Theoretical study on active filters

Active filters:
These systems, comprising power electronics and installed in series or parallel with the nonlinear load, compensate the harmonic current or voltage drawn by the load. This type of filters is
used in systems whose power rating is below 500kVA.
In practical implementation of active power filters forced commutated, current controlled voltage
source inverters are used. The active power filters correct current distortion caused by non linear
loads by injecting equal-but-opposite current harmonic components at a specific point. The result
is that the current supplied by the power source remains sinusoidal.
Generation of reference signal:
Let IL be the total load current. IL=IP+IQ+IH, where IP,IQ and IH are the fundamental active current,
reactive current and the harmonic currents components, respectively. I P is separated from
other components to get the desired reference waveform. IL is filtered through a band pass filter
to obtain the fundamental phase current. This current is rectified and used as an input signal for a
Sample and Hold circuit. The Sample and Hold circuit, synchronized with the peak value of
the phase to neutral voltage, generates a dc signal, proportional to the amplitude of the active
component of the current IP in DC. Now, the value of the signal I P in DC has to be multiplied by
a unit-amplitude sinusoidal waveform in phase with the mains voltage. Therefore, the reference
signal is Iref = IL IP .
Current controller scheme:
The difference between the Iref and Iinv(o/p current of the inverter) ie Ierror is given to a PI
controller to eliminate steady state errors and obtain a fast response. The output signal of PI
control is modulated by a triangular signal and finally, a hysteresis control generates the signal
APF control.
The APF behavior under steady state and transient operating conditions depends mainly on the
control strategy.
There are various current control methods proposed for such active power filter configurations,
but in terms of quick current controllability and easy implementation hysteresis band current
control method has the highest rate among other current control methods. The interval between
two consecutive switching actions varies in time with operation point and conditions.

Ic*=Iref
Ic=Iinv
In current controlled PWM modulation, machine phase current is made to follow sinusoidal
reference current within a hysteresis band. Reference current Iref=Imsin t. Two bands separated

from reference by an amount I. Switching of inverters is carried out in such a way that the
actual current lies within these two bands.

For phase U, when Tr1 is on and Tr4 is off the rate of change of current will be positive,
and will be negative when Tr4 is on and Tr1 is off. At this point, the current will fall from m to n
and will increase from n to o during the first mentioned condition. Similar switching is done for
the phases V and W except that the reference will change by a phase difference of 120 and 240.
When the band is small, currents will be sinusoidal. As the band reduces harmonic
content in phase current reduces but then switching frequency increases. Thus, inverter with fast
switching devices will have lower harmonic content.