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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
problems. Harmonics is due to the presence of non-linear loads.
Shunt filter is mainly used to provide Current compensation,
• No Isolation
remove current harmonics from the supply end. Shunt Active • Large size
filter acts as a current source by injecting equal and opposite • Frequency dependent
harmonics current at the source. Reference current generation is • No Power Gain
the heart of the Active filter. The Reference current is generated • Active component is absent
by using Instantaneous PQ theory, Synchronous Reference
frame method. • Resonance problem

Keywords: SAPF, APF, Power Quality, PQ theory

1. INTRODUCTION
Loads produce non linear harmonics which deteriorate power
quality in the power System. Harmonic generation, poor power
factor are caused due to increased use of power electronic
devices. Low power factor, Current and Voltage harmonics are
the main factors for poor power quality. Initially passive filters
were used for the Harmonic distortion and reactive power
problems but it has drawbacks like large size, Resonance
problem so they are not preferred. Active filters are mainly used
to remove harmonics generation and reactive power problems.
Active filters are classified into 3 types Shunt Active filter,
Series Active filter, and Hybrid Active filter. Shunt filters
provide Current compensation and Series filter provides Voltage
compensation and remove harmonics.
ACTIVE FILTER
The Active filter is the best technique for harmonic
distortion and power quality problems. The Active filter
consists of active components such as OPAMP, Resistors, and
Capacitors. Current source and Voltage source Active filter
provide Shunt and Series compensation. Shunt filters are used
to remove current harmonics due to the presence of non linear
load. Shunt filter operates as a current source by injecting
harmonic current equal and opposite phase so harmonic
current is cancelled at source end sinusoidal current is
produced. The Load power factor is improved by using
Active filters. Shunt Active filters provide the best and
effective solution for the mitigation of harmonics and
Reactive power problem.

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 are removed by using series and parallel resonant filter in
Passive filters. They consist of a passive element like Resistor,
Inductors and Capacitors. So they are called Passive filter. These Fig.1 Basic Scheme of Shunt Active filter
filters provide a 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
The 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 represent the Real power and Imaginary
power .PI controller is used to calculate Reference current. The
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 nonlinear load. Reference current
generation is the main function of Shunt Active filter. PQ theory
is used for the generation of Reference current. Shunt filter
reduces current harmonic distortion and improves the quality of
power. Improvement in the 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 July 2015
[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