Chapter 10

Series Active Power Filters

Electric Power Quality (EPE-624)

Professor Dr. Laiq Khan

Department of Electrical Engineering, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbotabad

 Analysis and Design of Series Active
Power Filters
 The analysis and design of the series active power filters include the
detailed analysis for deriving the design equations for calculating the
values of different components used in their circuit configurations
 there are a large number of topologies of the series active power
filters; therefore, the design of a large number of circuit
configurations is not practically possible to include here due to space
constraints
 The design of a three-phase three-wire series
active power filter includes the design of a VSC, interfacing
inductors, and a ripple filter
 The design of the VSC includes the selection of the DC bus voltage
level, the DC capacitance, and the rating of IGBTs

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 Design of a Series Active Power Filter
for a Voltage-Fed Nonlinear Load
 A three-phase series active filter consists of a VSC with an AC series
inductor, a coupling transformer, and a DC bus capacitor used in
series with a three-phase AC supply feeding a nonlinear load having
a three phase diode rectifier with a capacitive filter
 The series AF is used to reduce the harmonics in AC mains currents
and to maintain almost UPF (unity power factor) at the AC mains
 The design of the series APF includes calculation of the voltage,
current, and VA ratings of the VSC of the series AF, value of the AC
inductor, value of the DC bus capacitor, and its DC voltage
 Figure 10.7 shows a schematic diagram of the series active filter
connected to a system with a nonlinear rectifier load

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 Continued…

Figure. 10.7: System configuration of a three-phase series active filter

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 Continued…
 A three-phase 415 V (phase voltage Vph = 239.6 V) supply system
with a 25 kW load is considered to illustrate the design of the series
AF
 The series AF is connected in series with the supply system through
an injection transformer (Tr)
 The capacitor (CDC) is connected at the DC bus of the VSC to act as
a DC voltage source
 The DC bus capacitor is selected based on the transient energy
requirement and the DC bus voltage is selected based on the
injection voltage level
 The series AF acts as a harmonic isolator between the supply and
the load
 It has a ripple filter to absorb current ripples generated by the VSC

5 Department of Electrical Engineering, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbotabad

 Design of a VSC of a Series Active
Power Filter
 The design of the series active power filter is based on the DC bus
voltage of the three-phase rectifier load
 The series active power filter is operated for eliminating harmonics in
the supply currents and hence it injects only harmonic voltages
 It is clear that the fundamental component of load voltage is the PCC
voltage as the series AF injects the harmonic component of the load
voltage
 For the series AF, the switching frequency (fs) of 20 kHz is used
 The DC link voltage of the VSC (VDC) is selected as 700 V and it has
to be controlled within 5% range and the ripple current in the inductor
is to be constrained to 5% of current flowing through the series APF

6 Department of Electrical Engineering, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbotabad

 Continued…
 Hence, the fundamental component of load AC voltage is
Equation 10
 For a given line voltage of 415 V and a DC load voltage (Vd) of 540
V, the voltage rating of the series AF is obtained from the difference
of PCC and load voltages and hence the SAF voltage is calculated
as

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 Continued…

Equation 11

 (Since the sine wave supply current after compensation results in

continuous conduction of diodes of the three-phase diode rectifier
load (each diode conducting for 180°) and it results in a stepped
waveform of the phase voltage at the input of the diode bridge with

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 Continued…
(i) the first step of π/3 angle (from 0° to π/3) and a
magnitude of Vd/3
(ii) the second step of π/3 angle (from π/3 to 2π/3) and a magnitude
of 2Vd/3 and
(iii) the third step of π/3 angle (from 2π/3 to π) and a magnitude of
Vd/3 and it has both half cycles of symmetric segments of such
steps)
 The voltage rating of the VSC is obtained as 75.6415 V

9 Department of Electrical Engineering, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbotabad

 Continued…
Design of Current Rating of a VSC of a Series Active Power Filter
 The current rating of the series APF depends on the fundamental
component of load current and it is obtained as follows
 The load power is calculated as
Equation 12
 where R is the equivalent resistance of the DC load at the output of
the diode bridge rectifier
 For a given load of 25 kW at 540 V DC bus voltage of the load, the
equivalent resistance is R = 19.6 Ω
 Considering a UPF supply current and a lossless series AF, the rms
supply current is calculated as

Equation 13

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 Continued…
 where P is the input power equal to 25 kW. Considering VLL = 415 V,
the supply current is 34.78 A
 The current rating of the VSC is obtained as If = 34.78 A

Design of kVA Rating of a VSC of a Series Active Power Filter

 Design of kVA Rating of a VSC of a Series Active Power Filter

Equation 14

Design of Rating of an Injection Transformer of a Series Active

Power Filter
 The injection transformer is designed considering the optimum
voltage level of the VSC

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 Continued…
 The maximum AC voltage on the AC side of the VSC of the series
APF may be maVDC/(2 √ 2) = 0.8 × 700/(2 × √ 2) = 197.99 V
(considering the modulation index ma = 0.8) and on the supply side it
must be Vsupply = Vf
 The turns ratio of the coupling transformer is

Equation 15

 The kVA rating of the injection transformer is same as that of the

VSC and is calculated as
Equation 16
 Hence, the rating of the injection transformer is 7.892 kVA, 197.99
V/75.6415 V

12 Department of Electrical Engineering, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbotabad

 Continued…
Design of DC Capacitance of a VSC of a Series Active Power Filter
 The DC bus capacitance is selected based on the transient energy
required during change in the loads
 Considering that the energy stored in the capacitor is for meeting the
energy demand of the load for a fraction of power cycle, the relation
can be expressed as
Equation 17
 where VDC is the rated voltage, VDC1 is the drop in DC bus voltage
allowed during transients, Δt is the time for which support is required,
and CDC is the DC bus capacitance
 Considering Δt = 0.1 ms, VDC = 700 V, and VDC1 = 700 - (5% of 700)
= 665 V, Equation 10.17 results in
Equation 18

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 Continued…
 It gives CDC = 3304 μF
 Hence, a DC bus capacitor of 4000 μF, 700V is selected for the series
AF
Design of an Interfacing Inductor for a VSC of a Series Active Power
Filter
 The value of the interfacing inductor is selected based on the current
ripple in the series AF
 Considering that ripple current in the inductor is 5% and overloading
factor a = 1.2, the inductor is calculated as Equation 19

 Substituting the values in Equation 10.18, the value of the interfacing

inductor is estimated as

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 Continued…

 Hence, an interfacing inductor of 6.3 mH and 40 A current-carrying

capacity is selected for the series AF
Design of a Ripple Filter
 The ripple filter is designed for eliminating the switching frequency
ripples from the injected voltage of the series APF
 The ripple filter, a combination of a capacitor (Cf) and a resistor (Rf)
connected in series, is generally tuned at half of the switching
frequency (fr), which is calculated as
Equation 20
Equation 21

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 Topology-Based Classification of
DSTATCOMs
 Considering Rf = 5 Ω, Cf = 3.2 μF.
 Hence, Rf = 5 Ω and Cf= 5 μF are selected for designing a ripple
filter. Similarly, the design of series active power filters may be
carried out for other applications and other configurations.

16 Department of Electrical Engineering, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbotabad