L’Energia Elettrica – Volume 81 (2004) – “Ricerche”

Interharmonics
Part 2: Aspects Related to Measurement and Limits
DANIELE GALLO, ROBERTO LANGELLA AND ALFREDO TESTA, AEI member
Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli, Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione,
Via Roma, 29 - 81031 - Aversa (CE) Italy, Ph. +39 081 5010239, Fax ++39 081 5037042.
daniele.gallo@ieee.org, roberto.langella@ieee.org, alfredo.testa@ieee.org

Some of the most remarkable issues related to interharmonic measurement and limit are presented, after having
addressed modeling aspects in a companion paper. Starting from the basic measurement aspects, attention is firstly
devoted to interharmonic IEC Standard processing and its possible improvements. Then, considerations are developed on
limits considering interharmonics, light flicker, flickermeter and the other phenomena caused by interharmonics.
Numerical results for all the issues presented are given with reference to field measurements and to case-studies.

1. Introduction
The presence of interharmonics introduces analysis
and measurement difficulties due to the change of
waveform periodicity and to the interharmonic small
amplitudes, which means high sensitivity to
desynchronization problems.
Line frequency synchronization techniques, windowing
and/or algorithms to compensate desynchronization
effects are necessary to reduce the uncertainty in
harmonic and (mainly) interharmonic measurements. In
this paper (Section 2), some of the possible procedures
compatible with IEC Standard are recalled and field
measurements show their benefits in terms of result
accuracy.
On the other hand, the first proposal of Standards was
in fixing very low limits for interharmonics (20/00). Such
low value limits would guarantee compliance of
interharmonic voltage distortion with lighting systems,
induction motors, thyristor apparatus, and remote control
systems.
Due to the measurement difficulties below 100 Hz, an
alternative solution, still under discussion, is to adopt the
IEC flickermeter for frequencies in the 20÷90 Hz range
to address light flicker and to limit individual
interharmonic component voltage distortion to less than
1%, 2% or 3% (depending on voltage level) above
90 Hz up to 3 kHz. So, different limits would be
necessary for different ranges of frequency and two
kinds of measurements would be contemporaneously
needed.
2. Measurement
The first international committee to face the
challenge of standardizing the harmonic and
interharmonic measurement, was the IEC [1,2]. The
proposed method utilizes for the measurement a Discrete
Fourier Transform performed over a time window of
exactly ten cycles for 50 Hz systems or exactly twelve
cycles for 60 Hz systems, corresponding in both cases to
200 ms approximately. This fixes the frequency
resolution of the spectral analysis at 5 Hz. Phase locked
loop or other line frequency synchronization techniques
should be used to reduce the errors registered in
frequency components due to spectral leakage effects.
Moreover, interharmonic components that are in between
the bins spaced of 5 Hz would spill over primarily into
adjacent interharmonic bins with a minimum of spill into
harmonic bins. Furthermore, the harmonic and
interharmonic groups constitute one of the most
remarkable new concepts introduced. The amplitude of
the Interharmonic Group of order n+0.5, Cn+0.5-200-ms, is
defined as the rms value of all the interharmonic
components between adjacent harmonic groups (see Fig.
1).
This approach is attractive for compliance with
monitoring and compatibility testing since compatibility
levels can be fixed on the basis of the energy of the
specified interharmonic bins or groups rather than relying
on the measurement of specific tones.
Voltage Spectrum
Time window of 200ms
Amplitude

In the paper (Section 3), the considerations about the

relationships between interharmonics, light flicker,
flickermeter and the other phenomena caused by
interharmonics are developed. Then, starting from some
considerations about the non-comprehensiveness of the
flickermeter analysis to include also the loss of useful life 340 345 350 355 360 365 370 375 380 385 390 395 400 405 410
of induction motors, the concept of weighted spectral Frequency [Hz]
analysis is introduced, which, in principle, allows to
Used for calculating Used for calculating Used for calculating
include the fluorescent lightning systems, not covered by 7th harmonic group 7.5 Interharmonic group 8th harmonic group
IEC flickermeter, and the other interharmonic effects.
Figure 1. IEC grouping of "bins" for harmonics and for
interharmonics.

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 L’Energia Elettrica – Volume 81 (2004) – “Ricerche”
Traditional power system monitors adopt the
frequency locking and perform frequency domain
measurements, taking advantage of the usual situation
where only harmonics are present. But when frequencies
other than those harmonically related to the sampling
period are present, and/or the sampled waveform is not
stationary over the sampling interval, remarkable errors
can be encountered. In [3], the authors have shown that
also a small error in synchronization causes severe
spectral leakage problems.
The accuracy can be improved adopting a specific
enhanced synchronization hardware or employing
suitable algorithms. As to the latter, following the IEC
approach, the authors have developed some signal
processing techniques [3,4,5] that improve measurement
accuracy reducing sensitivity to desynchronization and
that are briefly recalled in the following sections.
2.1 Hanning Windowing
The first technique developed makes the IEC
grouping compatible with the utilization of the Hanning
window in place of the Rectangular window and reduces
the sensitivity to spectral desynchronization [3].
The RW is the window characterized by the narrowest
main lobe (the best resolution among tones close in
frequency), but the highest and most slowly decaying
side lobes (the worst interference caused by a strong
tone on a weaker tone not close in frequency). The
second type of interaction causes the greatest problems
because of the amplitude difference between harmonics
(from hundredths to one hundred per cent of the
fundamental) and interharmonic tones of interest (few
thousandths of the fundamental).
In [3] the authors have shown how the Hanning
window can be utilized instead of the Rectangular
window, with minor changes in the IEC procedure, that
is simply multiplying IEC group values by a factor
equal to (2/3)½. This reduces the leakage errors on
interharmonic groups of about one order of quantity as
shown in Fig. 2. It is worthwhile underlining that errors
are expressed as percentage of the amplitude of the
close harmonic group and not of the interested
interharmonic group, so they turn out to be very
relevant.
10.0
[% of the n th harmonic]
(n-0.5) th Interharmonic
Group Amplitude Error
1.00
0.10
Rectangular Rectangular
Hanning Hanning
0.01
-1 -0.1 -0.01 0.01 0.1
nth harmonic frequency error [Hz]
Figure 2. (n-0.5)th IG amplitude error versus nth harmonic
frequency error: using RW(…) and HW (- - -).
2.2 Synchronized Processing
The second technique uses a self-tuning algorithm
synchronizing the analyzed window width to an integer
multiple of the actual fundamental period before
interharmonic evaluation [4].
According to IEC standards [1,2], the distortion
analysis should be performed adopting a time duration,
TW, which is an integer multiple of the actual system
fundamental period, T1a. Here, explicit reference is
made to 50 Hz systems (TW=10 T1a).
To acquire an integer number of samples, L,
corresponding exactly to 10 cycles, the synchronized
sampling frequency, fS, should be:
fS = L / TW = L / (10 T1a)= f1a L / 10, (1)
where f1a is the actual value of the fundamental
frequency. In practical applications reference is made to
estimations f1e and T1e of f1a and T1a, respectively.
Moreover, to take advantage of the Fast Fourier
Transform algorithm (FFT), L must be equal to a power
of 2:
fS = 2n / (10 T1e)= f1e 2n / 10. (2)
A direct approach to obtain the synchronization is to
generate a synchronized sampling frequency adopting
analogic PLL. As a consequence of the required
accuracy, the hardware turns out to be expensive and
troublesome to be used.
Another approach utilizes an unsynchronized
sampling frequency, f’s, and then obtains the
synchronization by means of digital processing. After
evaluating T1e, the corresponding number of samples,
λ, can be calculated as:
λ = f’S 10 T1e= f’S 10 / f1e, (3)
which, in general, turns out to be as not integer. A
proper resampling algorithm allows obtaining a certain
number of samples that is power of two in the time
window corresponding to λ. This is equivalent to a
synchronized sampling according to (2). Fig.3 refers to
digital synchronization.
Input
signal Antialiasing Samplig Estimation of the
& system fundamental Resampling
filter
A/D period
10.0
Figure 3. Block diagram of digital synchronization.
1.00
In both approaches the value obtained for the
0.10 sampling frequency is not an integer multiple of f1e. In
this situation, in presence of aliasing conditions,
harmonic components at higher frequencies would be
0.01
folded at interharmonic frequencies, producing a
1
relevant impact on interharmonic evaluation due to the
usual differences among the levels of amplitude
involved (f.i. % for harmonics and 0/00 for
interharmonics).
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2.3 Desynchronized Processing Figs 5 and 6 report the frequency spectrum of the
The third technique [5] is a desynchronized voltage at the PCC and of the current absorbed by the air
processing technique based on a double stage algorithm: conditioner, respectively, measured utilizing a high
in the first stage harmonic components are filtered away accuracy DFT (TW=3 s and HW) and assumed as
before the following stage that evaluates reference. From the current spectrum it is possible to
interharmonics. single out the contribution of the air conditioner to the
It works as follows. A sampled time domain signal is voltage interharmonic distortion.
considered: Eight different processing procedures were utilized: 1.
Reference (TW=3s and HW); 2. SP with TW=10/min(f1e);
s w' (k ) = s(k ) ⋅ w' (k ) with k = 0,1,.....,L - 1 (4) 3. SP with TW=10/max(f1e); 4. SP with TW=10/mean(f1e);
5., 6. and 7. as 2., 3. and 4. adding HW; 8. DS with
being s the signal and w’ the adopted window. It can be
TW=10/50. and HW.
represented by the sum of two contributions, one The results obtained in terms of interharmonic group
harmonic and the other interharmonic: amplitudes are reported in Fig. 7 for voltages and in Fig.
[ ]
s w′ (k ) = s H (k ) + s I (k ) ⋅ w'(k) with k = 0,1,....., L - 1 . 8 for currents.
First of all, it is interesting to remark that the currents
(5) are less sensitive to the procedure adopted. This is a
H
The evaluation of the amplitude, Ân , of the normalised consequence of the high values of the interharmonic
frequency, νˆn , and of the phase,ϕˆ n , of each harmonic currents (a maximum value of about 0.8%) compared to
component gives: the low values of the interharmonic voltages (a maximum
of about 0.04%) in the same condition of
sˆ H (k ) = ∑ Aˆn
H
n sin (2πνˆn k + ϕˆ n ) . (6) desynchronization for fundamental and harmonic
components. For this consideration, it is more interesting
This contribution can be filtered from the original signal to comment upon voltage as done in the following
f.i. in the time domain: sections. Bars 2., 3. and 4., for each group, show how the
interharmonic group evaluation may be sensitive to the
sˆ I (k ) = s (k ) − sˆ H (k ) with k = 0,1,....., L - 1 . (7) oscillations of Fig.4a). Bars 5., 6. and 7. compared with
The only way to eliminate spectral leakage effects is to 2., 3. and 4., respectively, highlight the benefits of HW
have a high accuracy estimation of harmonic frequency, mainly for the most critical leakage conditions (IG 0.5
amplitude and phase of the signals to be filtered. This and 1.5). Only utilizing both averaging and the HW (bar
can be accomplished by means of proper interpolations 7.), SP gives systematically good results. DP (bar 8.)
of the spectrum samples calculated by DFT [5]. gives systematically good results as well (very often the
best).
2.4 Field Measurements a)
50
Max(f1e) SP
Some of the numerous measurements performed in
f1e [Hz]

years of experimental activity are reported in the 49.98

following sections. Reference is made to the case of small
power devices and to LV busbar of utility transformer. Min(f1e)
49.96
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Time [sec]
2.4.1 SMALL POWER DEVICES
50
Measurements were performed at the Second b) DP
University of Naples at the point of common coupling
f1e [Hz]

(PCC) feeding an inverter air conditioner running 49.98

together with a laser printer.
Figs 4a and 4b report the instantaneous estimations
49.96
of the fundamental frequency obtained by a digital PLL 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Time [sec]
(SP) and by the interpolation necessary to filter the Figure 4. Low power devices: instantaneous and mean values
fundamental harmonic (DP), respectively; the sampling of f1e, versus the time a) SP, b) DP.
frequencies used were around 20480Hz according to (2) 0.06

for SP and exactly 20480Hz for DP. It is possible to see 100%

223 V
0.6% 2.1%
2.0%
0.05
(Fig.4a) that the PLL instantaneous estimation oscillates
around a value of about 49.98Hz, from a minimum, 0.04

min(f1e), to a maximum, max(f1e). The main cause of

Am plitude [% ]

oscillations seems to be the presence of interharmonic 0.03

components. On the other hand, the interpolation

0.02
technique used by DP gives more stable estimations.
Fig.4 also reports the values obtained by averaging the 0.01
instantaneous values each 200 ms. It is evident that,
after the averaging, the results (a and b) are quite 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
similar; those of the interpolation are good also without Frequency [Hz ]

averaging. Figure 5. Low power devices: frequency spectrum of the voltage

assumed as reference (TW=3s and HW).
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1
cumulative density functions (pdf and cdf), respectively.
100% Figures 9 and 11 also report the daily vs 95%
18.4% 2.4%
0.8 5.2 A
3.0% percentiles (-*-) and the weekly short time (10min)
maximum values (---), max(Uhs%) and max(Ihs%),
necessary to check the compliance with limits.
A m plitude [% ]

0.6

The “day-night” and the “week-end” effects are very

0.4
evident in Figs. 9 and 11; they cause the bimodal
behaviour of the corresponding pdfs in Figs.10 and 12.
0.2 High spot values are present in the oscillograms of Figs.
9 and 11; their consequences are the asymptotic
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
behaviours of the cdfs in Figs. 10 and 12, which make
Frequency [Hz] the analysis of statistical figures like at 99% or 99.9%
Figure 6. Low power devices: frequency spectrum of the current percentiles, object of some debate in the scientific
assumed as reference (TW=3s and HW).
community very difficult.
0.16
0.2 0.2 0.05
IG 0.5 IG 1.5 IG 2.5
Daily 95% percentile
0.14
IG amplitude %

max(Uhs%)

0.1 0.1 0.025 0.12

0.1

0 0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 0.08

Uhvs [%]
Processing procedure Processing procedure Processing procedure
0.05 0.02 0.06
IG 7.5 IG 9.5 1. Reference
Processing procedure

2. SP with max(f1e)
IG amplitude %

3. SP with min(f1e) 0.04

0.03 4. SP with mean(f1e)
0.01
5. SP with max(f1e) + HW 0.02
6. SP with min(f1e) + HW
0.01 7. SP with mean(f1e) + HW
0
8. DP +HW 00:00 00:00 00:00 00:00 00:00 00:00 00:00 00:00 00:00
0 0 Mon Tue Wes Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Processing procedure Processing procedure
Figure 9. MV/LV transformer: voltage IG18.5 very short time (3s)
Figure 7. Low power devices: comparison among procedures for values versus the time in percentage of the fundamental.
the estimation of the main interharmonic voltage groups. 125 1
0.95

1 0.8 0.5
IG 0.5 IG 1.5 IG 2.5
100 0.8
IG amplitude %

0.5 0.4 0.25 75 0.6

pdf

cdf
50 0.4
0 0 0
123 4 56 78 123 4 56 78 1 23 4 567 8
Processing procedure Processing procedure Processing procedure
25 0.2
0.08 0.08
IG 7.5 IG 9.5 1. Reference
Processing procedures

2. SP with max(f1e)
IG amplitude %

3. SP with min(f1e)
0 0
4. SP with mean(f1e) 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16
0.04 0.04
5. SP with max(f1e) + HW Uhvs%
6. SP with min(f1e) + HW
7. SP with mean(f1e) + HW Figure 10. MV/LV transformer: pdf and cdf obtained from the data
0 0
8. DP +HW in Fig.10.
123 4 56 78 123 4 56 78
Processing procedure Processing procedure 0.35

Figure 8. Low power devices: comparison among procedures for

Daily 95% percentile
the estimation of the main interharmonic current groups. 0.3
max(Ihs%)

2.4.2 LV BUSBAR OF UTILITY TRANSFORMER 0.25

Measurements were performed, over one week, at

the LV busbar of an MV/LV transformer of the UK 0.2

distribution network, feeding an industrial area. The aim

Ivs [%]

0.15
was complying with monitoring according to IEC
Standard. 0.1
The SP utilising the direct method described in
section 2.2 together with HW was used, implemented by 0.05

means of the software LabView.

Figs 9 and 11 report the very short time (3s) values 0
00:00 00:00 00:00 00:00 00:00 00:00 00:00 00:00 00:00
of the interharmonic group of order 18.5, IG18.5, versus Mon Tue Wes Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon

the time for voltage, Uhvs, and current, Ihvs, respectively; Figure 11. MV/LV transformer: current IG18.5 very short time (3s)
Figs 10 and 12 the corresponding probability and values versus the time in percentage of the fundamental.

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 L’Energia Elettrica – Volume 81 (2004) – “Ricerche”

120 1 Fig 13 reports a simplified block diagram of IEC

0.95
flickermeter. Block 1 and block 5, not reported here for
the sake of brevity, perform respectively a normalization
90 0.75
of input supply voltage and a statistical analysis (Pst) of
the measured instantaneous flicker sensation (PU). The
60 0.5
aim of the blocks 2, 3 and 4 of the simplified block
diagram of the IEC flickermeter reported in Fig.13 is to
pdf

cdf
emulate the lamp-eye–brain response.
30 0.25

Emulation of lamp – eye - brain response

0 0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 Block 2 Block 3 Block 4
Ihvs%
Figure 12. MV/LV transformer: pdf and cdf obtained from the data u(t ) 0.
Demodulator -3 .
PU
in Fig.12. uˆ
with squaring Squaring Smoothing
-60 .
multiplier
0.05 35 Hz

The analysis of all the harmonic and interharmonic Figure 13. Simplified block diagram of the IEC flickermeter.
current and voltages, not reported here for the sake of
brevity, has demonstrated that in the frequency range of
the IG18.5 there is a strong parallel resonance of the
3.1.1 FLICKERMETER RESPONSE TO AMPLITUDE
supply system impedance. MODULATION
The most traditional approach to study light flicker
3. Limits generation is based on amplitude modulation.
A normalized voltage with a sinusoidal amplitude
The effects of interharmonics, such as the modulation can be expressed as:
malfunctioning of remote control systems, erroneous
u (t )
firing of thyristor apparatus, display or monitor image = cos(2πf 1t ) ⋅ [1 + a m cos(2πf m t )] =
fluctuations or lighting system flicker, the loss of useful uˆ
a a
life of induction motors, is determining a trend of = cos(2πf 1t ) ⋅ + m cos(2π ( f m − f1 )t ) + m cos(2π ( f m + f 1 )t ),
standards in fixing limits for interharmonics lower than 2 2
limits for harmonics (20/00). (8)
As it has been shown in Section 2, the very low being û the average maximum value, f1 the system
frequency measurements (below 100 Hz) are by far the frequency, am the relative amplitude of modulating signal
most difficult challenge due to the closeness to the and fm its frequency. An example of sinusoidally
fundamental frequency tone. An attempt to limit modulated voltage with am=1% and fm=10 Hz is reported
interharmonic pollution based on the value of IEC in Fig.14 in terms of oscillation of peaks and of half cycle
spectral components or group in this frequency range can rms value; its spectrum is reported in Fig.15 where beside
lead to misleading results. the fundamental tone, two tones at (50-10) Hz and
As a consequence, recently, a different proposal has (50+10) Hz due to the modulation can be found. Both
been made to adopt the IEC flickermeter [6] to verify the peak and rms values oscillate at 10 Hz reaching values of
IEC limits in 61000-2-2 Second Edition for frequencies about ± 1%.
Block 2 demodulates the input signal by means of a
in the 20÷90 Hz range and to limit individual
interharmonic component voltage distortion to less than quadratic demodulator. The input signal is demodulated
1%, 2% or 3% (depending on voltage level) above 90 Hz to estimate the oscillations of the luminous flux.
up to 3 kHz. So, different limits would be necessary for The signal (8) subjected to the quadratic demodulator and
different ranges of frequency and two kinds of to the band pass filter, included in block 3, gives
measurements would be contemporaneously necessary. luminous flux oscillations:
This last proposal would cover the problem of
incandescent lamp light flicker but not the other ∆Φ ≅ am cos(2πf mt ) ∀ f m ≤ 35 Hz, (9a)

problems, such as fluorescent lamps light flicker,  am
∆Φ ≅ cos(2π (2 f1 − f m ) t ) ∀ 65 ≤ f m ≤ 135 Hz. (9b)
induction motors loss of useful life, mechanical  2
resonance phenomena and so on. So, the need of different
approaches arises.
The whole demonstration of (9a) and (9b) is reported in
3.1 Interharmonics, light flicker and flickermeter [7].
The IEC flickermeter estimates the level sensation Typically, the case (9b) is not considered in literature but
of light flicker starting from the voltage fluctuations that its importance is evident: it shows how also high
cause it. It is based on a model of 230V/60W frequency modulations (65÷135Hz) are able to generate
incandescent lamp and on a model of human sensation light flicker even if a factor ½ reduces the amplitude.
system, while no reference is made to fluorescent lamps.

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a) a)

b)

Figure 14. Voltage with 1% of amplitude modulation at 10Hz,
u(t), b) half cycle rms value.
3.1.2 FLICKERMETER RESPONSE TO INTERHARMONICS
Recent studies [8,9] show that also single
interharmonic tones can produce light flicker.
A normalized voltage with a superimposed interharmonic
tone can be expressed as:
u (t )
= cos(2πf1t ) + ai cos(2πf i t )
uˆ ,
a) Figure 16. Voltage with 1% of superimposed interharmonic at 40Hz
a) u(t), b) half cycle rms value.
Comparing equations (9a) and (11), the changing
luminous flux will be equal when:
ai = a m
 (12)
 f m = f1 − f i .
(10)

being ai the relative amplitude of the interharmonic tone

and fi its frequency.

Figure 17. Spectrum of a voltage with 1% of 40Hz superimposed

interharmonic

a)

Figure 15. Spectrum of a voltage with 1% of amplitude modulation

at 10Hz.

An example of superimposed interharmonic component

with ai=1% and fi =40 Hz is reported in Fig.16, in terms
of peaks and half cycle rms value oscillations; its
spectrum is reported in Fig.17. Comparing Figs 14 and 16 b)
it is evident that both peak and rms oscillations are quite
equivalent.
In Fig.18, an interharmonic at 160 Hz still produces
oscillations at 10 Hz that, with reference to peak values,
are of the same entity as those in Figs 14 and 16, while
rms oscillations amplitude are sensibly reduced. It is Figure 18. Voltage with 1% of superimposed interharmonic at
interesting to observe that increasing the interharmonic 160Hz: u(t), b) half cycle rms value.
amplitude, of course, also the oscillation of rms values
does increase reaching major entity. Fig. 19 shows this
concept for components of amplitude five times that of
Fig. 18.
In this case, still referring to the IEC flickermeter, the
squaring of (10) after the band pass filter has deleted the
DC component and the highest invisible frequencies,
gives:
Figure 19. Half cycle rms value of voltage with 5% of superimposed
∆Φ ≅ a i cos (2π ( f 1 − f i )t ), ∀f i < 85 Hz. (11) interharmonic at 160Hz.

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The average component of the luminous flux is New flickrmeter

modulated in amplitude with a modulation frequency

equal to fm = |f1 – fi|. This kind of flicker is fully detected u (t )
by the IEC flickermeter. uˆ spectral weighting combining flicker PU
For interharmonics over 100 Hz the maximum analysis index
oscillations are of the same order than for low frequency
even if the amplitude of the rms value oscillation Figure 21. New flicker evaluation approach
decreases as interharmonic frequency increases.
It is important to underline that after demodulating, the Between 0 and 100 Hz, the function to weight
IEC flickermeter filters away frequencies over 35 Hz and voltage components, G1’(f), can be obtained taking into
consequently it is not able to correctly detect light flicker account the response of the chain lamp-human eye to
whatever the amplitude and the frequency of a high oscillation frequencies of the voltage, G(f), according to
frequency interharmonic are. the following expression:

G1' ( f i ) = G ( f1 − f m )
3.1.3 CONSIDERATIONS
It is very important to underline that interharmonics with 0 ≤ f ≤ 100 Hz (13)
over 100 Hz must be taken into account in order to
properly predict light flicker phenomena, particularly in where reference is made to the worst case constituted by
presence of the widespread fluorescent lamps of different filament lamps, whose gain factor is the highest. The
types whose sensitivity is illustrated in Fig. 20 [9]. corresponding function is depicted in Fig.22 It is
worthwhile noting that the weighting function is forced to
---
Traditional lamp
zero at harmonic frequencies and in their neighborhoods
Interharmonic voltage [%]

with external
electronic ballast
due to the null sensitivity at such frequencies.
-∆- Adopting a weighting function deducted for the standard
Traditional lamp
with external flickermeter, the output is equivalent to the PU indication.
traditional ballast
-x- In that case, the shape of the weighting function is
Traditional
compact lamp calculated by trying to meet the calibration points,
iron ballast
___ evidenced in Fig. 22 for sinusoidal modulation in [6] as
Electronic
compact lamp
closely as possible.
1.2
Frequency [Hz]
Figure 20. Flicker perceptibility thresholds versus interharmonic 1
frequencies.
Normalized weight function

Moreover, the impact of interharmonics at very 0.8

low frequency in terms of loss of useful life for

induction motors is quite dramatic [10,11]. For example, 0.6

an interharmonic voltage component at 5 Hz for a 50 Hz

motor can cause a 17% of loss of useful life even with 0.4

an amplitude of 0.25%.
0.2

3.2 Weighting the Spectral Analysis Results

The basic idea consists in the introduction of 0
weighting factors to properly take into account the 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Voltage interharmonic frequency (Hz)

different impacts of interharmonics, for different kinds of
apparatus (incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps,
induction motors).
The signal processing proposed can be summarized
in the following steps:
• performing spectral analysis on measured data;
• weighting spectral components on the basis of their
impacts;
• combining the spectral components at different
frequencies to account for interactions;
• calculating the cumulative indexes.
3.2.1 LIGHT FLICKER
The block diagram reported in Fig.21 summarizes
the described procedure for the case of Light Flicker
prediction. In practice, blocks 2, 3 and 4 of the standard
IEC flickermeter are replaced, while blocks 1 and 5 are
the same.
Figure 22. Weighting function for interharmonics from 0 to 100 Hz.
Over 100 Hz, a weighting function can be deducted
from curves such as those of flicker perceptibility
thresholds reported in Fig.20.
A careful analysis of such thresholds shows that for all
the traditional lamps tested the sensitivity decreases with
the frequency. On the contrary, for the new electronic
compact lamps the sensitivity, that is higher than that for
the other lamps, maintains a practically constant behavior
around all the odd harmonics, independently from their
order. Another important remark is that, at higher
frequencies, the shape of the flicker perceptibility
thresholds for the electronic compact lamps is very
similar to that centered around the fundamental
frequency. The main difference is that those curves are
scaled up with respect to that valid for lower frequencies.

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 L’Energia Elettrica – Volume 81 (2004) – “Ricerche”

The last remark suggested to obtain the weighting 4. Conclusions

function for interharmonics over 100 Hz, by introducing a
proper Gj’(f) function for the j-th (with j>1) 100 Hz Some of the most remarkable issues related to
frequency interval. For instance, replicating G1’(f) after interharmonic measurement and limits have been
multiplying it for an opportune scaling factor results very presented. Starting from the basic measurement aspects,
simple. With reference to the curves of Fig.20 a scaling attention has been firstly devoted to interharmonic IEC
factor of about 0.4 can be introduced for all the j values, Standard processing and its possible improvements.
referring to the worst case (see. Fig.23). Then, considerations have been developed on limits
Starting from the weighting functions of Figs 22 and 23, a considering interharmonics, light flicker, flickermeter and
unique weighting function can be obtained. Weighting a the other phenomena caused by interharmonics.
voltage spectrum with this function, a normalized Numerical results for all the issues presented have been
spectrum can be obtained with reference to the flicker given with reference to field measurement and to case-
perceptibility curves. studies.
Paper presented to the
Sixth International Workshop on Power Definitions and
Measurements under Non-Sinusoidal Conditions
Milano, 13-15 October, 2003
_____________________________________________
BIBLIOGRAPHY

[1] IEC standard draft 61000-4-30: Power Quality Measurement

Methods, Ed. 1999.
[2] IEC standard draft 61000-4-7: General guide on harmonics and
interharmonics measurements, for power supply systems and
equipment connected thereto, Ed. 2000.
[3] D.Gallo, R.Langella, A.Testa, "On The Processing Of
Harmonics And Interharmonics In Electrical Power Systems", proc. of
b) the IEEE PES Winter Meeting 2000, Singapore, 23-27 January 2000
and accepted for publication on IEEE Transactions on Power
Delivery.
Figure 23. Weighting function for interharmonics a) 0 ÷100 Hz, b)
[4] D. Gallo, R. Langella, A. Testa, "Self tuning Harmonic and
over 100 Hz.
Interharmonic Processing Technique", European Transaction on
Electrical Power, Vol. 12, No. 1, January/February 2002, pp. 25-31.
3.2.2 OTHER PROBLEMS
[5] D.Gallo, R.Langella, A.Testa, "Double Stage Harmonics and
To give an idea of the possibility of extending the Interharmonics Processing Technique", IEEE Power Engineering
application of the weighting concept to other problems Society Summer Meeting 2000, Seattle, July 2000 and accepted for
caused by interharmonics, in Fig. 24 the weighting publication on IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery.
[6] IEC 61000-4-15 – Flickermeter, functional and design
coefficients for positive and negative sequence specifications.
interharmonics taking into account the induction motor [7] D.Gallo, R.Langella, A.Testa, “Light Flicker Prediction Based
loss of life are reported. They are obtained starting from on Voltage Spectral Analysis”, Proc. of IEEE Power Tech 2001, Porto
the results reported in Fig.5 of [11], in the hypotheses of (PT), September 10-13, 2001
[8] W. Mombauer, etz Archiv BD.12 (1990) H.12, S.391-396,
linearity between 5 and 25 Hz. “Flicker Caused by Interharmonic”.
[9] M. De Koster, E. De Jaiger, W. Vancoistem: “Light Flicker
1
negative sequence
positive sequence caused by Interharmonic”, http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/harmonic/
iharm/docs/ihflicker.pdf .
[10] A. Emanuel: “The Need to Limit Subharmonic Injection”, I9th
0.8
Int. Conf. On Harmonics and Quality of Power, Orlando (USA),
Oct.2000.
Normalised weight function

0.6
[11] J. Policarpo G. de Abreu and A. E. Emanuel, "Induction Motor
Thermal Aging Caused by Voltage Distortion and Imbalance: Loss of
Useful Life and Its Estimated Cost", IEEE Trans. On Ind. App.,vol.
0.4
38, n. 1, January/February 2002.

0.2

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Voltage interharmonic frequency [Hz]

Figure 24. Induction motor sensitivity to interharmonics

181