May 2014

Useful facts about harmonics

Alan Purton
Technical support group
Electrical supplies today are becoming increasingly vulnerable to harmonic disturbance, as the
amount of equipment that uses electronic switch-mode power supplies and the like grows year on
year. Among the most common harmonic sources are:

Variable speed drives for motors

Uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs)

Office equipment with switch-mode power supplies (photocopiers, fax machines etc.)

Home appliances (televisions, microwave ovens etc.)

Arc welders

Battery chargers

Personal computers

Discharge lighting with electronic ballasts (fluorescent, mercury, sodium etc.)

Harmonics are undesirable, not least because of the detrimental economic effects they produce in
installations where they are present. These effects include:

Increased energy costs

Premature ageing of equipment

Production losses resulting from reduced efficiency of power units

One interesting effect of harmonics in the public supply system is flicker. This is covered by
European standard EN 61000-3-3:2008, which came into force on 1st September 2011.
Flicker is concerned with the visual disturbance of the light output from filament lamps caused by

supply voltage fluctuations, and is rather verbosely defined in the standard as the impression of
unsteadiness of visual sensation induced by a light stimulus whose luminance or spectral
distribution fluctuates with time. Flicker is ultimately the result of the finite source impedance of the
mains supply and changing load impedances.
Flicker is very low frequency phenomenon produced by changes in the rms mains voltage, and is a
special case of the more general problem of voltage fluctuations produced by a varying load across
the finite mains impedance. These fluctuations are specified as the relative voltage change with
respect to the nominal operating voltage.
To help ensure that the levels of harmonics in the public electricity supply do not constitute a
problem for users of that supply, the Energy Networks Association published Engineering
Recommendation G4/5 in 2001. This recommendation, which was updated to become G4/5-1 in
October 2005, identifies consumers by their point of common coupling (PCC) to the public supply
network, and defines limits for the level of harmonics present at that point. It is the responsibility of
the consumer to ensure that these limits are met and failure to do so can lead to heavy penalties.
Based on G4/5-1, electricity supply companies have drawn up specifications that their consumers
must observe. What follows is a typical specification for maximum deleterious voltages caused by
a consumers load.
The maximum voltages at a point of common coupling (PCC) caused by harmonics, load
unbalance or sudden load changes, expressed as a percentage of the declared phase-to-earth
voltage, shall not exceed the rms values given.
1. Harmonics the harmonic voltage is not to exceed the following limits:
1.1 Individual 1%
1.2 Total (square root of sum of squares) 3%
Basic calculations to predict the levels of voltage distortion:
The harmonic voltage cannot be determined without knowledge of the system impedance. These
formulas give maximum values of harmonic currents that, in general, satisfy the restrictions on
harmonics:

Where Ih is the expected harmonic current, n is the harmonic number and Isc is the corresponding
minimum three-phase short-circuit current in amps at the PCC.
2. Unbalance load the negative sequence voltage (V2) is not to exceed these limits:
2.1 For a continuous single-phase load that is connected phase-to-phase = 1%
2.2 For multiple single-phase loads that are continuously varying in magnitude and are connected
to alternate phases, or three-phase loads that may be unbalanced for short periods = 2%
An unbalanced load gives rise to an unbalanced three-phase supply voltage. The degree of
unbalance is usually expressed in terms of a negative phase sequence voltage denoted V2. In the
case of single-phase loads fed from a delta-star transformer, the negative phase sequence voltage

V2 will be less than 1% if the load is less than 1% of Msc, where Msc is the minimum three-phase
short-circuit level in MVA at the PCC.
A higher value of V2 may be acceptable with varying multiple single-phase loads, such as AC
traction supplies, provided that the loads are spread across all three phases.
3. Voltage dips caused by sudden load changes
In general, the voltage dips (VF) can be calculated from the equation:

Where Mc is the change in load expressed in MV, and Msc is the minimum short-circuit level in
MVA at the PCC. This equation is particularly applicable to loadings of long periodicity, such as
those associated with mine winders, slab mills and motor starting. In the case of open-arc furnaces,
the voltage dips or fluctuations can be calculated from the equation:

Where Mt is the maximum steady-state short-circuit power in MVA that would be drawn from the
furnace transformer if the electrodes were lowered into a bath of molten steel.
VF should not exceed 0.25% in the case of submerged arc furnace.
The generation of harmonics are possible on any electrical supplies, if the short-circuit power
which for most practical purposes is the same as the ratio ZS/ZL for any given supply is not
sufficiently high enough to cope with the non-linear loads present. This is a secondary reason for
knowing the value of the PSSC when carrying out loop impedance testing, as the loading effect of a
harmonic generating device can be determined by a knowledge of the short circuit or PSSC
value(see table below).
The following values should be used when sizing a supply where harmonics could be present due
to the influence of non-linear loads connected to the same network. As a guide, this table shows
the relative values below which it can be expected that harmonic disturbance will occur.