Series Active Filter Control and Implementation for Utility Interface of Multiple Adjustable Speed Drives

Subhashish Bhattacharya, IEEE Member, Hesam Mirzaee, IEEE Student Member Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management (FREEDM) Systems Center Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC {sbhatta4, hmirzae}@ncsu.edu
Abstract- The control of Series Active Filter (SAF) to meet IEEE 519 standard for harmonic voltage source front-end based multiple adjustable speed motor drives, is reported in this paper. The series active filter design, control, implementation and issues in the practical application for utility interface of multiple three-phase six-pulse diode rectifier with dc side capacitor fed 480V, 150kW motor drives are investigated. The simulation and experimental results validate series active filter performance for utility interface of multiple ASDs under practical utility conditions.

I.

INTRODUCTION

The incidence of harmonic related problems in distribution systems is well known. Harmonic currents due to non-linear diode and thyristor front-ends for ASDs (Adjustable Speed Drives) and dc drives, together with proliferation of nonlinear loads in household equipments, penetrate through the distribution system to cause resonance with utility or industry installed power factor correction capacitors. This uncontrolled harmonic current flow also causes serious voltage distortion. Of increasing concern is the proliferation of low cost three-phase and single phase diode rectifiers with dc side capacitor type utility interface for ASDs and household equipments. These front-ends are characterized as harmonic voltage source type of loads and pose different requirements for harmonic compensation [1, 2]. Active filter solutions have mainly been focused on harmonic compensation and/or harmonic isolation of harmonic current source type loads [1-6]. This is not surprising, given the fact that most of the large individual harmonic producing loads are typically harmonic current source type loads. The shunt active filter solution has been successfully applied to individual harmonic current source type producing equipment [2,3,4], and hybrid series active filters and hybrid parallel active filters have been applied for multiple and clustered harmonic current source type producing load sites [5,6,12]. The harmonic voltage source type front-ends require a pure series active filter for harmonic compensation [1, 2, 711]. In general, attempts to provide harmonic compensation by shunt active filters is a mis-application for harmonic voltage source type loads. Another alternative would be to modify the front-end diode rectifier with dc side capacitor type load, by inserting either a large ac side reactor or dc link reactor or both. In this case, the harmonic voltage source

type load is modified to a harmonic current source type load which then allows application of pure shunt active filters. However, this alternative approach is not cost-effective, and may not be possible in most cases. This paper presents the series active filter design, control, implementation and issues in the practical application for utility interface of multiple (for three) three-phase six-pulse diode rectifier with dc side capacitor fed 480V, 150kW adjustable speed motor drives. First, the pure series active filter system for a utility connection of clustered type of load is demonstrated. Second, the Series Active Filter control system is elaborated. The whole system with active filter is simulated in Matlab/Simulink. The harmonic voltage source characteristic of clustered front-end diode rectifier with capacitive dc-link and indices are given for system performance before and after the series active filter integration. Finally, experimental results from actual field test are given which validate simulated system performance under practical utility conditions of background supply voltage distortion. II. PURE SERIES ACTIVE FILTER SYSTEM

Fig. 1a shows the pure series active filter system schematic for a harmonic voltage source type load, in presence of supply voltage distortion. The series active filter is controlled to inject a harmonic voltage Vc in series with the line to render the supply current sinusoidal, as shown in Fig. 1b. The series active filter is controlled not to affect the fundamental power transfer from the supply to the load therefore, it is controlled not to inject any fundamental voltage. Thus, the active filter has no share of fundamental active power transfer. A series coupling transformer is required for this implementation. The harmonic voltage source type load is modeled as a Thevenin voltage source behind the series impedance as shown in Fig. 1b. Fig. 2 shows the pure series active filter implementation for multiple (in this case for three) three-phase six-pulse diode rectifier with dc side capacitor front-end fed PWM VSI for each 150kW motor drives. The measured supply current THD is around 90%-100% and exhibits harmonic voltage source type characteristics, as shown in Fig. 4. The supply current THD is reduced with 1.5% ac side line reactors to

around 50%. For this system, the IEEE 519 current THD limit is 8.0% imposed by SCR of 26. The series active filter is implemented with a PWM VSI and is coupled to the line with a 1:20 turns ratio series coupling transformer. Details of the series active filter inverter design and implementation, and series protection requirements will be detailed later on in section V.
Ls is
PWM VSI

[C] isa isb isc issq

3 to 2

[T] ds-qs to de-qe iesq

dc + ac comp.

Filter in SRF

LPF LPF G(s)

ie*sq +
dc comp.

[T]-1 de-qe to ds-qs

is*sq

[C]-1
2 to 3

i*sfa i*sfb i*sfc

issd

+ -

VT

vc

VF ZL VL

Ls is

VT

vc

VF ZL VL
Harmonic Voltage Source

vFa vFb vFc

Measured Supply currents vs cos e

3 to 2 qs

iesd

ie*sd

is*sd

c sin e G(s) = s + c

cos e sin e

vsds PLL [C] [T] vschq

3 to 2

Series Active Filter

Vs=Vsf + V sh

Filter in SRF

Vs=Vsf + Vsh

Series active filter (a)

vcha vchb vchc

Harmonic Voltage Source

(b)

vschd

ds-qs to de-qe

vechq
dc + ac comp.

LPF LPF G(s)

vechq_dc
dc comp.

+ "0" + "0"

PI PI

Fig. 1 Pure series active filter for harmonic voltage source load, (a) schematic, (b) equivalent circuit

Measured SAF voltage

vechd

vechd_dc

Fig. 3 Synchronous Reference Frame (SRF) controller with inverter output voltage feedback for Series Active Filter
SRF extraction of fundamental current from non-sinusoidal load current 200
50 SRF extracted fundamental current trajectory in comlpex plane

150 100 50 Current (A)

(A) I
qs

40 30 20 10 0 -10

0 -50

-20

-100 -150 -200 0.2

-30 -40 -50 -50

-40

-30

-20

-10 I
ds

0.205

0.21

0.215

0.22

Fig. 2 Series active filter implementation for a six-pulse diode rectifier with dc side capacitor front-end

0.225 0.23 Time (s)

0.235

0.24

0.245

0.25

0 (A)

10

20

30

40

50

Fig. 4. Series active filter SRF controller extraction of fundamental current from non-sinusoidal load current

III.

CONTROL OF SERIES ACTIVE FILTER

The series active filter is controlled by a Synchronous Reference Frame (SRF) controller as shown in Fig. 3. The control is based on extraction of sinusoidal (fundamental) supply current references (i*sfa, i*sfb, i*sfc,) from measured three-phase supply currents [13]. The injected series voltage is controlled to output only harmonic voltage and zero fundamental voltage (i.e. Vch,f = 0). This is required to ensure that the fundamental load current (or load power) is not modified by operation of the series active filter. The output voltage feedback loop not only makes sure that the injected fundamental voltage is zero but it also indirectly provides insensitivity to current controller non-unity gain, measurement errors, and other system non-linearities which would otherwise result in distorted supply current and series active filter injected harmonic voltage, Vch, acquiring additional fundamental component. Therefore, the proposed SRF controller with series active filter voltage feedback loop provides harmonic isolation under practical controller implementation errors. As shown in Fig. 3, three-phase lineto-neutral voltage, Vch, is measured on the secondary (inverter) side of series coupling transformer, as shown in Fig. 5. The voltages are transformed into synchronous de qe reference frame with fundamental frequency unit vectors

cose and sine, similar to supply current is. The dc component in the synchronous de qe reference frame corresponding to fundamental component in voltage Vch is extracted by low-pass filters. The controller objective is to regulate this dc component to zero, which is realized by a PI regulator. Note that the PI regulator is applied to dc error signals and therefore, the SRF controller does not introduce any phase errors. The control output of PI regulator produces a fundamental supply current reference for the series active filter inverter corresponding to the percentage error in the non-unity gain SRF controller. This is added to the extracted fundamental supply current with the feed-forward part of the SRF controller and forms the current references for the series active filter inverter after inverse transformation. The feedback loop on Vch generates the gain error component of the fundamental supply current due to non-unity gain of the feed-forward SRF controller as well as measurement errors and other system non-linearities. Fig. 4 shows the active filter fundamental extraction from harmonic current for the case of 20kWs of ASD motor drive loads. IV. IMPLEMENTATION OF SERIES ACTIVE FILTER SYSTEM

The series active filter inverter output filter and equivalent circuit of series coupling transformer is shown in Fig. 5. The

main consideration is that it should be greater than series coupling transformer leakage inductance on secondary (inverter) side. Therefore, the output capacitor Crf is chosen to be 2.5uF. The switching ripple filter resonant frequency is within the RDCL inverter current regulator bandwidth, and provides active damping to any possible Lrf Crf initiated resonances. An important point, as mentioned earlier is that the SRF controller with inverter output voltage feedback loop implicitly generates active damping reference. Therefore, the design of switching ripple filter is independent of supply and line impedances. B. Series Coupling Transformer Design Considerations
Fig. 5 Series active filter inverter output filter and series coupling transformer

inverter output Lrf Crf filter is required to suppress high frequency switching ripples. The series coupling transformer should be designed with very low leakage inductance and ideally have all its leakage reactance on the secondary (inverter) side. This is because any leakage on the primary side will result in fundamental voltage drop across inductor, which then has to be supported by the series active filter inverter and increase its required rating. Due to the fact that series active filter outputs only harmonic voltages, the filter capacitor Crf needs to be very small for high dynamic response. For a high bandwidth inverter the series coupling transformer inter-winding capacitance can be designed as high frequency filter. Therefore, filter capacitor is not necessarily required. In this case, it is advantageous to have the entire transformer leakage reactance on the secondary side, which then also acts as a filter inductor for current regulation. The Passive Clamped Resonant DC Link Inverter (PCRDCLI) [14] is chosen to provide a high current bandwidth required for series active filter inverter, with low switching and overall inverter losses. The inverter is rated 20kVA and is series coupled to the line by a series coupling transformer. The inverter is IGBT based with 1200V, 100A rated devices. The supply current on the primary side is rated at 1000A and therefore, the turns ratio of the transformer is 1:20 with 50A on the secondary side. The inverter DC-bus voltage is 325 V. The maximum rms voltage Vch injected by the series active filter on the line side is therefore only 6.63 V rms. As shown through field installation and experimental results, a current bandwidth in excess of 25th harmonic, and almost up to 2.274kHz (resonant frequency of switching ripple) is achieved. To meet IEEE 519 current harmonics limits in the supply, it is desired to have at least a current bandwidth of up to 25th harmonic i.e. 1.5 kHz. In addition the inverter is required to provide active damping to inverter output switching ripple filter Lrf Crf. A. Switching Filter Design Considerations The Lrf Crf switching ripple filter resonant frequency is 2.274kHz. The output inductor is chosen to be 1.96mH. The

The purpose of the series transformer is to provide coupling of the small rated series active filter in series with the supply impedance as shown in Fig. 1. The nominal turns ratio of the transformer is 1:20 and acts as current source on the secondary side which is high impedance given by primary side impedance multiplied by N2. Therefore, the series transformer is implemented like a three-phase current transformer (CT) with high turns ratio. The design consideration for the series coupling transformer are an integral part of series active filter system design, and are unlike conventional transformer designs. These design considerations are: 1. The voltage injected by the series active filter is all harmonics, and ideally does not have a fundamental component. The voltage impressed on the series transformer does not follow a single B-H curve at a single (fundamental) frequency. The superposition of harmonic voltages results in several minor B-H loops at harmonic frequencies. This requires careful design consideration in terms of maximum voltage and peak core flux design. An equivalent fundamental voltage can be specified, keeping in mind, the peak voltage at a given harmonic (say 5th), and the designed flux to be 1/5 of fundamental. 2. The leakage reactance of the series transformer should be very small. Ideally, all the leakage should be on the secondary side. This is because any leakage on the primary side will cause fundamental voltage drop across it (and therefore fundamental VA), which then has to be supported by the series active filter inverter. 3. The secondary (inverter) side leakage side reactance of series transformer can be integrated with inverter output filter inductor for current regulation. 4. Due to harmonic voltage stresses, the transformer design should use either very thin Silicon Steel laminations (1-4mil) or other material for low core losses. The rated current on supply side (primary winding) is 1000A, and on the inverter side (secondary winding) is 50A. The primary side equivalent fundamental voltage is specified as 6 V and secondary (inverter) side voltage is 120 V. Therefore, the series transformer rating is 18 kVA, with some overload capability to match series active filter rating of 20 kVA. A

series transformer with the above specifications was designed and built. The nominal turns on primary side is 3 and on the secondary side 60 with 4 mil core laminations of silicon steel. Special attention was paid to reduce the leakage inductance on the primary side. The secondary side (50 A) winding is split into two parallel windings. The primary side (1000 A) winding made of Aluminum bars, and it is sandwiched between the two secondary windings. This design forces all the primary flux linkages to the secondary, and therefore minimizes the primary side inductance. The measured B-H curve on the secondary (inverter) side of the series transformer is shown in Fig. 6. It is seen that the series transformer characteristics are linear up to 150 V. The B-H curve also indicates the high magnetizing inductance of the transformer. This is important so that the magnetizing current is low, and it does not affect the active filter control current. It is seen that the measured magnetizing current is less than 0.5A in the linear region. The experimentally determined parameters of the series transformer are shown in Fig. 5. The leakage inductance on the primary side is very small (1.0 H), and entails a fundamental voltage drop of only 0.12%. The magnetizing inductance on the primary side is 1.0 mH (i.e. 1.22 pu). The fundamental voltage on the secondary (inverter side) is 8.0 V rms, which is 6% of the inverter voltage rating. The fundamental current in the filter capacitor Crf is very small 7.5 mA rms. It is also verified that Lrf > L1 , a condition required for proper current regulation.

(normally open) and NC (normally close) contactors are interlocked to complementary positions. A state machine based sequencing scheme has been implemented for start-up, shut-down, fault coordination and by-pass of series active filter inverter. Another level of inverter protection can be employed by using the inverter switches to provide a short circuit across the secondary winding of series transformer. The series active filter can be protected against overcurrent and overvoltage conditions by turning on the lower devices and turning off the upper devices in all three inverter poles. This provides a short circuit through inverter devices and diodes, thus disconnecting the dc side capacitor from the system.

Fig. 6 Series transformer magnetizing characteristic measured on the secondary (inverter) side

C. Protection and Sequencing of Series Active Filter The series active filter requires an adequate protection and sequencing scheme. This is mainly because the series active filter is small rated compared to the load rating. A small load transient can easily be a large percentage of the load rating, and cause overloading of the series active filter. A single line diagram of the protection scheme implemented for series active filter is shown in Fig. 7. The series coupling transformer has anti-parallel thyristors and mechanical contactor to short the secondary of the series transformer in the events of system faults, large transients and voltage overload conditions. Further, the two mechanical NO

Fig. 7 Protection of series active filter (single line diagram)

V.

SIMULATION RESULTS

The simulations were carried out in the Matlab/Simulink environment for the system shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 8 shows the supply current and voltage (with 1.5% background supply voltage distortion) and supply current spectrum for the case without active filtering. As shown in Fig. 8 for 20kW of motor drive load, the non-linear load has a harmonic voltage source characteristic and the supply current THD is about 100% and well above IEEE 519 standard limits. Fig. 9 shows

the results for the case of Fig. 2 with the series active filter operating. In this case the current THD level reduces significantly from 97.5% to around 4.9% which is well below the 8% THD limit and therefore, IEEE 519 total harmonic distortion limit is met. Also shown in Fig. 9 is the harmonic voltage component (Vcha), injected by the series active filter on the primary side of series coupling transformer in order to cancel out the harmonic voltage source at the motor drive input terminal. Fig. 10 shows an important performance measure for harmonic isolation by series active filter system K = Vch/Ish. The principle of operation of the series active filter to achieve harmonic isolation requires the series active filter to be controlled as active impedance. The series active filter will provide perfect harmonic isolation between supply and load, if it is controlled to provide ideally a short circuit (zero resistance) at fundamental frequency, and ideally an open circuit (or infinite/high impedance) at all harmonics frequencies. As it can be seen the active filter emulates a low impedance for the fundamental frequency and a high impedance for all the other harmonics and therefore provides harmonic isolation between the supply and load.
Supply voltage and Load current for P=20kW 500

10

Performance measure of "Harmonic Isolation" for SAF (K=V ch/Ich) h=5 k=207.8 pu h=11 k=208.3 pu

10 k (p.u) 10

h=1 k=1 pu
0

10

0 1 2

3 4 5

6 7 8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Harmonic order (h)

Fig. 10 Performance measure for harmonic isolation by Series Active Filter system K = Vch/Ish

VI.

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

THD (%) = 1.5

sa

-500 0.2 200 100 (A)

La

0.21

0.22

0.23

0.24

0.25

0.26

0.27

0.28

0.29

0.3

THD (%) = 97.5

0 -100 -200 0.2

0.21

0.22

0.23

0.24

0.25 0.26 Time (s)

0.27

0.28

0.29

0.3

Fig. 8 Supply voltage (with 1.5% background distortion), supply current and its THD index for P=20kW
Characteristic voltages and currents of SAF for P=20kW 500 (V)
sa

THD (%) = 1.5

The series active filter system with required series protection was implemented to meet IEEE 519 harmonic current limits for multiple (for three) six-pulse diode rectifier with dc capacitor front-end fed PWM VSI for each 150kW motor drive. The experimental results are provided under measured background supply voltage distortion of 1.7% of 5th and 0.7% of 7th harmonic voltages. Fig. 11 shows the phasor diagram of three-phase voltage and current. It is seen that the input voltage has a 0.5% unbalance, and input current has 15.2% unbalance. Table 1 summarizes active, reactive, and apparent power and power factor information of the series active power filter system. Fig. 12 shows three-phase line-toneutral voltages and their corresponding currents. Fig. 13 shows supply current spectrum for phase (A). Although the harmonic compensation is not the same in different phases due to unbalance operation, it can be seen the series active filter reduces supply current average THD to 8.2% at 23.3kW load and almost meets IEEE 519 harmonic current THD limit of 8.0%. This result also shows the large impact of background supply voltage distortion on the series active filter rating or its ability to meet IEEE 519 harmonic current limits.

(V)

0 -500 1.5 50 1.52 1.54 1.56 1.58 1.6

(A)

THD (%) = 4.9

I -50 1.5 50 (A)

La

sa

0 1.52 1.54 1.56 1.58 1.6

0 -50 1.5 500 1.52 1.54 1.56 1.58 1.6

(V) V
cha

I 0 -500 1.5 1.52 1.54 Time (s) 1.56 1.58 1.6

Fig. 9 Supply voltage (with 1.5% background voltage distortion), supply current, load current, and injected harmonic voltage Vcha

Fig. 11 Phasor diagram of 3-phase PCC supply voltage and current

background supply voltage distortion. The case study for utility interface of three 3-phase six-pulse diode rectifier with dc side capacitor fed 480V, 150kW adjustable speed motor drives, illustrates pure series active filter harmonic isolation performance under field test conditions.
Table 1. Power factor snapshot
INSTANTANEOUS POWER Phase A-N: Phase B-N: Phase C-N: VOLTS-AMPS Phase A-N: Phase B-N: Phase C-N: VA REACTIVE Phase A-N: Phase B-N: Phase C-N: TRUE POWER FACTOR Phase A-N: Phase B-N: Phase C-N: 23.23 KW 6.832 kW 6.964 kW 9.436 kW 31.71 kVA 10.89 kVA 8.978 kVA 11.85 kVA 21.47 kVAR 8.544 kVAR 5.684 kVAR 7.241 kVAR 0.73 PF 0.63 PF 0.78 PF 0.80 PF

REFERENCES
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] S. Bhattacharya, A. Veltman, D.M. Divan, R.D. Lorenz, Flux based controller for active filter IEEE IAS Annual Meeting 1995, p. 2483. F.Z. Peng, Application issues of active power filters, IEEE Industry Applications Magazine, Sept/Oct. 1998, pp. 21-30. H. Akagi, New Trends in Active Filters for Power Conditioning, IEEE Transaction on Industry Applications, IA-32, no. 6, Nov/Dec 1996. S. Bhattacharya, T.M. Frank, D.M. Divan, B. Banerjee, Active Filter System Implementation, IEEE Industry Applications Magazine, Sept/Oct.1998, pp.47-63 F.Z. Peng, H. Akagi, A. Nabae, A new approach to harmonic compensation in power systems, IAS 1988, pp. 874. S. Bhattacharya, D.M. Divan, Synchronous reference frame controller implementation for a hybrid series active filter system, IEEE/IAS 1995, pp. 2531-2540. Peng, F.Z.; Harmonic sources and filtering approaches, IEEE Industry Applications Magazine, Volume 7, Issue 4, July-Aug. 2001, Page(s):18 25. Zhiguo Pan; Peng, F.Z.; Suilin Wang; Power factor correction using a series active filter, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Volume 20, Issue 1, Jan. 2005 Page(s):148 153 Liqing Tong; Zhaoming Qian; Lingxiao Xue; Peng, F.Z.; A novel control strategy for the series-in series hybrid active filter,Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition, 2008. APEC 2008. Page(s):1153 1157 Liqing Tong; Zhaoming Qian; Lingxiao Xue; Peng, F.Z.; A novel series-in series hybrid active power filter, Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition, 2008. APEC 2008. Page(s): 1874 1878 WeiMinWu; LiQing Tong; MingYue Li; Qian, Z.M.; ZhengYu Lu; Peng, F.Z.; A new control strategy for series type active power filter, Power Electronics Specialists Conference, 2004. PESC 04. , Volume 4, 2004 Page(s):3054 3059 Weimin Wu; Liqing Tong; MingYue Li; Qian, Z.M.; ZhengYu Lu; Peng, F.Z.; A novel series hybrid active power filter, Power Electronics Specialists Conference, 2004. PESC 04. , Volume 4, 2004 Page(s): 3045 - 3049 Vol.4 S. Bhattacharya, D.M. Divan, Synchronous reference frame isolator using active series filter, European Power Electronics Conference, EPE91, 3-030-3-035. D. Divan, Resonant dc link converter a new concept in static power conversion, in IEEE Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting (IAS), (Denver, USA), Oct. 1986.

Fig. 12 Supply voltages and currents and phase (A) current spectrum with series active filter at 23.3kW load

[9]

[10] [11]

[12]

Fig. 13 Phase (A) supply current harmonic spectrum w/ SAF

[13] [14]

VII.

CONCLUSION

This paper addresses implementation and performance evaluation of series active filter for multiple harmonic voltage source type loads under practical conditions such as