A Rational Approach to Dealing with Harmonics

Most power systems generally tolerate a fair amount of harmonics. .The

major sources of harmonics up until now have been large three-phase power converters.
Locations with high short circuit currents can generally have greater amounts of harmonic
currents because the system can tolerate them. Most single-phase converters produce all the odd
harmonics at about twice the amount of their three-phase counterparts. An approximate
expression for determining the amount of each current harmonic present is given by the
following equation:

%n ~ 200/n

Where : n is the harmonic order (3,5,7,9,. , . )

Most branch circuits are single-phase and it consisting of a phase and a

neutral wire. The three-phase distribution system is designed more like three single-phase
systems. The large majority of line transformers are single-phase because the majority of the
loads are single-phase. Where three-phase transformers are utilized, most are connected
grounded-wye grounded wye.
The standard European transformer connection helps keep the distribution
primary side relatively immune from third harmonic currents because a delta wye transformer
tends to isolate secondary triplen harmonics (third and odd multiples of the third) from the
primary system by circulating them in the delta winding. With the U.S. distribution design, the
third harmonic content passes through the transformers and makes this the most critical harmonic
to contain.

Impact of Unbalance on Power System Harmonics

Due to the ever increasing number of nonlinear loads on distribution

systems, the existence of harmonics is inevitable. As a result voltage and current waveforms are
rarely sinusoidal. Also distribution systems are quite often unbalanced in nature. There are
various reasons due to which distribution systems would have to operate under unbalanced
conditions. Some of these could be unequal mutual coupling, unbalanced loading and abnormal
operating conditions during switching.
Due to unbalance, part of the fundamental positive sequence active
power is converted to fundamental negative sequence and zero sequence active powers. These
negative and zero sequence powers, like harmonics, pollute the network, in that they add to the
line and rotating equipment losses. The presence of harmonics poses many problems to power
system engineers as well, due to the detrimental effect on the power system apparatus, which
affect the power quality. Some of the problems caused by non-sinusoidal, distorted waveforms
are resonance, reduced operating life of rotating machines, interference with power system
protection and errors in power measurements.
Unbalance being detrimental to the system itself, also significantly
affects the adequacy of harmonic analysis techniques. In the balanced case, odd harmonics can
be represented by sequence components.

Balanced System Analysis

In a balanced three phase system, the voltages and currents in the three
phases (a, b. c) are equal in magnitude and displaced from each other by 120 degrees, with the b
phase lagging the phase and the c phase leading the a phase. If the waveform of the voltage
and/or current is symmetrical, about the time-axis then it contains only odd harmonics, whereas a
non-symmetric waveform contains both even and odd harmonics. The positive and negative half
cycles being similar in a symmetric waveform cancel out the even harmonics. The theory of
symmetrical components is a mathematical model for the representation of the phase components
by sequence components; namely the positive, the negative and the zero sequence components.
For a balanced three phase system, with balanced operating conditions, the harmonic phase
currents and voltages have equal magnitudes and a known phase sequence, and hence only one
phase of the system needs to be solved for. If the fundamental and harmonics are balanced, then
the harmonics follow a symmetrical component rotation.
 The fundamental frequency components rotate in the anti-clockwise
direction and are shifted from each other by 120 degrees. Thus they can he represented as
positive sequence components as:
Id´=Ia´< 0°
Ih´=Ia´<-120° (1)
Ic´=Ia´<+120°

The third harmonic components rotate at three times the fundamental frequency, and the phase
components are separated from each other by 3x120 degrees, or 360 degrees. This implies that
they are in phase, and thus can here presented as:

The fifth harmonic component can he represented as the negative sequence component. This can
be explained as follows. The phase components of the fifth harmonic are separated from each
other by 5x120 degrees. This implies that phase b component leads the phase a component by
120degrees and the phase c component lags the phase a component by 120 degrees.

After the fifth harmonic the cycle of the sequence component(positive, zero and negative) begins
to repeat itself for the odd harmonics, and the seventh harmonic can be represented by the
positive sequence component as:
Unbalanced system analysis
Unbalance in a power system can he caused by various factors including
unbalanced loads, unequal mutual coupling between transmission lines etc., as explained earlier.
The rules followed for balanced system analysis are no longer applicable for unbalanced
systems. In the case of an unbalanced system, the odd harmonics do not adhere to the sequence
component theory, which has been established for the representation of harmonics considering a
balanced system and balanced operating conditions. This is because the phase components of the
fundamental and the harmonics are not equal in magnitude and they are displaced from each
other by angles other than120 degrees. However symmetrical component theory can be applied
to individual harmonics. Each harmonic can be resolved into sequence components, hut similar
to the balanced case, the third harmonic component cannot be represented as the zero sequence,
the fifth harmonic cannot be modeled as the negative sequence component and the seventh
harmonic cannot in general be mode led as the positive sequence component.

With the increase in the degree of unbalance:

a) The magnitude of the non-characteristic harmonics increases, accompanied by a
corresponding decrease in the magnitude of the characteristic harmonics.
b) The zero-sequence component for each individual harmonic component increases.
c) The positive-sequence component increases for all the harmonic components except for the
fundamental, the 7th,the 13th and so on (6n + 1).
d) The negative sequence component increases for all the harmonic components except for
the5th, the 11th and so on (6n-1).

With the increase in percentage unbalance:

a) The non-characteristic harmonics show an increase in all the sequence components (the zero,
the positive and the negative sequence)
b) The characteristic harmonics show an increase in some sequence components and also a
decrease in other as elaborated ahead.
c)The harmonic components which are referred to as the “positive sequence” in the case of
balanced operating conditions (7th, 13th...) show a decrease in the positive sequence component.
d) The harmonic components which are referred to as the “negative sequence” in the case of
balanced operating conditions (5th, 11th...) show a decrease in the negative sequence
component.
e) The harmonic components, which are considered as the “zero sequence” in the case of
balanced harmonics (3rd,9th...) show an increase in all the sequence components.

With the increase in the degree of unbalance the increase in the non
characteristic harmonics and the decrease in the Characteristic harmonics can be attributed to the
corresponding increase/decrease in the respective sequence components.

Converter in the presence of unbalance injects non characteristic (triplen)

harmonics into the system. Degree of unbalance affects harmonics differently, i.e. with an
increase in the degree of unbalance, the non characteristic harmonics increase, whereas the
characteristic harmonics show a decrease. The symmetrical component decomposition of
individual harmonics helps to give an insight into the behavior of harmonics under varying
degrees of unbalance. Unbalanced conditions render certain models for non linear loads, to be
inadequate for use.

Parametric harmonic analysis

Harmonics which are not integer multiples of the supply frequency, and
where two or more harmonics have only small frequency separations between them. The ratio of
the frequency of the remaining component to the supply frequency is an irrational number.

Performance for Passive and Active Power Filter in Reducing Harmonics in

the Distribution System

A pure voltage or current sine wave has no distortion and no harmonics

and a non-sinusoidal wave has distortion and harmonics. Effects of presence in harmonics in the
distribution systems can increase the risk of wiring failure, transformer overheating, low power
factor, blackout in the system and an excessive neutral return current in the neutral current
conductor.

SOLUTIONS TO HARMONICS PROBLEMS

There are two approaches to mitigate harmonic problems in order to
improve the power quality problems. The first approach is called load conditioning. It means that
to ensure the equipment must be less sensitive to power disturbances, allowing the operation
under significant voltage or current distortion. Secondly, is to install line-conditioning systems
that suppress the power system disturbances. The second approaches are very interesting where
the passive and active power filters are connected to line system either in series or shunt
configurations.
Passive filters have been most commonly used to limit the flow of
harmonic currents in distribution systems. They are usually custom designed for the application.
However, their performance is limited to a few harmonics and they can introduce resonance in
the power system Also, a separate filter is necessary for each harmonic frequency. Among the
different new filters to improve harmonic problem is active power filter. The idea of using active
power filter is to compensate for current and voltage disturbances in power distribution system
but their practical development was made possible with the good control strategy in reducing
total harmonic distortion as well as with cost reduction. It also not introduces resonance that can
move a harmonic problem from one frequency to another. Through power electronics, the active
filter produces current or voltage components, which cancel the harmonic components of the
nonlinear loads or supply lines. There are standards that determine the maximum allowable level
for each harmonic in the “Alternating Current, AC” system. When an excessive harmonic current
is generated, filters are usually installed to reduce the harmonic distortion.

The harmonics fitter connected to the AC system generally have two objectives:
a) To reduce the harmonic voltage and current in the AC system below the permitted levels.
b) To provide some of the reactive power be absorbed by the converter system.
By installing the harmonic filters, it is hoped that the harmonic pollution
and low power factor can be improved.
 The odd components are contributed more harmonics as compared to even harmonics. It
also shows that the 3rd and 5th harmonics are dominant harmonics at various loads. The results
clearly show that the active power filters can reduce harmonics at various frequencies as
compared to passive filter. In contrast, a separate filter is necessary for each harmonic frequency
for passive filter. However, the harmonic of current amplitude reduction is significant by active
power filter at higher frequency compared to passive filter.