realised considering (15)
as a prototype second-order system. The variable values
where idc is the current in the capacitor C. Therefore, the are: a damping ratio = 1/212, a natural
state equation for the capacitor voltage is undamped frequency w,=o (w27rJ), a DC voltage
ed/=edc*=175 V and a capacitor C=2 mF. The magnitude
- 'd ilood and phase responses of the simplified closed-loop transfer
dt C edc C (12) function (15) are shown in Fig. 8(a) and S@).

The current iloadis an extra load in the DC side of the VSI.

Equation (12) is nonlinear, so, performing a linearization
about the operating point defined by ed/ and icdothen (12)
becomes
h
0
-50
a'
-100
,IO" 10' 10'
ci Frequency (Hr)

-E O
The linearized model of the voltage regulation system is -2001 , ",
-400 -300 -200 -100
presented in Fig. 7 where C(s) and G(s) are the transfer Re
functions of the PI controller and the VSI. Based in (13) the
DC voltage regulator is sintetized assuming a unitary Fig. 8. Diagrams ofthe closed-loop transfer function AEdc/Al?dc *. (a) Magnitude
transfer function for the VSI and without disturbance, i.e., response. (17) Phase response. (c) Zero and pole map for a variation inthe
absence of the extra load at the capacitor. current 'operating point icdo.

1099
Fig. 8(c) shows the zero and pole map for a large variation the instantaneous transitions considered for the load
in the current operating point (-18 A<ic/<l8 A) in (14). As currents.
all the roots are in the left-half s-plane the asymptotic
stability is guarantee. The system stability is also confirm
from the system response to a 5 A step load current iload,Fig.
9(a)-(d). The remaining variable values considered are:
20 I 1
mains voltage U=50 V, inductance L=2,2 mH, inductance
resistance RL=O,l 0 and current histeresys band H=+0,25 A.
20 I 1

5,)

; :
I

d] $10"
-3
i
.......... ........ ................... ......... j ......... j......... j .........
, /

I I I 1 I

Fig. 10. Active power filter transient and steady state responses under balanced
sinusoidal voltage conditions,P50 Hz. (a) Mains voltages ut.
(b) Compensating current IC,. (c) Mains current 191. (d) Capacitor voltage e d c .

Fig. 9. System response to a 5 A step load current I I ~ (a)

~ . Mains voltages U , .

(b) Converter currents IC,. (c) Active and reactive converter currents ICd and i c q
(d) Capacitor voltage e d c .

From Fig. 9(d) it is clear that the steady-state error

obtained is null. The absence of steady-state error relatively
to a large disturbance is due to the introduction of a pole in
the system open-loop transfer function by the PI controller.
5 . : , I

In conclusion, the results shown in Fig. 8 and 9 establish the d) ;

n
,o"b ......... :.........I......... J.........J.........;.........:......... :........_
validity of the system model used and the simplifications
performed as well as the system stability.

IV. SYSTEM
PERFORMANCE Fig. 1 1, Active power filter transient and steady state responses under
unbalanced sinusoidal voltage conditions,f-50 Hz. (a) Mains voltages U,.
With the control circuit proposed the active power filter (b) Compensating current I C , . (c) Mains current is,. (d) Capacitor voltage e d c .
transient and steady state responses are presented in Fig. 10,
11 and 12. A mains frequency p 5 0 Hz and a fourth order
AHPF Butterworth type with a cutoff frequency fc=fr2 are
used. The voltage conditions are the same as in Section 11-C.
In all voltage conditions the filter is performing a harmonic
compensation of a three-phase full converter with a DC
current of 10 A and a firing angle of 0'. For balanced 0 001 002 003 004 005 006 007 008
sinusoidal voltage conditions Fig. 10 show a sinusoidal
mains current isl upon the injection of the compensation
current icl.Under unbalanced sinusoidal voltage conditions
the mains current isl in Fig. 11 is nearly sinusoidal, and - I"" , , , , I ,

2 , .
obviously has a higher distortion than in the previous d) .........i ......... .........J......... ......... ................... :........
100 .......... ~
, I
I
I

a
situation. In Fig. 12, a almost sinusoidal mains current isl is
obtained even under a high distorted mains voltages. For all
situations a fast transient response and a constant e d c voltage
Fig. 12. Active power filter transient and steady state response under balanced
operation are obtained. The current spikes in isl are due to
nonsinusoidal voltage conditions,f=50 Hz. (a) Mains voltages U,.
(b) Compensating current I C , . (c) Mains current is1. (d) Capacitor voltage

1100
The mains frequency independence is show by the results
presented in Fig. 13 for balanced sinusoidal voltage
conditions. With a mains frequency f-100 Hz, using the
same DC voltage regulation and filter parameters, the source
current isl is still sinusoidal and a constant edc voltage
operation is obtained. Obviously that lower active power
filter performances are obtained as we increase the frequency
operation. As stated before, the active power filter cutoff
frequency is imposed chiefly by the VSI.
[SI P. Verdelho and G. Marques, “An active power filter and unbalanced
current compensator control circuit,” in Proc. EPE’95 Con$, vol. 1, pp.
929-934, 1995.
[6] H. Fujita and H. Akagi, “The unified power qudity conditioner: the
integration of series active filters and shunt active filters, in Proc.
PESC’96, pp. 494-501, 1996.
[7] J. Tepper, J. Dixon, G. Venegas, and L. Morin, “A simple frequency-
independent method for calculating the reactive and harmonic current ia a
nonlinear load,” IEEE Trans. Industrial Electronm, vol. 43, no. 6, pp.
647-654, 1996.

201 I I I I
0 0005 (I01 0015 (I02 0 0 2 5 003 0035 0f.M

d) -g,@0 ... ~ .... + ........ ;

....:~~...~~..:...~~ ...... ..; ..... ~ . ; ......
~~ ~:~...~-..
U
0 ;
0 0005 0.01 0 015 0.02 0 (125 0.03 0.035 0 . M

Fig. 13. Active power filter transient and steady state response under balanced
sinusoidal voltage conditions,FlOO Hz. (a) Mains voltages ur.
(b) Compensatingcurrent ic,. (c) Mains current is,. (d) Capacitor voltage edc.

VI. CONCLUSIONS
With the active power filter control circuit proposed it can
be achieved a good pevformance under unbalanced and
nonsinusoidal conditions. The control method used based on
the instantaneous active and reactive current id-iq method
lead always to better results under those voltage conditions
compared with the instantaneous active and reactive power
p-q method. The DC voltage regulation system proved to be
valid so a stable and steady-state error free system was
obtain. With the presented control method it is also possible
to obtain an active power filter that may operate in variable
frequency conditions without adjustments. The system can
work properly in a large range of frequencies covering both
50 Hz and 60 Hz distribution systems.

REFERENCES
[I] V. Soares, P. Verdelho, and G. Marques, “A control method for active
power filters under unbalanced non-sinusoidal conditions,” in Proc.
PEVD’96Con$, vol. 429,pp. 120-124, 1996.
[ 2 ] H. Akagi, Y. Tsukamoto, and A. Nabae, “Analysis and design of an active
power filter using qnad-series voltage source PWM converters,” IEEE
Tran,u.Indrr.stryApplication.r.,
vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 93-98, 1990.
131 €1. Akagi, “New Trends in Active Filters,” in Proc. EPE’95 Con$, vol. 0,
pp. 17-26, 1995.
[4] S. Bhattacharya, D. Divan, and B. Banerjee, “Synchronous frame
harmonic isolator using active series filter,” in Proc. EPE’9I Con$, vol. 3,
pp. 30-35, 1991.

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