Review of Active Filters for Power Quality Improvement
Active filtering of electric power has now become a mature technology for harmonic and reactive power compensation in two-wire (single phase), three-wire (three phase without neutral), and four-wire (three phase with neutral) ac power networks with nonlinear loads. This paper presents a comprehensive review of active filter (AF) configurations, control strategies, selection of components, other related economic and technical considerations, and their selection for specific applications. It is aimed at providing a broad perspective on the status of AF technology to researchers and application engineers dealing with power quality issues. A list of more than 200 research publications on the subject is also appended for a quick reference.
SOLID-STATE control of ac power using thyristors and other semiconductor switches is widely employed to feed controlled electric power to electrical loads, such as adjustablespeed drives (ASD’s), furnaces, computer power supplies, etc. Such controllers are also used in HV dc systems and renewable electrical power generation. As nonlinear loads, these solid-state converters draw harmonic and reactive power components of current from ac mains. In three-phase systems, they could also cause unbalance and draw excessive neutral currents. The injected harmonics, reactive power burden, unbalance, and excessive neutral currents cause low system efficiency and poor power factor. They also cause disturbance to other consumers and interference in nearby communication networks. Extensive surveys have been carried out to quantify the problems associated with electric power networks having nonlinear loads. Conventionally passive L–C filters were used to reduce harmonics and capacitors were employed to improve the power factor of the ac loads. However, passive filters have the demerits of fixed compensation, large size, and resonance. The increased severity of harmonic pollution in power networks has attracted the attention of power electronics and power system engineers to develop dynamic and adjustable solutions to the power quality problems. Such equipment, generally known as active filters (AF’s) , are also called active power line conditioners (APLC’s), in stantaneous reactive power compensators (IRPC’s), active power filters (APF’s), and active power quality conditioners (APQC’s). In recent years, many publications have also appeared on the harmonics, reactive power, load balancing, and neutral current compensation associated with linear and nonlinear loads