Control Strategy and Site Selection of a Shunt Active Filter for installation on a Power Distribution System.

The guidelines for harmonic mitigation, announced on Oct. 3, 1994, are currently applied on a voluntary basis to control harmonic levels and promote better practices in both power systems and equipment design. In general, individual high-power consumers and low-power end-users are responsible for limiting current distortion produced by power electronics equipment, while electric power companies or utilities are responsible for limiting voltage distortion at the point of common coupling in distribution systems. The purpose of conventional shunt active filters, which have already been installed in the vicinity of one or more harmonic producing loads, is to compensate for harmonic currents caused by the identified loads.This paper deals with control strategy and site selection of a shunt active filter which will be installed on a power distribution system by electric power companies. The major objective of the shunt active filter discussed is to damp, harmonic resonance between many capacitors for power factor improvement and line inductors in the distribution system, rather than to mitigate voltage distortion. This paper also proposes a basic concept of the best point of installation of the shunt active filter. Simulated results are shown to verifly the validity and effectiveness of the concept. The computer simulation developed in this paper is characterized by the use of a model for a virtual distribution system of a residential area.