A Study of Parallel Operations of Active and Passive Filters

Z. Chen, F. Blaabjerg and J. K. Pedersen

Aalborg University Institute of Energy Technology Pontoppidanstraede 101 DK-9220 Aalborg East, Denmark Emails:zch@iet.auc.dk,fbl@iet.auc.dk,jkp@iet.auc.dk

Abstract-- This paper reports investigations of the parallel operations of a current controlled active filter and passive filters in a system with current harmonic sources. The task of reactive power and harmonic compensation is shared by the active filter and passive filters. The passive filters are used for supplying reactive power to the connected ac system and eliminating some harmonics, the active filter is used to cancel out the other harmonics. This can be achieved by taking the suitable reference current of the active filter and signal processing filters in the control loop. In parallel combination arrangements of the active and passive filters can operate relatively independently, also the compensation flexibility of the active filter can be fully exploited, such as one active filter for several harmonic sources. The simulation studies on various systems have been performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the systems. The results show that the power factor is corrected by the passive filters, harmonics are minimized by both active and passive filters and overloading of the filter system can be avoided.

proposed solution is more applicable in centralized compensation systems. This paper studies the parallel operation of active and passive filters. Such a connection has the advantage of relative independence: passive filters can be in operation whether the active filter is in operation or not, and within the rating limit, the active filter can also be able to perform some h c t i o n s of the passive filters. However, the connection of passive filters modifies the impedance characteristics of the system. Therefore, the co-operation between the active filter and passive filters is very important for performing effective compensations. In the following, this paper will discuss the system configuration of the compensation system, analyze the characteristics and discuss the possibility of operating the active filter and passive filters in parallel. Then the control strategy will be discussed in Section 111, and a case of simulation study will be presented in Section IV. 11. SYSTEM CONFIGURATIONAND IMPEDANCE
CHARACTERISTICS

I. INTRODUCTION Nonlinear loads such as diode and thyristor rectifiers and unintermptible power supplies produce harmonics and they often consume reactive power. Without a proper compensation the power quality of ac supply systems can be deteriorated. Passive filters have been widely used to absorb harmonic current of nonlinear loads due to their low cost and high efficiency. However, passive filters suffer some drawbacks, such as strong dependence on system impedance, heavy, susceptible to source and load resonance and the variation of filter characteristics due to aging. Active power filters have been developed to compensate the problems of passive filters. Although providing excellent compensation results, pure series and shunt active filters are not yet a cost-effective solution due to their high construction and operation costs. Consequently, hybrid filters are attracting more and more attentions, various topologies, such as the combination of series active and parallel passive filters [2] and active filter in series with parallel passive filters [3, 4, 51 have been developed to combine the advantages of passive filters and active filters. Other alternatives to reduce harmonics have also been proposed, such as the integration of a controllable component in power electronic converters [6] or the combinations of single-phase and three-phase nonlinear loads [7]. The

A simple configuration of the active filter and passive filter

combinations is shown in Fig. 1, where the filter system, includmg the passive filters and an active filter, is connected in parallel with a current type of harmonic source, such as an inductively loaded thyristor converter.

kJ
passivefilters

Fig. 1. Schematics of a parallel connected hybrid compensator in a simple

system.

The passive filters, qf, in Fig. 1 are tuned to remove some harmonics and supply reactive power at the fimdamental frequency while the active filter is controlled to cancel other parts of the harmonics. In this system, the active filter and the passive filters can operate relatively independent, e.g. one of

0-7803-7262-W02/$10.00 0 2002 IEEE.

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the filter system is out of service, the other can still operate within the capacity rating of the device and equipment. However, the connection of passive filters does modify the impedance characteristics of the system. There is a possibility that the passive filters could take the current injected by the active filter, then both active and passive filters could be overloaded. The single-phase equivalent circuit shown in Fig. 2 may be used to analyze the system characteristics under a balanced operation condition. The passive filters provide a harmonic sink, the low impedance path, to divert some current harmonics. For a six pulse thyristor converter load, the passive filter may be 1091 ' ' ' 0 1 w 2 w Po 4ca 5 w Em 7w 800 OW 1 m Wl designed with branches tuned to 5* and 7* harmonic Fig. 3. Impedance characteristics of ac system grid and passive filters. frequencies and a high pass branch for the high frequency. Fig. 3 shows the impedance characteristics of the ac system and However, the parallel connection of passive filters changes passive filters (5", 7* and high-pass) without the active filter circuit, where the parameters are based on the system in the impedance characteristics and presents the danger of taking reference [2]. The supply ac system is assumed to have an the current injected by the active filter. If the current generated inductive characteristic as shown by the solid line in Fig. 3, by the active filter falls into the passive filter frequency band, while the passive filters tuned to 5*, 7&and higher harmonics most of the current produced by the active filter would be taken by the passive filters instead of compensating the present the characteristics shown in the dashed line. It can be clearly seen that the passive filter circuit provides harmonics generated by the non-linear load. Consequently, lower impedance than the system impedance at the tuned both active and passive filters can be overloaded. An ideal operation condition may be achieved by separating frequencies (5* and 7" harmonics) and a range of designed higher frequencies. The passive filter is a bypass branch to the the compensation frequency bands of the active filter and load harmonic current. In the frequency bands where the passive filters. For example, the operation frequencies of the passive filters present lower impedance than that of the ac active filter should be arranged to avoid the tuned frequencies supply system, the higher harmonic deviation capability is of the passive filters. This is the basic idea of the parallel obtained. The lower the harmonic impedance of the passive operations of the combined filter systems. Fig. 4 shows the single-phase equivalent circuits of the filters in comparison with the system impedance the better the harmonic filtering performance. Obviously due to the presence discussed hybrid filter topology. Fig. 4a is for the frequency of fimdamental voltage, the passive filter bank can also bands beyond the working frequency range of the active filter, while Fig. 4b is for the frequency bands within the active filter generate fimdamental frequency reactive power. A parallel connected and current controlled active filter working frequency range. As shown in Fig. 4a, for the injects current harmonics into the ac system to cancel the frequency range of the active filter working frequencies, the harmonic current from the harmonic sources. An active filter transfer fimction of load harmonic current to the harmonic connected in parallel with the grid and a passive harmonic current entering the system is given in equation (1). filter will behave like a current source, therefore, a current controlled parallel connected active filter requires a low system impedance at the frequencies of the injecting current to be effective.
"
fi

frequBY

"

Current

I a f

Active

filter

'+ I
1022

Fig. 2. Single-phaseequivalent circuit of a combined filter system.

[cl=
Fig. 4. Hybrid filter system. (a) Hannonic frequencies out of active filter range @) harmonic frequencies within active filter range. (h: harmonics number.)

{[

2 1 -112 3 0 &I2

-112 4512,

(b)

The active filter is represented with a current source which can be controlled in proportion to the harmonic current I&, and expressed as G A I&, as illustrated in Fig. 4b. Then there are two current sources in the simple circuit, a harmonic current source driven by the load and a harmonic compensation current source controlled by the active filter. The harmonic contents of the source current can be determined by

Where , i ip are a and p axis currents, v , vp are a and p axis voltages, i,, ib, i, are a, b and c three phase currents, vu,vb, v, are a, b and c three phase voltages. Then the instantaneous power components can ,e calculated as

(4)

where G A is the gain of the active filter. For the harmonics which the active filter is not to compensate, the gain is zero. Therefore the source current would be distributed based on the relationship between the passive filter impedance and the ac supply system impedance, given in equation (1).

The fundamental power is represented by the dc components of the instantaneous real and reactive power, jj and i j , and the harmonics are corresponding to the ac components of the instantaneous real and reactive power, and Therefore, for harmonic compensation, the three phase compensation currents can be calculated as

G.

1 1 1 . ACTIVE FILTER CONTROL

A. Control Strategy of The Active Filter The control techniques of active filters have been studied by many researchers. Various methods based on both frequency domain and time domain have been developed and reported in the literature. Typically, time domain based methods provide fast response, such as the instantaneous power theory [ l ] and synchronous rotating reference frame methods. In the instantaneous power theory, the compensation command signals are obtained from the instantaneous active power and the instantaneous reactive power. This method does not require the phase synchronization. The use of the instantaneous power theory based method is reported in this paper. Using the instantaneous power theory, the three phase voltages and currents are transformed into a two axes stationary reference.

The block diagram of the control system is shown in Fig. 5. Three phase currents and three phase voltages are sampled, the instantaneous real power and reactive power are calculated. The currents, I&, are taken at the point where the effect of passive filters has been counted and voltages are sampled at the terminal .of the active filter. The high frequency components of the instantaneous power represent the harmonics, which is used to produce the harmonic current required to be compensated. Therefore, in the block diagram of Fig. 5, the high-pass filters are used to block the dc components of the instantaneous power and allow the ac components of the instantaneous power to pass to produce the 5 ) . reference current waveform Iam,*bC by using (
B. The Signal Processing Filters In order to avoid overload both the active filter and the passive filters, a signal-processing filter as shown in Fig. 4 is added into the control loop. This filter removes the undesirable harmonic components in the reference current waveform of the current controlled active filter.

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1afh.a.b.c.

i, ib
ic

calculation

calculation
T o active filter

va

Vb

Vc

Fig. 5. Block diagram of control system for the active filter.

In the studied system, the passive filter characteristics shown in Fig. 3, the signal filters should be designed to limit the frequency signals within the tuned frequency bands of the passive filters so that the compensation current generated by the active filter would not overload the passive filters.

I
4

=O

3 "
-60

Iv. SIMULATION EXAMPLES

The simulation studies have been carried out on the system shown in Fig. 1. The software package PSCADEMTDC has been used. The hybrid filter system consists of an active filter and passive filters, which are connected in parallel with a harmonic producing load, i.e., a three-phase thyristor bridge converter of the rating of 20 kVA. The passive filters are consisting of the branches tuned to 5*, 7* and higher harmonics (HPF). The parameters of the passive filters and ac supply system are given in Table I [2], which have the corresponding impedance frequency characteristics as shown in Fig. 3. The active filter is a PWM voltage source converter, which works in current control mode. Fig. 6 shows a group of results. These current waveforms are in the sequence of non-linear load, passive filter, active filter and ac system downward. The active filter is switched into operation at 0.1 seconds. The reactive power compensation effects of the passive filters can be clearly seen by comparing the load and the ac system currents. It can also be seen that the operation of the active filter has no significant effects on the passive filters. Figs. 7 and 8 present the current harmonic spectra before and after the active filter is activated respectively. The harmonics are presented as the percentage of the fundamental current of the thyristor converter load current. Simulation results show that the active filter and passive filters can share their responsibility of harmonic and reactive power compensation. Also, the current carried by the active filter is reduced in comparison with the case of a conventional pure active compensator. Consequently, the rating of active filters is reduced.
TABLE I
CIRmPARAMETERS

i o
-50 -100

-160

-200

5th 7th HPF

Passive Filter L=1.2 mH C=340 pF L=1.2 mH C=170 pF L=0.26mH C=300pF Svstem Zs=0.02 pu (inductive)

R=3R

1024

mmu,.*,on

FI..un.

( M

.m-r

-d

Pur*-

n(b-I

o*-

ae-

io.Eo,-

!""-

&=-

S O L -

0 2 0 1

00

2m

h n

400

, A

am

eo0

tom

1alO

,400

,e00

*a00

(c) Fig. 7.Current harmonics before active filter activated (passive filter only) (a) Thyristor converter harmonic spectra. @) Passive filter harmonic spectra. (c) Supply system harmonic spectra.
sh.",-*lOn FI.."N
(-8"-

The total voltage harmonic distortion (THD,) can be calculated as S (6) THD, = H , L = H , l
zsc

ssc

,,e.,

, d

P C -

.,b-.-)

Where I1 and SI are the fundamental current and power taken by the converter from the grid, I,, and S,, are the short circuit current and power at the point of common coupling , is the harmonic coefficient and may be (PCC) and H calculated as

Hc=

For the above studied case, the I & of the converter without any filters is 173%, the passive filters reduce the & to 144%, then the active filter reduces the H , further to 68%. Considering a harmonic distortion limit of 5%, the allowed ratio of the converter rating to the system short circuit capacity is

dp, (

h h

~100%

(7)

For the studied system, the passive filter allows the converter rating to increase to about 1.2 times of the converter system without any filters, the combined hybrid system would further increase the rating of the converter system to 2.56 times.

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V. CONCLUSIONS
The proposed paper presents the study of the parallel operation of a current controlled active filter and passive filters. The effects of the impedance characteristics have been discussed in terms of the effectiveness of filters. The idea of sharing the compensation tasks of reactive power and harmonics between the two types of filters has been discussed. The implementation method of using the digital filter system in the instantaneous power theory based control method has been presented. The simulation studies on the presented circuits and control system has demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed compensation techniques in improving the system technical and economic performance. Simulation results show that the active filter and passive filters can share their responsibility of harmonic and reactive power compensation. Consequently, the rating of active filters is reduced. Also the controllability of the active filters can be fully exploited.

VI. REFERENCES
H. Akagi, Y. Kanazawa, A. Nabae, : Instantaneous Reactive Power Compensators Comprising Switching Devices without Energy Storage Components, IEEE Trans. on Industry Applications, Vol. 20, May/June 1984, pp 625-630. F.Z. Peng, H. Akagi, and A. Nabae. A new approach to harmonic compensationin power systems-A combined system of shunt passive and series active filters. IEEE Trans. on Industry Applications, Vol. 26, No. 6, November/December 1990, pp 983-990. H. Fujita and H. Akagi. A practical approach to harmonic compensation in power systems - series connection of passive and active fillers. IEEE Trans. on Industry Applications, Vol. 27, No. 6, November/December 1991, 1020-1025. S. Bhattacharya, P. T. Cheng, and D. Divan. Hybrid solutions for improving passive filter performance in high power applications. IEEE Trans. on Industry Applications, Vol. 33, No. 3, May/June 1997, pp 732-747. P. T. Cheng, S. Bhattacharya, and D. Divan. Control of squarewave inverters in high power hybrid active filter systems. JEEE Trans. on Industry Applications, Vol. 34, No. 3, May/June 1998, pp 458472. S. Hansen, P. N. Enjeti, J. Hong Hahn, F Blaabjerg. An Integrated Single-Switch Approach to Improve Harmonic Performance og Standard PWM Adjustable Speed Drives. IEEE Trans.on Industry Application, Vol. 36, No. 4, July/August 2000, pp. 1189-1196. S. Hansen, P. Nielsen, F. Blaabjerg. Harmonic Cancellation by Mixing Non-linear Single-phase and Three-phase Loads. IEEE/IAS Trans. on Industry Applications,Vol. 36, No. 1,2000, pp.152-159.

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