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An a-6-c Reference Frame-Based Control Strategy for the Three-phase Four-Wire
Shunt Active Power Filter
G. W. Chang
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Chung Cheng University
Chia-Yi 621 -TAIWAN
E-mail: wchang@ee.ccu.edu.tw
Abstract: The active power filter has been proved to be an effective
method to mitigate harmonic currents generated by nonlinear loads
as well as to compensate reactive power. In the past most three-
phase four-wire active power filters were designed based on the
conventional instantaneous power theory (i.e. p-q theory) with the
0-a-B reference frame. However, when designing and implementing
the control strategy based on the p-q theory, it requires the
reference-frame transformation. This process introduces additional
efforts on realizing the control circuit. In the paper an a-6-c
reference frame based strategy is proposed for simplifying the
design of the control circuit of the active power filter. Simulation
and experimental results show that the proposed control strategy
gives the active power filter a good performance.
Keyword: Active power filter, harmonics, reactive power
compensation, instantaneouspower theory, reference frame
I. INTRODUCTION
Modem power-electronic devices are being widely used
in end-use power applications, ranging from household
appliances to industrial equipment. While these nonlinear
loads provide end-user benefits of improved efficiency and
process controllability, they degrade the overall electric
power quality via re-shaping source voltages and/or currents.
This process causes pollution in electric power system and
often interferes with neighboring sensitive loads, such as
computers and microprocessor-controlled devices.
The concept of using active power filters to mitigate
harmonic problems and to compensate reactive power was
proposed more than two decades ago [ 1,2]. Since then, the
theory and applications of active power filters have become
more popular and have attracted great attentions [3-141. The
active power filter appears to be a viable solution for
eliminating harmonic currents and voltages. It injects equal-
but-opposite distortion as well as absorbs or generates
reactive power, thereby controlling the harmonics and
compensating reactive power of the connected load.
0-7803-6499-6/GO/$lO.00 2000IEEE
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S . K. Chen
In [3,4] Akagi, et. al. proposed an innovative concept
based on the theory of instantaneous power, or commonly
called p-q theory, which inspired the realization of three-
phase active power filters. With this concept, unless used for
harmonic cancellation, there is no need to use energy storage
device in the active power filter implementation for reactive
power compensation of the load. Since the p-q theory was
introduced, many instantaneous power theory-based methods
are proposed for the control strategies of the active power
filter [7,8,10,12].
In contrast with the widely used pq theory for active
power filter design in the 0-a-8 reference h e , the
conventional power theory based on a-b-c reference fi-ame
has attracted less attentions. This paper tries to make a
contribution in the a-b-c reference h e - b a s e d design of
active power fiIter. With the proposed design, it requires less
effort on the realization of the filter control circuit while
maintaining a good filter performance. From the simulation
and test results, it shows that the proposed control strategy for
the three-phase shunt active power filter is an effective
method to mitigate harmonic currents and to compensate
reactive power of the nonlinear load. Therefore, a good
power quality and a near-unity power factor at the source side
can be achieved.
11. REVIEW OF THE 0- a -/AND ~ - 6 - cREFRENCE
FRAME-BASED CONTROL STRATEGIES FOR
THREEPHASE FOUR-WIRE SHUNT ACTIVE
POWER FILTER
Fig. 1 shows the schematic diagram of an active power
filter for harmonic cancellation and reactive power
compensation, where vk isk ilk ifi k = a, b, c, are source
voltages, source currents, load currents, and filter injection
currents, respectively.
A. Review of 0- rt-B Reference Frame-Based Control
Strategy
The procedure of the conventional control strategy based
on 0-a-8 reference frame of the instantaneous power theory
for determining the filter injection currents can be
summarized as follows [3,4].

r-l
Acrive Power Filter
I Schematic diagram of the three-phase four-wire shunt active
power filter.
Measuring load voltages and currents in a-b-c
reference frame and transforming them to 0-a-p
reference fi-ame quantities.
Computing instantaneous zero-sequence, active, and
reactive power based on the results obtained in step
(4.
Using low-pass and high-pass passive filters to
separate fundamental and harmonic components
obtained in step (b).
Computing injection currents of the active power
filter in 0-u-B reference frame based on the selected
power terms to be compensated in steps (b) and (c).
Transforming the compensation currents obtained in
step (d) to a-b-creference fiame quantities.
Observing the above procedure, it is found that it requires
two times of transformation in steps (a) and (e). The reference
frame transformation introduces additional complexities and
efforts in designing and implementing the control circuit.
B. Review of the U-b-c Reference Frame-Based Control
Strategy
In [9,14] the authors proposed a nonlinear programming-
based solution method to determine compensation currents of
the voltage-type shunt active power filter, where the source
current is to be minimized against the instantaneous power
constraint of the active power filter. The optimal
compensation currents of the active power filter are proved to
be
i;k = ilk - v k %,k = a,b, c,
vk
k h e reference voltages. The desired ideal source currents are
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where pr = C vkilk is the load instantaneous power. Under
k
ideal source voltages, (1) can be expressed as
where 6 is the average value of p,, and where E is the rms
source volatge. In this way only the harmonic components of
the instantaneous power of the nonlinear load need to be
supplied by the active power filter. The power supplied fiom
the source are of the fundamental average power of the load
and the power loss of the active power filter. Listed below
summarizes the procedure of the proposed control strategy.
(a) Measuring load voltages and currents in a-b-c
reference frame.
(b) Determining the instantaneous power of the load and
its dc component as well as the rms value of the
fundamental component of the source voltage.
(c) Computing the optimal compensation currents of the
active power filter according to (2).
111. DESIGN OF THE CONTROL CIRCUIT
The proposed control strategy of the active power filter is
based on the concept that the source currents are required to
be balanced, undistorted, and in phase with the fundamental
souce voltages. This implies that the source side power factor
is unity. Observing (2), the second term on the right can be
treated as the desired ideal source currents under
balancedundistorted source voltages. Therefore, regardless
of whether the actual source voltages are ideal or not, the
reference volatge generator (RVG) can be used to produce
the ideal reference waveforms for determining the desired
source currents. Also, if the power balance maintains and the
fosses in the active power filter are negligible, the average
value of the instantaneous load power, E, is used to replace
pi as given in (1). Fig. 2 shows the block diagram of the
designed control circuit based on the proposed strategy.
In Fig. 2 the reference voltage generator produces a set of
ideal three-phase voltages waveforms by the use of the phase-
bcked loop (PLL) technique. Only one phase of actual source
voltages is detected and enters the PLL reference voltage
generator. The average power ofp, can be extracted by using
a low-pass filter, i.e. is proportional to the dc component
of the load power. To maintain a stable dc output voltage, Vd,
in the active power filter, a corrective power term pd is added
to and the sum of the two power terms is multiplied by
then obtained. It is showed that the designed circuit requires
less multiliers than as expected. Once the optimal
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compensation currents are determined in Fig. 2, they are input
to a PWM current mode controller to produce converter
switch control signals.
Fig. 2 Block diagram of the control circuit based on the proposed seategy.
W . RESULTS
To verify the performance of the proposed control
strategy for the three-phase shunt active power filter,
numerical simulations are made by the use of MATLAB. The
designed control circuit is also implemented and a prototype
of the shunt active power filter is developed.
A. Simulation
Assuming the loss in the active power filter is negligible,
Fig. 3 gives representative simulation results at one phase
based on the the proposed control strategy. In Fig. 3 it shows
that the active power filter can compensate the nonlinear load
currents. We see that after the active power filter injecting the
compensation currents, the source current becomes ideal and
remains in phase with the source voltage. Therefore, the
unity source power factor is achieved and the harmonic
currents generated by the load are mitigated.
B. Experimentation
To realize the proposed control strategy, a prototype of
the shunt active power filter is built and is used to
compensate reactive power and harmonic currents generated
by a IO-kVA three-phase rectifier load. The designed active
power filter is tested under different load conditions and has
shown a good performance that consists with the simulation
results. The filter properly functions to compensate the
reactive power and to suppress harmonic currents of the
nonlinear load under test.
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Fig. 4 gives the actual waveforms when testing the active
power filter with the rectifier load, where test results of one
phase are shown. In the representative test case, the active
power filter is used to compensate both harmonic currents
and reactive power of the three-phase rectifier load
simultaneously. The results show that the actual test
waveforms agree with the simulation results given in Fig. 3.
I 100, 1
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0 0.01 0.02 0.03
Tim Time
50
U
E -50
O M O
-50 W
Fig. 3 Simulation results for the shunt active power filter with a
nonlinear load.
(a) Source voltage (b) Load current
(c) Compensation current (d) Source cumnt after compensation
(e) Harmonic spectrum of the load current
( f ) Harmonic spectrum of the source current after compensation
V. CONCLUSIONS
This paper presents an a-6-c reference h e - b a s e d
control strategy for designing the three-phase four-wire shunt
active power filter. Not like the control strategy used with
conventional instantaneous power theory that requires the
transformation between reference fiames, the proposed
method gives less complexity in realizing the control circuit
of the active power filter.
The concept of the proposed control strategy is to
maintain the sinusoidal fundamental components of source
currents. In theory, the active power filter designed which
based on the proposed control strategy can compensate
unbalanced nonlinear load currents even the source voltages

are unbalanced and distorted. If the active power filter is
solely used for reactive power compensation, there is no need
for energy storage element in the filter. However, a sizable
capacitor is required for harmonic current cancellation and
switching losses in the filter.
As described in the paper, a well-designed shunt active
power filter should be able to effectively compensate reactive
power and harmonic currents generated by the nonlinear load.
The performance of the active filter based on the proposed
control strategy is discussed in details through the simulation
and actual prototype test. Both simulation and test results give
a good agreement on the expected filter performance.
I I I I I I I I I I
b-3& I> ‘lI3cl?<J 1 5GdPLE.I 1EhS I -.l.- . I
(b)
Fig.4 Test waveforms of the shunt active power filter with a rectifier load.
(a) Source voltage vs. load current (before Compensation)
(b) Source voltage vs. source current (after compensation)
VI. REFERENCES
[I] L. Gyugyi and E. C. Strycuia, “Active AC Power Filters,” Conference
Record of the IEEE-IAS Annual Meeting, Oct. 1976, pp. 529-535.
[2] N. Mohan, H. A. Peterson, W. F. Long, G. R. DreifuersL J. J.
Vithayathil, “Active Filters for AC Harmonic suppression, ” Proc. of
the IEEE-PES Winter Meeting, paper A77026-8, January 1977.
[3] H. Akagi, Y. Kanazawa, and A. Nabae, “Generalized Theory of the
lnstantaneous Reactive Power in Three-phase Circuits,” Proceedings
of IEEJ International Power Electronics Conference (IPEC-Tobo),
pp. 1375-1386,1983.
[4] H. Akagi, Y. Kanazawa, and A. Nabae, “InstantaneousReactive Power
Compensators Comprising Switching Devices Without Energy Storage
Components,” IEEE Trans. on IA, Vol. IA-20, No. 3, pp. 625-630,
MayNune 1984.
Authorized licensed use limited to: Shri Shankaracharya Col of Eng and Tech. Downloaded on July 28,2010 at 05:49:52 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
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[SI J. D. V. Wyk, D. A. Marshall and S . Boshoff, “Simulation and
Experimental Study of a Reactively Loaded PWM Converter as a Fast
Source of Reactive Power,” IEEE Truns. on IA, Vol. IA-22, No. 6,
November/December 1985.
[6] W.M. Grady, M. J. Samotyj, A. H. Noyola, “Survey of Active Power
Line Conditioning Methodologies,” IEEE Trans. on Power Delivev,
Vol. 5 , NO. 3, July 1990, pp. 1536-1542.
[7] H. Akagi, “Trends in Active Power Line Conditioners,” IEEE Trans.
on Power Elecponics, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 263-268, May 1994.
[8] H. Akagi, “New Trends in Active Filters for Power Conditioners,”
IEEE Trans. on Indusby Applications, Vol. 32, No. 6, pp. 3312-1322,
NovemberDecember 1996.
[9] T. Furuhashi, S . Okuma and Y. Uchikawa, “A Study on the Theory of
Instantaneous Reactive Power,” IEEE Trans. on IA, Vol. IA-37, No. 1,
February 1990.
[IO] M. Aredes, K. Heumann and E. H. Watanable, “An Universal Active
Power Line Conditioner,” IEEE Trans on Power Delivery, Vol. 13, No.
2, pp. 545-551, April 1998.
[ l l ] J. S. Tepper, J. W.Dixon, G. Venegas, and L. MO&, “A Simple
Frequency-Independent Method for Calculating the Reactive and
Harmonic Current in a Nonlinear Load, ” IEEE Tram. on Indutrial
Electronics, Vol. 43, NO. 6, pp. 647-654, December 1996.
[I21 M. Aredes, J. HLLfner, and K. Heumann, “New Control Algorithms for
Series and Shunt Three-phase Four-Wire Active Filters,” IEEE Trans
on PowerElectronics, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 31 1-318, March 1997.
[13] F. 2. Peng, G. W. OtI and D. J. Adams, “Harmonic and Reactive
Compensation Based on the Generalized lnstantaneous Reactive Power
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I 1174-1681,November 1998.
[I41 S . K. Chen and G. W. Chang, “ A New lnstantaneous Power Theory-
Based Three-phase Active Power Filter,” Proceedings of fhe IEEE
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VII. BIOGRAPHIES
Gary W. Chang, (M’94), received his Electrical Engineering Diploma from
National Taipei institute of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan, in 1982, and the
MSEE and PHD degrees from National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu,
Taiwan, and the University of Texas at Austin in 1988 and 1994,
respectively. Dr. Chang is currently an assistant professor of the Department
of Electrical Engineering at National Chung Cheng University, Chia-Yi,
Taiwan. His areas of interest include power systems optimization, harmonics,
and power quality. Dr. Chang is a member of Tau Beta Pi and a registered
professional engineer in the state of Minnesota.
Shin-Kuan Chen, received his Electrical Engineering Diploma from
National Taipei institute of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan, in 1985, and the
BSEE and MSEE degrees from National Taiwan Institute of Technology,
Taipei, Taiwan, and National Cheng Kung University at Tainan, Taiwan, in
1990 and 1992, respectively. His areas of interests include power system
analysis, harmonics, power quality, and power electronics. He is a lecturer at
Chung Chou Junior College of Technology & Commerce, Chunghua,
Taiwan, and is currently working toward his Ph.D. degree at National Chung
Cheng University.