9th National Conference on Technological Trends (NCTT 08), 21-22 Nov 2008 56

Control of Shunt Active Power Filter using

Multiresonant Controller

Smitha Krishnan Lathika B.S

M.Tech Scholar Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering
College of Engineering, Trivandrum, kerala, India College of Engineering, Trivandrum, Kerala, India
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract— Active power filters are used to eliminate current reference control current. Here highly efficient
harmonics near nonlinear loads. In this paper the control of synchronous frame reference method is employed for
3-level shunt active power filter is proposed using frequency balanced harmonic systems. The new idea of controlling
selective proportional plus multiple resonant controllers. power system quality is presented for non-linear
The voltage source converter (VSC) is operated using ramp- unbalanced system for getting the reference current. The
comparison current control method. The method provides formulated technique is done by means of the closed-loop
fixed switching frequency operation, and unipolar control of source current. The reference current is
modulation of a control function yields three levels PWM identified by the idea of energy balancing under the
output. The resonant controllers are tuned near the
controlled system [4], [5].
harmonic frequencies to be compensated. The analysis of
THD’s also done to realize the accuracy of this active filter. The resonant controllers are tuned near harmonic
The performance of the proposed shunt active power filter is frequencies to be compensated. This compensates the
illustrated through the compensation of a distribution selected frequencies and improves total harmonic
system using PSCAD/EMTDC simulation package. distortion (THD). Furthermore, a resonant action at
fundamental frequency provides near unity power factor
Keywords- Shunt Active Power Filter, resonant controller, operation with balanced source currents. Here two
3-level modulation, synchronous reference frame, THD.
different situations are taken and solved using resonant
controllers tuned near fundamental frequency. The
I. INTRODUCTION performance of proposed shunt active power filter is
illustrated through PSCAD/EMTDC simulation package
The ac power system has always been susceptible to and results are verified.
problem regarding harmonics and reactive power from the
very beginning. It has worsened with the increased use of
power electronic converters as some of these converters II. SHUNT ACTIVE POWER FILTER
not only increase currents but also generate harmonics in Shunt active filters (Fig.1) have been recognized as a
the source current. The increased reactive power, solution of harmonic current and reactive power
harmonics and unbalances cause an increase in line losses, compensation for non-linear loads. The principle of
instability and voltage distortion. A shunt active power operation of the shunt active filter is based on the
filter is a voltage source converter based device operated in generation and injection of harmonic currents up to a
a current control mode. It improves the quality of power desired order to the system. Consequently, the
by eliminating harmonic content of load [1]-[3]. characteristics and efficiency of harmonic compensation
The resonant controller means PI controller tuned near and its effectiveness depend on the control algorithm
fundamental frequencies to be compensated. The method applied to calculate the load current harmonics problems.
of ramp comparison used here gives two level controls of
VSC’s. Here performance is decided by triangular carrier.
The use of multiresonant controller gives frequency
selective compensation. The three level control of shunt
active power filter is achieved by using frequency selective
proportional plus multiresonant controllers. Also
modulation of control function provides three- level PWM
output.
The performance of active power filter is dependent on
how the reference compensating signals are estimated.
Conventionally, either the instantaneous active and
reactive power p-q method or the instantaneous active and
reactive current component method is employed. Both
Figure. 1. The principle diagram of shunt active power filter
these methods require complexity in calculating the

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III. COMPENSATING NON-LINEAR,UNBALANCED AND

REACTIVE COMPONENT OF LOAD

In this section shunt active power filter is used to

compensate for nonlinear and unbalanced load.
Compensator is also required to support the reactive
component of the load to mitigate the poor load power
factor. Figure 2. Block diagram of converter modulation

A. Reference Current Circuit B. Converter modulation

The implemented method to generate current reference Fig. 2 shows the block diagram of the complete
is a basic criterion that determines the performance of modulation process of a converter [5]. The current error
active power filter [4]. Firstly, the reference current is err is obtained from reference shunt current ish ref and the
identified by the idea of energy balancing under the actual shunt current ish as, err = (ish ref – ish). The error
controlled system. This method ensures that is then fed to the proportional plus multiple resonant
controllers. The output of the controller, i.e., the control
1. The sum of the three source currents is zero
function Cerr is modulated by a three-level modulator to
(i.e., isa  isb  isc  0 ). produce a control signal u. This signal provides switching
2. The combined load and compensator system draws commands to the switches of the H-bridge, to yield a
unity power factor current (i.e., the phase angle three-level output voltage vo.
difference between the terminal voltage and source
current is zero). C. Three-level Inverter
3. The source supplies only the real power required by Three-level output is obtained using the H-bridge
the load (i.e., Plav  Vtaila Vtbilb  vtcilc , where plav is inverter as shown in Fig. 3. The voltage Vdc is the dc link
the average load power).. voltage applied across the H-bridge. Each of the switches
Reference shunt currents for three phases ish refk,, k = a,b,c Sw1 to Sw4 consists of a power semiconductor device,
are determined using the following equations, [7] as i.e., IGBT and an anti-parallel diode [5].

V ta  V o
The control function Cerr is compared with the carrier
i shrefa  i la  ( P lav  P dc ) (1)
 Vtri of frequency c and amplitude Vtri. Three-level
V  Vo output voltage vo . is obtained following the unipolar
i shrefb  i lb  tb ( P lav  P dc ) (2)
 PWM of the control function as follows. The condition
V  Vo for firing of Inverter Bridge is given here.
i shrefc  i lc  tc ( P lav  P dc ) (3)

_ For 1st leg of the H-bridge,
where ilk and vtk, are load currents and PCC terminal
voltages respectively for the three phases and Condition 1 Cerr - Vtri > 0 then Sw1 is on, leading to
1 uA = +1 and vAO = + Vdc/2
Vo  Vt
3   a ,b , c
(4) Condition 2 Cerr - Vtri < 0 then Sw4 is on, leading to
uA = - 1 and vAO = - Vdc/2
 2
   Vt   Vo
2
(5) Similarly for 2nd leg of the H-bridge
  a , b ,c 
Note that the PCC terminal voltages vtk, k = a,b,c, Condition 3 - Cerr - Vtri > 0 then Sw3 is on, leading to
used in (4), are the fundamental frequency components of uB = +1 and vBO = + Vdc/2
the terminal voltages that are extracted from the Condition 4 - Cerr - Vtri < 0 then Sw2 is on, leading to
measurement of the actual voltages.The objective of pdc in
(6) is to hold the average dc voltage Vdcav constant and uB = -1 and vBO = - Vdc/2
equal to Vdcref , by extracting the real power from ac
system, and hence the dc control loop is given by

Pdc  K pdce  Kidc  edt (6)

where Kpdc and Kidc are the proportional and integral gains
respectively. The error e between the reference dc voltage
and the average dc voltage is given as

e  Vdcref  Vdcav (7)

where Vdc av is the average dc voltage across the common
dc link capacitor , Cdc. Figure 3. Three-level output using unipolar modulation

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If the input to the modulator, i.e., a control functions Vta

Cerr is assumed sinusoidal, i.e., M iVtri cos(0t ) where ishrefa erra Cerra Voa _
Gc (s) GM G(s)
+
0 is the fundamental frequency and Mi is the modulation +
_
index under closed loop, then the analytical expression for isha
three-level inverter output voltage vo is given as,

4V   1 Figure 5. Current control loop of the compensator

V t   V M cos( t )  dc   J (m M ) (8)
o dc i o  m  1k   2m 2k 1 i Taking Laplace transform on both the sides of (10)
following equation in the s-domain is obtained as
 cos[(m  k 1) ] cos[2m t  (2k 1) t]
c o
where J2k -1(.) represents the Bessel’s function of the first 1 L sha 1 L sha
I sha ( s )  V oa ( s )  V ta ( s )
kind of order k. It is clear from (8) that the sideband s  R sha L sha s  R sha L sha (11)
harmonics for three-level output of the inverter exists at
Fig. 5 shows the block diagram of a current control
the even multiples of the frequency of carrier c i.e., the loop of the compensator. The reference shunt current for
spectrum corresponding to inverter switching lies at and phase-a is represented by ish refa. The controller transfer
above twice the switching frequency. Furthermore, function is denoted by Gc(s). The block GM represents the
neglecting the switching components in (8), the inverter modulator gain (9) and G(s) is the compensator transfer
output voltage is VdcMi cos( 0 t). Therefore the gain of the function obtained from (4) as
inverter G may be obtain as 1 Lsha
G(S )  (12)
S  Rsha Lsha
Vdc M i cos(ot ) Vdc
GM   (9)
Vtri M i cos(ot ) Vtri E. P+Multiresonant Controller

D. Current Control The resonant controller was proposed by Pota e t d. in

Fig. 4 shows a three-phase four-wire distribution [1]. The goal is to apply high gain feedback only at the
system that is compensated by a shunt active power filter natural frequency. The controller can, therefore, ‘push’
[5]. The three phase load is supplied from a 3-phase down the resonant peaks of the vibrating ‘system while
voltage source vsk through the feeder with the impedance having only limited effect at others frequencies. The P+
of (Rsk, Lsk), where k = a,b,c for three-phase respectively. Resonant controller transfer function, given by (13), is
Active filter is represented by VSC’s in the shunt path with already in the stationary frame and is independent between
interfacing inductance Lshk.The resistance Rshk represents phases. This transfer function has infinite gain at
the load dependent loss equivalent of a transformer. The fundamental frequency and therefore also eliminates
voltage at the point of common coupling (PCC) is denoted steady state error [8], while the phase independence means
by vtk. The currents flowing through the different branches that its transient performance can be readily analyzed
at the PCC are the source current isk, the load current ilk, using classical control theory.
and the current injected in shunt branch ishk. For a 3-phase,
4-wire configuration, the load neutral nl and the Ki s
GC ( S )  K p  (13)
compensator neutral nsh are connected to the source 22
neutral ns. For the purpose of modeling current control S  o
loop, assume a constant dc link voltage Vdc across the
common dc link capacitor Cdc. The differential equation Three-level modulation of a control function offers a gain
for shunt active filter for phase-a is written as GM at the fundamental frequency 0 . Similarly at other
harmonic components, ex., 3rd, 5th etc. also, modulation
disha yields a finite gain. This leads to error in tracking
Lsha  Rshaisha Voa Vta (10) fundamental component and its harmonics in reference
dt shunt current.
It is proposed to pass the error through a proportional
plus multiple resonant controllers as shown in Fig. 6. The
controllers are tuned close to these frequencies to
minimize the component of error at fundamental frequency
and its harmonics [2], [9]. The 3rd harmonic component of
the load is compensated owing to the cancellation of
triplen harmonics in three-phase, 5th and 7th harmonic is
compensated using resonant controller tuned at these
frequencies. Balancing and unity power factor is achieved
using resonant controller tuned at the fundamental
frequency. The ideal structure of the controller in
frequency domain is written as

Figure 4. Shunt compensation of three phase system

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CERR(s)  Ks Ks Ks  The loop transfer function of the system shown in Fig.

 GC (S)  Kp 1 2 1 2  2 5 2  2 7 2  (14) 5 may be obtained using (9), (12) and (15) as
ERR(s)  S  r S  25r S  49r 
Where kp is the proportional gain and k1, k5 and k7, are L(S )  GM Gc (s )Gd ( s )G ( s ) (16)
the resonant controller gains at fundamental, 5th and 7th
harmonic respectively, r is the fundamental resonant The transfer function G(s) and Gd(s) may be calculated
using data given in Table I, Gc(s) is considered same as
frequency. However, the controller (14) is highly selective obtained above and GM is obtained using (9). The
with respect to the particular frequency, to be compensated equivalent dc link voltage appearing in the secondary side
and requires accurate estimate of the frequencies. Any of the transformer is obtained by multiplying Vdc with
deviation of resonant frequency from the frequency to be transformer voltage ratio. Therefore gain GM is calculated
compensated looses the resonant property. Therefore in as (11*40)/3=146.667. Fig. 7 shows the Bode plot of the
order to avoid this problem a band resonant controller may loop transfer function (16). High gains are observed at
be used as follows, resonant frequencies from Fig.7. The gain and phase
margins are -14.8 dB and 7.610 respectively. This implies
 2 K1 d s  the stability of closed loop system for tracking the
1  2 2  
 S  2d s  r  reference.
GC ( S )  K p   (15)
2  5 d K 5s 2  7 d K 7 s The P+multiresonant controller are tuned near
 2 2  2 
 S  2  5d s  25 r S  2  7d s  49r 
2
fundamental frequencies to eliminate harmonics at that
component. The values of proportional and integral time
where, d represents the damping frequency for the constants are selected depend on its tuning capacity. The
ideal resonant controllers. Positive value of the damping Fig .8 shows such a p+multiresonant controller. For
frequency introduces high gain for the band of compensating non-linear unbalanced linear reactive
component of load, values of gains chosen as kpdc=2,
frequencies around the resonant frequency r and its
Kidc =0.75 sec-1.
harmonics. Fig. 7 shows the frequency response of the
proportional plus multiple resonant controllers (15) for kp F. Example
= 2.0, k1 = 10, k5 = 5.0 k7 = 3.0, d =3 rad/s and r = 314 The parameters of the system are given in Table I. The
rad/sec (for the fundamental frequency of 50 Hz). The PI parameters of dc voltage control loop are chosen as
controller provides high gain at the resonant frequencies Kpdc = 2 and Kidc = 0.75 sec-1. The simulation is performed
to compensate the error component at the corresponding in PSCAD/EMTDC simulation package .The
frequency. complimentary switches of the same arm of the H-bridges
are gated through the dead time delay of 5.0 µsec.
The fundamental resonant frequency r should be
continuously updated using the current estimates of the
fundamental frequency 0 . A band of high gain around
the resonant frequency may be seen in Fig. 6, showing
that the controller is effective even if there is a small
variation in the tuning of controller due the frequency
estimation error. Consider a delay of half the switching
period. Then the switching delay is represented by a first
order lag transfer function Gd (s) = 1/(1+s/2fc), where fc is
the switching frequency in hertz.

Figure. 7. Frequency response of loop transfer function

kpdc
i shref + -

kidc

i sh

Figure. 6. Frequency response of multiple resonant controller. Figure. 8. P+multiresonant controller.

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Table 1
Parameters Numerical Value
System Voltage and
440 V,50 HZ
frequency
Feeder impedence 1.0,10.0 mH
System MVA
100 KVA
Transformer 100 KVA,11V/440V
Rectifier bridge load
100 Ω,200µF
Figure. 11. Inverter output voltage for phase-a.
Ra=200 Ω ,La=200mH,Ca=1.0µF
Unbalanced load Rb=250 Ω Lb=300mH,Cb=2.0µF
Rc=100 Ω,Lc=400mHCc=5.0µF

DC link capacitor and voltage

11 V,500µF
Carrier amplitude and
frequency
3 V,3000HZ

Figure. 12. Three-phase compensated source current that is balanced,

free from nonlinear and reactive components

Similarly the individual 5th and 7th harmonics is

compensated between 0% and 1%.The FFT spectrum
analysis is done prior to THD analysis. From THD
analysis, it is realized that the content of the fundamental
Figure. 9. Three-phase load current that is unbalanced and carrying component is increased after compensation. The FFT
nonlinear and reactive components spectrum for source current is shown in fig.13.From these
Three-phase load currents are shown in Fig. 9, that is it is realized that THD is improved to far better values for
having a THD of 22.2%.The source current can be three phases than its previous value. This method can be
compensated with proposed shunt active power filter applied to the combination of loads like RL, RC loads etc
tuned near corresponding resonant frequencies. The also.
resonant controllers tuned near fundamental frequency
leads to near unity power factor operations as shown in IV. COMPENSATING HARMONIC COMPONENT OF LOAD
figure. Transient characteristics for tracking shunt current
for phase-a is shown in Fig. 10. Sluggish tracking A. Synchronous Reference Frame Method
performance is due to the use of multiple resonant
In this section shunt active power filter is used to
controllers. The 3-level inverter output voltage for the
compensate harmonic components of load only. Reference
phase-a is shown in Fig. 11.
shunt currents are generated as shown in Fig. 14, [6]. The
The other two-phases have similar characteristics as 3-phase load currents are transformed using abc-dq0
those for phase-a shown in Fig 9 to 11. The balanced transformation, synchronized at the fundamental
source current after compensation is shown in fig. 12, frequency. The transformed dc quantities are passed
which is free from harmonics and unbalances. The THD through the high pass 2nd order Butterworth filter (HPF)
analysis is done for this current and it is 1.2% only. The to eliminate the component at fundamental frequency. The
controllers are tuned near to the corresponding resonant leftover harmonic components are recovered using dq0-
frequencies with 2.0% error in frequency estimates. abc transformation. Resulting reference shunt currents are
Improvement in THD varies between 1.2% and 2.0%, derived by adding loss components of dc-control loop,
depending upon the closeness of the frequency estimates obtained by substituting plav only in (1)-(3).
to the exact value.

Figure 13. FFT analysis of source and load current after compensation
Figure. 10. Transient characteristics for tracking reference shunt current
for phase-a

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-
loss V. COMPARISON WITH EXSTING METHOD
ila iaf
dqo
Isha ref Here this new method is compared against existing
abc HPF
- - ibf loss method like instantaneous power theory. By doing the
ilb abc Ishb ref
dqo same procedure and system conditions with instaneous
ilc icf lossc power theory gives a worst result than this newly adopted
HPF Ishc ref method. The spectrum analysis gives this in detail. From
this study it knows that old method is used in the situation
Fig. 14. Reference generation using dq-transformation where loads are present with lower ratings and also with
less complicated load situations. Table II give comparison
result between resonant methods with old method. The
resonant method gives better result than old method.

VI. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, ramp comparison control method
with unipolar PWM of active power filter is presented
which gives 3-level inverter output voltage. Here two
different situations are taken and which is solved using
Figure. 15. Three-phase load current with harmonics resonant controllers. Use of proportional plus multiple
resonant controllers tuned near fundamental frequency
mitigate the poor power factor and tuned near harmonic
frequencies balances the source currents with
improvement in THD. All simulations are verified though
PSCAD/EMTDC simulation package. Working efficiency
of this method is determined by comparing it against old
method like Instaneous power theory method.

VII. REFERENCES
Figure. 16. Three-phase compensated source current, free from harmonics

B. Example [1] Rajesh Gupta, Arindam Ghosh and Avinash Joshi, “Control
of 3-level Shunt Active Power Filter using Harmonic
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example is same as that used in Example 1. However Conference, April 2006, pp. 10-15.
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three-phase voltage source inverter with an LCL input filter”,
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load is balanced and given by Rl = 50.0 Ω and Ll = 200.0 May/June 2003.
mH, for each phase. Nonlinear load is also same as [3] A.Ghosh and G. Ledwich, “Load compensating
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harmonics with THD of 1.8% with exact estimation of March 2005.
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Control Technique for Active Power Filter”, IEEE
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Method System [6] D. N. Zmood and D. G. Holmes, “Stationary frame current
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Phase
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c
may 2003.
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25.1 25.4 25 [7] Green, T.C., and Marks, J.H.: ‘Control techniques for active
Instantaneous Compensation
power filters”, IEE Proc. Electr. Power Appl., Vol. 152,
power theory No. 2, March 2005, pp. 369–381.
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method 18 18.1 18 [8] D. Zmood, D. Holmes, and G. Bode, “Frequency-domain
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[9] E. Lavers, P.W. Lehn, "A benchmark system for digital time
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