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Harmonic Reduction using Shunt Active Filters

Aditya Tiwari
Department of Electrical Engineering
Institute of technology
Nirma University, India
tiwariaditya46@gmail.com
Abstract—Power quality problem arises due to the increased
use of Power electronic equipment like Rectifiers, diodes and Limitations of Passive Filter
Inverters. Current harmonics is one of the major power quality
problem. Harmonics is due to presence of non linear loads. Shunt
filter is mainly used to provide Current compensation, remove
• No Isolation
current harmonics from supply end. Shunt Active filter acts as a • Large size
current source by injecting equal and opposite harmonics • Frequency dependent
current at the source . Reference current generation is heart of • No Power Gain
Active filter. Reference current is generated by using • Active component is absent
Instantaneous PQ theory, Synchronous Reference frame method.
• Resonance problem
Keywords: SAPF, APF, Power Quality, PQ theory
ACTIVE FILTER
1. INTRODUCTION
Active filter is the best technique for harmonic distortion
Loads produce non linear harmonics which deteriorate
and power quality problems. Active filter consists of active
power quality in the power System. Harmonic generation, poor
components such as OPAMP, Resistors and Capacitors. Cur-
power factor are caused due to increased use of Power
rent source and Voltage source Active filter provide Shunt
electronic devices. Low power factor, Current and Voltage
and Series compensation. Shunt filters are used to remove
harmonics are main factors for poor power quality. Initially
current harmonics due to presence of non linear load. Shunt
passive filters were used for the Harmonic distortion and
filter operates as current source by injecting harmonic
reactive power problems but it has drawbacks like large size,
current equal and opposite phase so harmonic current is
Resonance problem so they are not preferred. Active filters are
cancelled at source end sinusoidal current is produced. Load
mainly used to remove harmonics generation and reactive
power factor is improved by using Active filters. Shunt
power problem. Active filters are classified into 3 types Shunt
Active filters best and effective solution for the mitigation of
Active filter, Series Active filter and Hybrid Active filter.
harmonics and Reactive power problem.
Shunt filters provide Current compensation and Series filter
provide Voltage compensation and remove harmonics.

SOURCES OF HARMONICS

• SMPS
• Arc Furnaces
• Rectifiers and Diodes
• Rotating Machines
• AC and DC drives

2. HARMONIC REDUCTION METHODS

Passive and Active filters are used for harmonic Reduction.

PASSIVE FILTER
Passive filters are used for different voltage levels. Harmon-
ics is removed by using series and parallel resonant filter in
Passive filters. They consist of passive element like
ResistorInductors and Capacitors. So they are called Passive Fig.1 Basic Scheme of Shunt Active filter
filter. These filters provide low impedance path to remove
harmonic current. Series passive filter is connected in series
with the load ,Shunt passive filter connected in parallel with
the load. Passive filters are not as effective compared to Active
filters.

,.
Advantages of Active Filter • Gain and Frequency Adjustment
• Reduced Size
• Voltage Regulation • Reactive Power Compensation

• Single filter to eliminate harmonics
3. REFERENCE CURRENT GENERATION
USING PQ THEORY
Generation of Reference current is done by some methods
like Instantaneous Reactive Power method, Synchronous
reference frame method (SRF). The Strategy to generate
compensating currents is based on time domain correction
techniques. PQ theory is used for the generation of Reference
current in Shunt filters. PQ theory converts current and
voltage from abc to αβ0 and Instantaneous power is
calculated. p and q represents the Real power and Imaginary
power .PI controller is used to calculate Reference current.
Inverse transformation is applied to convert current from αβ
to abc for the measurement of 3 phase reference
compensating current. Compensation current generated by PQ
theory method for Shunt active filter is shown in fig. 2
Fig. 2. Block diagram of reference current generator using PQ theory
2
TABLE 1
Comparison between Active and Passive filters
Parameter Active Filter Passive Filter
Cost High Low
Sensitivity More sensitive Less sensitive
Power supply Required Not required
Q factor High Very low
Component Active Passive
4. CONCLUSION
Harmonics distortion is one of the major power problems
of Power quality. In this paper Shunt Active filter is used
to mitigate current harmonics and improve power quality.
Advantages of Active filter are Reactive power compensation
small size .Shunt APF is developed for harmonic and voltage
distortion compensation of non linear load. Reference current
generation is main function of Shunt Active filter. PQ theory
is used for the generation of Reference current. Shunt filter
reduces current harmonic distortion and improve the quality
of power. Improvement in power factor is also achieved by
using Shunt Active filters.
REFERENCES
[1] Hirofumi, Akagi, fellow, IEEE, “New trend in active
power filter for power conditioning”, IEEE Transaction on
industry application, vol. 32,Nov/Dec 1996
[2] “Reduction of harmonics using Shunt Active power
filter” International journal of Engineering Research and
ISSN: 2278-0181Vol.4 Issue 7 July2015
[3]“Design of Shunt Active filter to improve Power
Quality using PQ Theory” International Journal of Eng
Ineering Research and Technology vol.5 March 2016
[4] Dipika Sheth, Dr.K.Vdirajacharya “Power quality
Improvement using Shunt Active filter” International
conference ICEPES, Bhopal,24 to 26 August 2010
[5] T. Narongrit, K-L. Areerak and K-N. Areerak “The
Comparison Study of Current Control Techniques for
Active Power Filters” 2011