2nd IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy (PECon 08), December 1-3, 2008, Johor Baharu, Malaysia

AN IMPROVEMENT OF ACTIVE POWER

FILTER CONTROL METHODS
IN NON-SINUSOIDAL CONDITION
Norani Atan and Zahrul Faizi Hussien

Department of Electrical Engineering

University of Tenaga Nasional, Bangi, Malaysia.
Correspondence E-mail: norani@uniten.edu.my

Abstract— Shunt active power filters are custom power harmonic distortion, and low occurrence of disturbing
devices used to eliminate current harmonics and improve transient events. This can be achieved by installing extra
the power factor in systems with non-linear loads. Several equipments to mitigate the possible cause of low power
different methods can be used to control active power filters, quality. Shunt active power filters are considered as one
whereby the reference current that is detected from the load of the practical solution for the ever growing
current and processed by the active power filter controller problems of power quality.
forms a very crucial role in determining the active power The term active filter is a generic one and is applied to
filter performance. This paper presents improved technique a group of power electronic circuits consisting of power
of generating the compensated supply current using four
switching devices and passive energy storage elements
different methods namely, the Instantaneous Reactive
such as capacitors and inductors. The power switching
Power Theory (PQ Theory), the Modified Instantaneous
devices is driven with specific control strategy to produce
Reactive Power Theory (Extension PQ Theory), the
a three-phase current that are able to compensate for
Synchronous Reference Frame Theory (SRF Theory), and
the Modified Synchronous Reference Frame (Extension SRF
harmonic current, poor power factor and load current
Theory).
imbalance [1, 2, and 3]. The schematic of the system is
shown in Figure 1.
The system was tested and modeled in MATLAB/ A thyristor bridge represents the non-linear load, and
Simulink simulation package with a shunt active power the load current, il is consisting of fundamental and
filter to compensate the harmonics current injected by the harmonic components. The active filter senses the load
loads. The simulation studies assumes non-ideal condition currents and extracts the harmonic component of the load
such as Non-symmetrical Voltage Supply and Distorted current to produce a reference current, ic*. The reference
Voltage Supply. The results obtained showed that the Total current consists of the harmonic components of the load
Harmonic Distortion of the compensated supply current was current which the active filter must supply. This reference
improved. current is fed through a controller and then the switching
Keywords—Compensated supply current; Total Harmonic signal is generated to switch the power switching devices
Distortion of the active filter such that the active filter will indeed
produce the harmonics required by the load. Finally, the
I. INTRODUCTION ac supply will only need to provide the fundamental
component for the load, resulting in a low harmonic
Harmonic pollution is an important power quality
sinusoidal supply.
problem. With increasing global competition, modern
industries have to make their production process more
efficient in order to compete. To do this, high-end
advanced technologies have to be used. With the
proliferation of static power converters or non-linear
loads in industries application and distribution systems,
the compensation of harmonics is becoming a significant
concern. Static power converters behave as a current
source, injecting harmonic current into the supply
network. This constitutes the problems of power system
harmonics. One of the problems is the supply voltage
distortion at the Point of Common Coupling (PCC).
When static power converters inject a distorted current
into supply network, a harmonic voltage is developed
across the source impedance. The voltage at the PCC,
being the difference of the source voltage and the voltage
across the source impedance will distort.
II. MODELING AND SIMULATION
Generally, the quality of electrical power refers to
conditions in term of constant voltage level, low voltage

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 2nd IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy (PECon 08), December 1-3, 2008, Johor Baharu, Malaysia

This paper focuses on the control of a shunt active

power filter using time-domain method, namely the
instantaneous active and reactive power, p-q and
instantaneous active and reactive current id-iq.
Instantaneous Power Theory can be divided into two
different methods namely the Instantaneous Reactive
Power Theory (PQ Theory) and the Extension (Modified)
Instantaneous Reactive Power Theory (Extension PQ
Theory).
For Instantaneous Current Theory can be divided into
two methods namely Synchronous Reference Frame
Theory (SRF Theory), and Extension Synchronous
Reference Frame Theory (Extension SRF Theory). All
the above different methods are used in determining the
Total Harmonic Distortion of compensated supply current
for an active power filter. These methods are compared
under Non-symmetrical and Distorted, power supply
systems.
In order to investigate the performance of the four
different methods in deriving the reference compensated
supply current, four methods are modeled in Matlab
Simulink. The simulation model consists of a three-phase
diode rectifier load to represent the non-linear load. The
loads currents and supply voltages are sensed to become
the input to the controller. Those controllers are based on
PQ Theory, Extension PQ Theory, and Extension SRF
Theory, which processes to produce the active filter
reference current. The controller is based on the SRF
Theory, which only use load current as the input to the
controller.
The following figures below will refer to four
different methods after improved Non-symmetrical and
Distorted ac power supply are visualized in Figure 2 for
PQ Theory, Figure 3 for Extension PQ Theory, Figure 4
for SRF Theory and Figure 5 for Extension SRF Theory.

Explanation on the modification blocks

A: Non-symmetrical power supply
In this case, the original setting supply voltage for
phase A is 90 Vrms, phase B is 150 Vrms and phase C is
180 Vrms. For the counter measure and modification
purposes, changes are made on power supply for phase B
from 150 Vrms to 90 Vrms and phase C from 180 Vrms
to 90 Vrms.
Therefore, the values of non-symmetrical power
supply for three phases will be the same value with
sinusoidal and balanced power supply at 90 Vrms.
B: Distorted power supply
The condition for Distorted power supply for all phases
of phase A, phase B, and phase C is set at 90 Vrms with
10% at 5th harmonics and 5% at 7th harmonics.
This modification has the impact on phase A, phase B,
and phase C. This is done on the input ac power supply,
where the three different circuits will be implemented on
each phases. The purpose of this procedure is to make
error correction on the distorted waveforms to become a
sinusoidal waveforms for phase A, phase B and phase C
power supply.

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 2nd IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy (PECon 08), December 1-3, 2008, Johor Baharu, Malaysia
III. RESULT OF SIMULATIONS
The complete system has been modeled and simulated
successfully in Matlab Simulink. The performance of the
four methods under different supply voltage conditions
are analysed based on the simulation results.
A. Non-symmetrical voltage supply condition
In this case, the supply voltage is 90 Vrms, 150 Vrms
and 180 Vrms for phase a, b and c respectively. Refer to
Figure 6 for waveform of input voltage supply before
modification. Figure 7 after modification on input supply
voltage the waveform is become sinusoidal and balanced.
From the simulation results, the percentage of THD
before modification for PQ Theory is 2.828%, THD of
Extension PQ Theory is 1.002% and, THD of Extension
SRF Theory is 1.195%. After modification, the
percentage of THD for PQ Theory is 0.389%, THD for
Extension PQ Theory is 0.417%, and finally THD for
Extension SRF Theory is 0.067%.
Therefore, after doing some modification on the input
of supply voltage the percentage of THD can be
improved. The percentage of THD for SRF Theory before
and after modification is 0.031%. Refer to appendices for
THD waveforms.
Figure 6 : Input ac voltage supply for PQ Theory,
Extension PQ Theory, SRF Theory, and Extension SRF
Theory (Before modification)
Figure 7 : Input ac voltage supply for PQ Theory,
Extension PQ Theory, SRF Theory, and Extension SRF
Theory (After modification)
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B. Distorted voltage supply condition
In the case of Distorted supply condition, the supply
voltage is 90 Vrms with 10% and 5% of 5th and 7th
harmonics respectively. The results obtained here are
presented in Figure 8 and Figure 9 respectively for the
input waveform of voltage supply for before and after
modification.
Under this condition, the percentage of THD before
modification for PQ Theory is 0.500%; the percentage of
THD for Extension PQ Theory is 0.127%; and percentage
of THD for Extension SRF is 0.227%. After modification
on the input voltage supply, the percentage of THD for
PQ Theory is 0.033%; the percentage of THD by using
Extension PQ Theory is 0.332%; and the percentage of
THD by using Extension SRF Theory is 0.135%.
Therefore, after modification on the input voltage
supply to become sinusoidal and balanced, the percentage
of THD can be improved by using PQ Theory and
Extension SRF Theory but not Extension PQ Theory. The
percentage of THD for SRF Theory before and after
modification is 0.040%. Refer to appendices for THD
waveforms.
Figure 8 : Input ac voltage supply for PQ Theory,
Extension PQ Theory, SRF Theory, and Extension SRF
Theory (Before modification)
Figure 9 : Input ac voltage supply for PQ Theory,
Extension PQ Theory, SRF Theory, and Extension SRF
Theory (After modification)
 2nd IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy (PECon 08), December 1-3, 2008, Johor Baharu, Malaysia

IV. CONCLUSION V. APPENDICES

The percentage of THD for PQ Theory, Ext. PQ Result of waveforms:
Theory, SRF Theory and Ext. SRF Theory under non-
ideal condition obtained is shown in Table 1. i. For Non-symmetrical voltage supply condition
After the modification procedure for the power supply,
the percentage of THD for all methods is improved. For
the Non-symmetrical power supply condition after
improvement, the SRF Theory shows the best
performance for percentage of THD by 0.031%.
On the other hand, the PQ Theory shows the best result
percentage of THD with 0.033% after modification done
on Distorted voltage supply.

Table1: Summary of results

Supply voltage PQ Ext. SRF Ext.

condition Theory PQ Theory SRF
Theory Theory
Non-
symmetrical 2.828 1.002 0.031 1.195
(Before)
Non- Figure 10 : Frequency spectrum of iSa using the PQ
symmetrical 0.389 0.417 0.031 0.067 Theory (Before improvement)
(After)
Distorted
(Before) 0.500 0.127 0.040 0.227

Distorted
(After) 0.033 0.332 0.040 0.135

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Figure 12 : Frequency spectrum of iSa using the Ext. PQ
Conference on Volume 2, 26-29 May 1997 Page(s):839 - 843
Theory (Before improvement)
vol.2

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 2nd IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy (PECon 08), December 1-3, 2008, Johor Baharu, Malaysia

Figure 13 : Frequency spectrum of iSa using the Ext. Figure 16 : Frequency spectrum of iSa using the SRF
PQ Theory (After improvement) Theory

ii. For Distorted voltage supply condition

Figure 14 : Frequency spectrum of iSa using the Ext. SRF

Theory (Before improvement)
Figure 17 : Frequency spectrum of iSa using the PQ Theory
(Before improvement)

Figure 15 : Frequency spectrum of iSa using the Ext. SRF

Theory (After improvement)

Figure 18 : Frequency spectrum of iSa using the PQ

Theory (After improvement)

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 2nd IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy (PECon 08), December 1-3, 2008, Johor Baharu, Malaysia

Figure 22 : Frequency spectrum of iSa using the Ext.

Figure 19 : Frequency spectrum of iSa using the Ext. SRF Theory (After improvement)
PQ Theory (Before improvement)

Figure 20 : Frequency spectrum of iSa using the Ext. Figure 23 : Frequency spectrum of iSa using the SRF
PQ Theory (After improvement) Theory

Figure 21 : Frequency spectrum of iSa using the

Ext. SRF Theory (Before improvement)

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