International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 1 Issue 8, October - 2012

Power Quality Improvement Using Instantaneous Power Theory Based Hybrid

Swarna Enugala1

Filter
2

1, 2
Department of EEE
Dean Research, Planning & Development
1, 2
TKR Engineering College, Hyderabad, India

Abstract:

Power Quality is of key concern for the

industry nowadays. The intensive use of power
converters and non-linear loads has contributed for the
deterioration of power quality, and this affects critical
processes, resulting in substantial economic losses.
Therefore, the development of equipment that can
mitigate the problems that affect electrical installations
is of great interest. One such equipment is obtained by
the combination of a series active filter and a shunt
passive filter called as a Hybrid Filter. This paper
proposes a new hybrid filter to improve the quality of
power. It presents new technique based on the
instantaneous power theory which represents
instantaneous
powers
in
time
domain.
MATLAB/SIMULINK has been used to simulate the
proposed system. The simulation results reveal that the
proposed method yields better solution for improving
power quality.
1.

Prof. R L Narasimham2

Introduction

The --0 transformation maps the three phase

instantaneous voltages in the abc phases i.e. Va,
Vb, Vc into the instantaneous voltages on the -
axes i.e. V, V. In instantaneous power theory,
three phase currents and voltages are calculated
using following equations.

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The presence of harmonics in the power electrical

systems is the main cause of the electrical wave
pollution that so many problems carry. The
indiscriminate increase of non-linear loads has
given rise to investigation into new compensation
equipment based on power electronics. The main
design target for this equipment is the elimination
of the harmonics present in the system. Depending
on the application type, series or parallel
configurations or combinations of active and
passive filters can be proposed.
The presence of harmonics in power lines results in
greater power losses in the distribution system,
interference problems in communication systems
and, sometimes, in operation failures of electronic
equipments, which are more and more sensitive
since they include micro-electronic control
systems, which work with very low energy levels
Because of these problems, the issue of the power
quality delivered to the end consumers is, more
than ever, an object of great concern.The
combination of series active filter and shunt passive
filter called as Hybrid filter, which uses
Instantaneous Power Theory, is presented in the
following paper. The series active filter presents
functionalities to improve the system stability and
to suppress distortions at the system voltages. The
shunt passive filter is designed to drain the
harmonic currents generated by the non-linear load.
The control strategy applied in this network is
based on the definitions for instantaneous powers
in the reference frame (p-q theory).

active and reactive power in three-phase circuits. It

provides a clear understanding about how energy
flows from source to a load or circulates between
phases, in a three-phase circuit.
The PQ theory defines a set of instantaneous
powers in the time domain. Since no restrictions
are imposed on voltage or current behaviour, it is
applicable to three phase system with or without
neutral conductors. Thus it is valid not only in
steady state but also during transient state. This
theory consists of an algebraic transformation
(Clark's transformations) of the three phase
voltages in the a-b-c coordinates to the --0
coordinates.

2.

In equation (1) and (2), and are orthogonal

coordinates. V, and I, are on axis, V and I
are on axis. In three phases conventional
instantaneous power is calculated as follows,
p = vi + vi (3)
The active power is given as
p = va ia +vb ib +vc ic ..(4)
Instantaneous real and imaginary powers are
calculated as

Instantaneous Power Theory

The Instantaneous power theory or the p-q Theory

makes clear physical meaning of instantaneous

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International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 1 Issue 8, October - 2012

In equation (5), p and q represent the instantaneous

real and reactive powers. Here, v, v, , i, i are
values of voltages and currents respectively in the
orthogonal axes.
The voltage in the - reference frame is
calculated as follows:

to cancel the harmonic voltages produced by the

non-linear load and the shunt passive filter
eliminates harmonic currents generated by the nonlinear load. The hybrid filter presented in this paper
compensates for the voltage harmonics produced
by the non-linear load and also improves the source
currents by eliminating the current harmonics to a
certain extent. The control technique used in this
paper is based on instantaneous power theory.
4.

In equation (6), P is the oscillating component of

instantaneous real power which is obtained by
passing the total instantaneous real power through a
band pass filter, is the total instantaneous
imaginary power and plossis the output of the PI
controller which maintains the DC voltage across
the capacitor of the series active filter constant.

System Configuration

Figure 1 shows the basic block diagram of the

hybrid filter presented in this paper. The passive
filters were designed to compensate for harmonic
currents produced by a 6-pulse thyristor rectifier. A
series RL circuit with a 10 resistor and 100mH
inductor are connected to the dc side of the
rectifier, and the thyristors operate with a firing
angle of 30.

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The compensating voltages produced by the series

active filter are calculated using the following
equations:

From equation (7), we obtain the compensating

voltages which are injected in series to compensate
for the non-linearity in the source voltages
produced by the non-linear load.
3.

Hybrid Filter

There are two approaches to the mitigation of

power quality problems. The first approach is
called load conditioning, which ensures that the
equipment is less sensitive to power disturbances,
allowing the operation even under significant
voltage distortion. The other solution is to install
line conditioning systems that suppress or
counteracts the power system disturbances. A
flexible and versatile solution to voltage quality
problems is offered by active power filter.
Currently, active power filters are based on PWM
converters and connect to low and medium voltage
distribution system in shunt or in series. Shunt
active power filters operate as a controllable
current source and series active power filters
operates as a
controllable voltage source. Series active power
filters must operate in conjunction with shunt
passive filters in order to compensate load current
harmonics. This combination of a shunt passive
filter and a series active filter is generally called a
hybrid filter.
The series active filter generates harmonic voltages

Fig 1: Block Diagram of Hybrid Filter

The series active filter consists of a three-phase

voltage-fed PWM inverter connected in series with
the power grid through three single-phase
transformers. The power converter is a standard 3leg voltage controlled Voltage Source Inverter
(VSI) with a capacitor on the dc side. The dc link
capacitor has a value of 1F with a dc-voltage
reference of 415V.
A shunt passive filter is connected to the output of
the series active filter inverter in order to smooth
the ripples on the generated compensating
voltages. The passive filter characteristics are as
shown in Table 1. Single phase transformers with
a turn ratio 1:1 are used to connect the active filter
to the power system.

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International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 1 Issue 8, October - 2012

Fig. 2 Block Diagram of Hybrid Filter

High Pass Filter

L = 1.2mH
C = 170uF
R = 1

Table 1: Passive Filter Characteristics

The control block, Series Active Filter, uses as

input signals va, vb, vc and determines, in real time
the control signals vref, that will be synthesized by
the power converter. The control block, PWM
Controller, determines and sends the firing
pulses to the MOSFET of the power inverter.
5. Proposed Strategy for a 3-Phase 3-wire System

The block diagram as shown in Figure 2 shows

the important parts of a three phase three wire
hybrid filter. The series active filter controller
operates in a closed loop manner, continuously
sensing the source voltage vs and calculating
instantaneous values of the compensating voltage
reference of the PWM inverter. It should be noted
that while introducing the active filter into system
the point of common coupling (PCC) should be
designed carefully such that the load gets
sufficient amount of power. The presented active
filter controller consists of four functional blocks:
1. Instantaneous power calculation

2. Power compensating selection

3. Dc voltage regulator
4. Voltage reference calculation

RT

L5 = 1.2mH
C5 = 170uF

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5th order Passive

Filter
(f = 250Hz)

The first block calculates the instantaneous powers

of the nonlinear load.
According to the p-q theory only the real and
imaginary powers exist because the zero sequence
power is always zero for a three wire system. The
power compensating selection determines the
output of the series active filter. It selects the real
(oscillating) and imaginary power of the non-linear
load that should be compensated by the series
active filter.
Dc voltage regulator determines an extra amount of
real power, (switching & conduction losses)
represented by Ploss, as shown in the fig. It is
calculated in order to maintain the voltage across
the DC capacitor around a fixed reference value.
For this purpose a PI controller is employed. The
gains of PI controller should be selected as it plays
a vital role in maintaining the voltage across the
DC capacitor. The power Ploss is added to the
compensating real power, . The compensating real
power together with the compensating imaginary
power is passed to the voltage reference calculation
block. If the series active filter injects the voltage
component that is exactly -Posc of the load, the
power system would supply only the constant
portion of the real power, p of the load. Apart from
the above mentioned blocks, the block diagram
consists of shunt passive filter block, which
consists of 5th harmonic elimination filter and a
High-pass filter, connected to each phase of the
three phase three wire system. This passive filter,
connected after the series active filter helps in

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International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 1 Issue 8, October - 2012

reducing the THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) of

the source voltage further.
6.

Simulation Results

The modern devices behave as non-linear loads

and draw significant amount of harmonic
currents. Power definitions that are valid under
transient conditions are needed.
Hence
instantaneous power theory which involves
analysis in time domain (proposed by Fryze) is
found to be more effective. This paper
proposes a hybrid filter i.e. the combination of a
series active filter and a shunt passive filter,
using instantaneous power theory. From the
simulation results it can be seen that the
combination of a shunt passive filter and a series
active filter resulted in a very economic and
practical way to filter harmonics. The THD of
the source voltage is 18.13 % without any
compensation. On the introduction of the series
active filter at 0.1s it was observed that the
THD is reduced to 6.14% and further when
the shunt passive filter was introduced at 0.2s
the THD obtained is 2.43%.

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The presented simulation results were obtained

using MATLAB/SIMULINK software for a three
phase power system with a Hybrid filter. The
source supply is designed with 230 Vph-rms and
frequency of 50 HZ with a phase difference of 120
degrees. A nonlinear load (thyristor rectifier) is
included in the system to introduce harmonics into
the system. In order to verify the circuit, breakers
are used and are switched on and off such that at
0.1s the series active filter is introduced to
compensate for the voltage harmonics and at 0.2s
the shunt passive filter is introduced which
eliminates the current harmonics introduced by the
load to a certain extent.
Figures 3 and 4 represent the source voltage and
source current of phase a, Figure 5 represents the
reference voltages generated of all the phases and
figures 6 and 7 represent the output current and
voltage respectively.

7. Conclusions

Fig 3 Source Voltage of phase a

Fig 4 Source Current of phase a

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International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 1 Issue 8, October - 2012

However the results shown are a bit different from

the desired result due to overloading of the filter.
This problem can be avoided by selecting proper
gains of the PI controller in the DC voltage
regulator circuit.

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Fig 5 Reference Voltages of all the three phases

Fig 6 Current taken by Non-Linear load (Rectifier)

Fig 7 Output Voltage of Non-Linear Load (Rectifier)

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International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 1 Issue 8, October - 2012

Fig 10 THD analysis with Hybrid Filter ON

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Fig 8 THD analysis without filter for Source Current

Fig 9 THD analysis with Series Active Filter for Source Current

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International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

ISSN: 2278-0181

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Vol. 1 Issue 8, October - 2012

Fig 11 Simulated Model

References
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[2] F. Z. Peng and D. J. Adams, Harmonics sources and filtering approaches, in Proc. Industry Applications
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[3] J. C. Das, Passive filters-potentialities and limitations, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appli., vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 232
241, Jan. 2004.
[4] H. L. Ginn, III and L. S. Czarnecki, An optimization based method for selection of resonant harmonic
filter branch parameters, IEEE Trans Power Del., vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 14451451, Jul. 2006.
[5] J. A. Pomilio and S. M. Deckmann, Characterization and compensation of harmonics and reactive power
of residential and commercial loads, IEEE Trans. Power Del. , vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 10491055, Apr. 2007..
[6] H. Akagi, Active harmonic filters, Proc. IEEE , vol. 93, no. 12, pp.21282141, Dec. 2005
[7] B. Singh, K. Al-Haddad, and A. Chandra, A review of active filters for power quality improvement, IEEE
Trans. Ind. Electron. , vol. 46, no. 5, pp. 960971, Oct. 1999
[8] J. W. Dixon, G. Venegas, and L. A. Moran, A series active power filter based on a sinusoidal currentcontrolled voltage-source inverter, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 44, no. 5, pp. 612620, Oct. 1997.

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