Combined system of a series active filter and a shunt passive filter—an optimum design of the shunt passive filter

The combined system of a series active filter and a shunt passive filter that is proposed by the authors has the ability to eliminate a major disadvantage of shunt passive filters, namely, harmonic amplification. The series active filter needs a much smaller kVA rating than a conventional shunt active filter, and as a result, the combined system has good filtering characteristics and high efficiency. This paper presents an optimum design of the shunt passive filter that makes possible a great reduction in the required kVA rating of the series active filter. It can minimize the peak voltage across the series active filter and reduce the required kVA rating of the filter to 60 percent. A computer simulation geared to practical applications of large three‐phase. twelve‐pulse thyristor rectifiers is used to compare the compensation characteristics of the optimized system with those of a combined system that uses a conventional shunt passive filter. Experimental results obtained with a laboratory model of the filter corroborate the design approach.