Proc. of Int. Conf.
on Control, Communication and Power Engineering 2010
Shunt Active Power Filter For Current Harmonic
Cancelation
1 2
P.Anjalee kumari, V.Sarayu
Sr.Lecturer Lecturer Sr.Lecturer
R.V.R &J.C.College of Engineering(affiliated to Nagarjuna University), Department of EEE, Guntur.
anjali_pati@yahoo.co.in, sarayu.vunnam@gmail.com, ysuribabu@gmail.com, sr_gudapati@yahoo.com
Abstract--In this paper models for three-phase active
power filter controller for balanced and unbalanced non-
linear load is made and is simulated using
Matlab/simulink software. The proposed active power
filter can largely reduce the total harmonic distortion of
current and correct the power factor to unity with
balanced and unbalanced nonlinear load. The advantage
of this Active power filter are simplicity of control
circuits and low implementation cost.
I. INTRODUCTION
The power quality problems are manifested in
voltage, current or frequency deviations and result in
failure or miss operation of customer and utility
apparatus. Power electronic equipment usually
introduces current harmonics. These current harmonics
result in problems such as a low power factor, low
efficiency, power system voltage fluctuations and
communications interference. Traditional solutions for
these problems are based on passive filters due to their
easy design, simple structure, low cost and high
efficiency. These usually consist of a bank of tuned LC
filters to suppress current harmonics generated by
nonlinear loads. Passive filters have many
disadvantages, such as resonance, large size, fixed
compensation character and possible overload. To
overcome these dis-advantages, active power filters
have been presented as a current-harmonic
compensator for reducing the total harmonic distortion
of the current and correcting the power factor of the
input source.
This will thus result in sinusoidal line currents
and unity power factor in the input power system. At
present, calculation of the magnitude of the
compensating currents of an active power filter is
based either on the instantaneous real and reactive
powers of nonlinear loads or the integrative methods
of Fourier analysis Both these approaches neglect the
delay time caused by low pass, high pass filters when
compensating current calculations.
The inductor is used to perform the voltage
boost operation in combination with the DC-link
capacitor and functions as a low pass filter for the line
current of an active power filter. The principle of
operation of an active power filter is to generate
compensating currents into the power system for
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© 2009 ACEEE
3 4
Y.Suribabu G.Sambasiva Rao
Sr.Lecturer
Fig.1 3-phase shunt active power filter
canceling the current harmonics contained in the
nonlinear load current. This will thus result in sinusoidal
line currents and unity power factor in the input power
system. The load current can be subdivided in to the
fundamental and harmonic components. If the harmonic
components are filtered out, the fundamental component
of load current is there. The fundamental component can
be subdivided in to real component and reactive
component For good performance of the active power
filter, the supply current must be equal to the real
component of the fundamental component of the load
current.
II.CONTROL STRATEGIES FOR CURRENT
HARMONICS COMPENSATION:
The reference current for Shunt Power Active
Filter (SPAF) is determined by calculating the
fundamental harmonic of the nonlinear load current
and subtracting it from the total current which can be
obtained by different methods like [7,8]:
- by digital low pass-band filters;
- by real time Sliding Fast Fourier Transformer
(SFFT);
- by determining it in a synchronous rotating frame
generated by the fundamental harmonic of the voltage
supply, obtained by the means of a Digital Phase Lock
Loop (DPLL).
Fig.2 shows the block diagram of proposed 3-phase
shunt active power filter. The simplest solution for
current controllers is to operate in the fixed frame by
comparing the reference harmonic currents with the
output of the Active Filter. The three errors ει applied to
three current regulators, the outputs representing the
reference voltages for the PWM inverter in order to
produce the contra phase current harmonics. We have to
take into account the fact that the reference is represented
by a signal comprising. 5th, 7th, 11th, 13th, etc
harmonics representing the harmonics of the load plus a
first harmonic in phase with the mains voltages in order
to charge the filter capacitor and to keep the dc voltage
 Proc. of Int. Conf. on Control, Communication and Power Engineering 2010

constant (to cover the switches losses). A more efficient
solution is to calculate the control signals in a rotating
frame with pulsation ω1. This transformation is
equivalent to multiply all the variables with e≗ jЫ1t. In
such a case, the perturbation and the first harmonic
current references become constants and the rest become
signals of the 6th, 12th, 18th and so on of 6k frequencies:
A delay of real time reference can be seen as an
equivalent virtually advance. In such applications
synchronization between the mains and the chosen PWM
switching frequency (10 kHz) is not easy to be done, as
10 kHz is not a multiple of 300 Hz (6 x 50). For the
easiness of the control, the switch frequency can be
chosen to be multiple of 2N: 300 2N 300 32 9600 sw f =
Ø = Ø = Hz instead of 10 kHz. One step in virtual
advance means that the reference to be shifted back by M
= N ≗1 = 31 samples and for two steps advance a shift
back by M = N ≗ 2 = 30 samples; It is clear that one step
advance improves dramatically the form of the
compensated current but for two steps the situation
deteriorates again.
In conclusion, this type of control improves
accuracy of the transient and steady state responses of the
control system when reference input signals and
disturbances are periodic, consisting of the harmonic
components of a common fundamental frequency. This
direct repetitive control is less per formant in the case of
non-periodic or non-harmonic disturbances and at the
limit bringing even instability.
output of the PI controller and the sinusoidal reference
per phase are fed to an analogue multiplier to create
desired magnitude of the supply current.
The controller of the shunt active filter is concise
and requires less computational efforts than many others
found in the literature. It is formed by a dc voltage
regulator, a synchronizing circuit (DPLL) and a
compensating current. Here, the PWM current control is
considered as part of the power converter. The dc voltage
is used in the voltage regulator to generate the control
signal. It forces the shunt active filter to draw additional
active current from the network, to compensate for losses
in the power circuit of the shunt active filter. In several
cases, it is possible to eliminate the low-pass filter and to
build a dc voltage regulator consisting only of a PI-
Controller. The dc voltage regulator realizes a slower
feedback control loop that is useful to correct
compensation errors that arise during transients. The
intrinsic dynamic of the synchronizing circuit (DPLL
circuit) and of some low-pass filters included in the
controller introduces temporary compensation errors that
affect the dc voltage.
III. SIMULATION RESULTS:

Fig.3 Simulation diagram of 3-phase shunt active power

filter with non linear load

The simulation of 3-phase shunt active power

filter is carried out using simulink / Matlab program.
The following figures shows the results of load
currents, source currents, dc load voltages and
Fig.2 Block diagram of proposed 3-phase shunt active compensating current.
power filter

The proposed APF has simple control circuit, it

consists of detecting the supply current instead of the
load current. In the proposed APF, three parameters
has to be detected, the dc bus voltage, the 3-phase
supply voltage and three phase supply current. The
signals of the three phase supply voltage are used to
create three sinusoidal reference waves shifted by 1200
with unity magnitude. The detected bus voltage is
compared with the setting voltage. The difference
Fig.4 DPLL output
between the signals is fed to a PI controller to create
the desired magnitude of the supply current. The

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© 2009 ACEEE
 Proc. of Int. Conf. on Control, Communication and Power Engineering 2010

The Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) in the

source current of the proposed three phase system of
non linear load with Active Power Filter is 1.54%.

Fig.5 Load currents
Fig.6 Compensated current
Fig.7 Source voltage and source current
Fig.8 FFT analysis for source currents
IV. CONCLUSION:
The proposed APF has a simple control circuit
and low cost of implementation. From the above
analysis and simulation results it can be found that the
proposed APF has all the performance of conventional
active power filters. The effectiveness of the proposed
method is demonstrated in the quality of the supply
current after filtering and the reduction of THD of the
supply current. Therefore the proposed APF can
suppress the current harmonic to force the supply
current to be sine wave. The simulation result indicates
that the total harmonic distortion (THD) of the source
current reduced and the power factor is improved.
REFERENCES:
1. A novel and analytical model for design and
implementation of active power filter’ IEE proc –electr.,
power appl.,vol.148,no.4,july 2001
2. Nassar Mendalek and Kamal Al-Haddad Modeling and
Nonlinear Control of Shunt Active Power Filter in the
Synchronous Reference Frame. 2000 IEEE.
3. FUJITA, H., and AKAGI, H.: ‘A practical approach to
harmonic compensation in power system-series connection
of passive and series active filters’, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl.,
1991, 27, (6), pp. 1020-1025.
4. MORAN, L.A., DIXON, J.W., and WALLACE, R.R.: ‘A
three phase active power filter operating with fixed switching
frequency for reactive power and current harmonic
compensation’, IEEE Truns Ind Electron., 1995, 42, (4), pp.
402408.
5. R. Magureanu, S. Ambrosii, D. Creanga, L. Bratosin, A.
Draghici University ”Politehnica” Bucharest – Department
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Bucharest Romania,“Active power filters advanced
control”.
6. Maurício Aredes and Luís F. C. Monteiro, UFRJ −
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro COPPE/POLI –
Electrical Engineering Department “A Control Strategy for
Shunt Active Filter”.
7. Power Systems Harmonics Fundamentals, Analysis and
Filter Design by Wakileh, George J.
8. Active power filter for reactive power compensation and
Harmonic suppression by Hurng-Liahng jou

Fig.9 dc load voltage and dc load current

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