16th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference and Exposition Antalya, Turkey 21-24 Sept 2014

Three-Phase Three-Level Inverter Based Shunt

Active Power Filter
Necmi ALTIN Orhan KAPLAN Saban OZDEMIR
Gazi University Gazi University Gazi University
Department of Electrical and Department of Electrical and Ataturk Vocational School
Electronics Engineering Electronics Engineering Ankara, Turkey
Ankara, Turkey Ankara, Turkey [email protected]
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract In last decades frequently use of non-linear loads has harmonics and reactive power flowing in power systems. The
caused many power quality problems in power systems. The shunt active power filter operates as an ideal current supply
active power filters are developed to overcome these problems by injecting current 180 degrees out of phase with harmonics
using some power electronics. This paper presents a three phase components in power system [5]. Harmonic current detection,
shunt active power filter based on three-level neutral point DC voltage control and firing pulses production are three main
clamped inverter structure. In this study, the novel approach heading about shunt active power filter in the literature [3].
based on to determine the losses occurring inverter throughout a Fig.1 shows block diagram of a power system which contains a
period is proposed. The proposed approach reveals unwanted
shunt active power filter and a nonlinear load.
active current component with fundamental frequency contained
in the compensation current which causes oscillation and fall of
the DC voltage level of shunt active power filter. The
proportional-integral controller that has been widely used by
researchers is used to maintain the reference DC voltage level.
The proposed system is modeled with MATLAB/Simulink and
simulation studies are carried out. The obtained results from the
simulation studies show that the proposed approach is
uncomplicated, and cheaper than classical PI control algorithm
also it is effective as classical PI control algorithm.

Keywords- Active power filter, multi-level inverter, DC voltage

control, harmonic

I. INTRODUCTION
With developing technology, most of the loads which draw Fig.1. Block diagram of a power system containing a shunt
nonlinear currents from power grid are getting growing day by active power filter and a nonlinear load.
day in power systems. This situation brings about several
power quality problems such as harmonic pollution, low power The multi-level inverters commonly used in high and
factor and shortened usage time of electronics equipment [1]. medium power applications and they have significant
Previously, the passive filters are commonly used in power advantages such as lower output filter requirement, lower EMI
systems to throw out power quality problems because of their level and lower output harmonics level of the output waveform
low cost and uncomplicated structure [2]. However, the passive than a conventional two level inverter. The multi-level inverter
filters have significant drawbacks beside their benefits such as facilitates to reach to high powers using mass production
being effective for only specified harmonics and load levels, semiconductor switches. They work at lower frequencies that
increasing the system size. In addition, these filters may cause allow the use of low frequency switches. Also they have a
crucial negative effects like resonance in power systems, and positive effect on the efficiency of the inverter operating at low
thus existing power quality problems may be even worse off frequencies. The output waveform of the multi-level inverter is
than before [3]. The active power filters are proposed as in the staircase view comprising many steps. Amplitude of
another solution to get rid of power quality problems, which these steps and their numbers depend on the inverter
uses power electronics techniques. The active power filter topologies. In this way, voltage stress across switching devices
presents dynamic solutions to improve power quality when composing multi-level inverter structure can be reduced and
compared to passive filter [4]. the improvement of output waveform is contributed [6, 7].
Many different kinds of active power filter structures have In the literature, there are many studies about shunt active
been designed to suppress several power quality problems by power filters. There are novel harmonic detection methods for
researchers for last a few decades. The shunt active power filter reducing voltage fluctuations. If nonlinear load is changed
is most preferred active power filter type because it can inhibit suddenly, DC voltage of shunt active power filter can fluctuate.

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The new harmonic detection method developed by the authors switches voltage stress is lower than conventional inverter [6,
accomplished harmonic filtration and reduction of DC voltage 7].
fluctuation [8]. In Ref. [9] single phase active power filter
based with 5-level neutral point clamped inverter has been Many studies are carried out on multi-level inverter
introduced. The Direct Testing and Calculating Method and structures. The most important of multi-level inverter structures
Sliding Mode control was used to generate reference filter are flying capacitor (FC), neutral point clamped (NPC), and the
current. The simulation result is developed by using MATLAB cascaded H-Bridge (CHB). There are some disadvantages of
software that the proposed system diminished total harmonic each topology: bulky capacitor requirement and increasing size
distortion (THD) from 82.8% to 25.4% and reactive power in FC, separate power supply requirement in CHB and voltage
compensation was achieved. In Ref. [10] a three phase shunt imbalance problem in NPC structure. However, in the NPC
active power filter comprising three pieces single phase NPC inverters different solutions suggested to prevent this
structure has been designed and implemented. The system imbalance problems [14-16]. Because of no need to isolation
developed increased converter exibility in order to reach requirement, in this study NPC inverter preferred. Furthermore
higher voltage level and compensation capacity due to usage of a module switches which can be used for one leg or full leg of
single-phase NPC converters [10]. Ref [11] dealt with DC the three-level NPC inverter is produced as commercial
voltage fluctuation of single phase shunt active power filter in product. So that design of NPC inverter may be easier than
transient case. Time delay to calculate harmonic current other topologies [6, 17-20].
detection caused fluctuations on DC voltage of filter and
authors gave a solution to reduce these fluctuations. III. PROPOSED SHUNT ACTIVE POWER FILTER
In this paper, three-phase shunt active power filter with In this study, the shunt active power filter based on three-
three-level NPC inverter structure is presented. The one of the level NPC inverter structure is used to eliminate harmonic
main parts of the shunt active power filter control algorithm is components and to improve power factor of the system. The
DC bus voltage control [3].The DC bus voltage of the active most popular type of active power filter is shunt active power
power filter cannot be maintained at the reference value owing filter. In Fig. 2, shunt active power filter with three-level NPC
to inverter power losses [1]. For this purpose, a novel approach topology used in this study is shown.
is proposed in order to keep on the demanded DC voltage level
instead of classical PI control algorithm. The novel algorithm
performance is examined by using the simulation results
obtained from MATLAB/Simulink model.

II. MULTI-LEVEL INVERTER TOPOLOGY

Increasing power levels brought about the need to increase
current and voltages of semiconductor switches. However,
costs of the semiconductor switch increase exponentially with
voltage and currents of switches. There are also some certain
limits about current and voltage levels of the semiconductor
switches. In addition, operating frequencies of high power
switches are very low and thus, the filter size gets bigger. In
order to increase the power level, power switches connected to
serial or parallel to the increasing current or voltage values.
However, the difference in structure of switches, circuit and
differences between on-off signals caused to unbalanced
current sharing. As a solution of these problems multi-level Fig.2. Topology of three-level NPC inverter based shunt active
inverters can be used. power filter.
The first commercial multi-level inverter patent was taken
by Baker in 1975 [12]. An early study about neutral clamped IV. CONTROL STRATEGY
inverter is performed by Nabae [13]. Although the concept of
Shunt active power filter control strategy is composed of
multi-level converter is known for more than thirty years, they
three main parts: harmonic current detection, DC bus voltage
have not been interested in for many years, because they
control and firing pulses production [3]. In this section,
contain higher numbers of circuit components than
methodologies of these main parts used in this study are
conventional inverters, and their complex structures. The
examined.
operating principle of the multi-level inverter is that the voltage
applied to the inverter is to ensure the sharing of semiconductor
switches. It provides activate or deactivate of switches A. Harmonic current detection method
according to specific rules. Using multi-level inverters to the Harmonic current detection method is crucial process
medium and high powers level is more economical when which should be taken into account to obtain precision
compared with the conventional inverters and compete the low harmonic filtration of the power system. In this study, the
power state. While efficiency of the inverter is higher, filtering sinusoidal multiplication technique suggested by H.L. Jou et al
requirements, the harmonic levels, EMI level, dv/dt rates and for single phase system is adopted to three-phase and used to

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acquire harmonic current detection. The harmonic components this problem, the current should be determined and added the
of the power system each phase have been separately active current component in phase with grid voltage. In
calculated [21]. There are different harmonic current detection literature DC voltage regulation of the filter is widely provided
methods in literature [22]. The method which is introduced by using the difference the voltage value measured from DC
above is determined because it can be used to get the harmonic bus of the filter and determined reference voltage value via PI
current components in three phase power systems installed control algorithm. The output of PI control corresponding to
balanced or unbalanced load. According to sinusoidal filter power losses is added to the active component of the load
multiplication method, if the voltage of the grid is in pure current. The block diagram of control algorithm referred above
sinusoidal waveform, non-linear load connected to power is represented in Fig. 3.
system demands current include in various harmonic
components as given Eq. 1:

iL (t ) = i1 sin(t 1 ) + in sin(nt n ) (1)
n =2

The current drawn by the nonlinear load can be separated

into two parts. The first part of the load current is active
component in phase with the voltage of the grid and at the Fig.3. Conventional DC voltage control algorithm.
fundamental frequency. The second part is harmonic current In this paper, the novel approach has been proposed to
component. This relation can be described simply as shown in regulate the voltage of the DC capacitor. In continuous state,
Eq. 2: the reference harmonic current component, ic*(t), does not
iL (t ) = is (t ) + ic (t ) (2) contain the active current at the fundamental frequency and it is
considered that filter does not provide the active current
where, is (t ) is the active current component, ic (t ) is the component which is in phase with the voltage of the grid at the
compensation current component include in whole harmonic fundamental frequency. Similarly, real compensation current,
current components and finally iL (t ) is total load current. The ic(t), generated by the switches, should not contain active
current at the fundamental frequency. However, real average
first aim is calculating active current component, because active power of the inverter is not equal to zero because of
harmonic components of the power system can be achieved by inverter losses. According to the novel approach, the difference
subtracting active current component from the load current. between real and reference power of the inverter is error value
Therefore magnitude of the active current component is and it corresponds to the inverter losses of the filter [1]. The
calculated by using the equation of average active power of the error can be calculated as in Eq. 6 and it can be controlled via a
system. The average power in fundamental frequency of the PI controller. The block diagram of DC voltage control
system can be formulated as in Eq. 3. algorithm proposed in this study is given in Fig. 4 [1].
1T 1
T 0
Ps* = vs (t ).iL (t )dt Vs .I1 cos 1
T
(3) e(t) = [vs(t)ic*(t) vs(t)ic(t)]dt (6)

Hereafter the active current component magnitude can be

easily obtained as in Eq.4 represented.

Ps*
I1 cos1 = (4)
Vs

Instantaneous value of active current was acquired by

multiplying with unity sinus function which is in phase with Fig.4. The block diagram of the proposed DC voltage control
the grid voltage, and then, the harmonic current components of algorithm.
the power system was calculated by subtracting the
instantaneous value of active current from the load current C. Firing pulses production (Current control method)
shown as in Eq.5: Several current control algorithms have been employed to
ic* (t ) = iL (t ) is (t ) . (5) generate switching signals of three or single phase inverter.
They can be gathered at two main parts: linear and nonlinear
current control techniques. The hysteresis current control
B. DC voltage control algorithm is one of the nonlinear current control techniques and
Although active power filter cannot provide any active has many advantages such as simplicity, reliability and lack of
power to power system, harmonic current component of the tracking error [23]. Switching signals are derived directly when
power system calculated by harmonic current detection method the error exceeds the determined tolerance. In this study, the
contains small amount of active current. This current must be hysteresis current control technique is used to generate
essential to meet the power losses of the active power filter, but reference compensation current of the filter. The block diagram
it causes oscillation of DC voltage of the filter. To overcome of hysteresis current controller is shown in Fig. 5.

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Fig.5. The block diagram of hysteresis current controllers.

V. SIMULATION STUDY
To verify viability of the novel approach proposed for DC
voltage control, the power system given in Fig. 2 is modelled is
with MATLAB/Simulink and simulation studies are carried
out. The values belong to the simulation model are presented in
Table 1.

TABLE I. THE VALUES OF SIMULATION CIRCUIT b) Load1, RL2//CL (6,66//100F)

AC source voltage, Vs 220V
Fig.6. Load current and its total harmonic distortion analysis.
Fundamental frequency, f 50Hz Before shunt active filter was not connected to the power
Source inductance, Ls 1mH system, total harmonic distortion (THD) value of the current
Load1, RL1//CL, 20//100F drawn by nonlinear load was measured as 81.87% for 50%load
Load2, (performed after 0.25 s), RL2//CL 6,66//100F
and 46.59% for 100% load levels as given in Fig. 6.
DC bus capacitors CDC(C1=C2) 20000F
Filter inductor Lc 1mH

Three-phase full bridge uncontrolled rectifier was used as a

nonlinear load comprised RC in parallel. The nonlinear load
produces harmonic current components with high THD value
as in Fig.6 represented.

Fig.7. Load current and its total harmonic distortion analysis.

As seen from the Fig. 8 and Fig. 9 shunt active power filter
is connected to the system, THD value of the source current is
reduced to 6.03% for 50% load level and 3.61% for 100% load
levels respectively. The harmonics which is produced by
nonlinear load is highly reduced via three-phase three-level
NPC active power filter. Furthermore it is clearly seen from the
Fig. 8, the NPC shunt active power filter is very fast response
a) Load1, RL1//CL (20//100F) to load changes.

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Fig.10. DC bus voltage

Output voltage waveforms of the active power filter was shown
Fig.8. Load current and its total harmonic distortion analysis. as in Fig.9.
In addition power factor of the system is improved and
nearly unity power factor operation is obtained. The each phase
of the source currents and grid voltage waveforms are given as
in Fig. 9.

Fig.11. Output voltage waveforms of the active power filter.

VI. CONCLUSION
In this study a shunt active power filter with three-phase three-
level NPC inverter structure is proposed. A novel control
algorithm was presented to control the DC voltage of the
active power filter. This algorithm accomplished to maintain
DC voltage level without oscillation. Also the proposed
system provides harmonic elimination and power factor
correction. It is seen that THD levels of the load currents are
decreased from 81.87% to 6.03% for 50% load and from
46.59% to 3.61% for full load conditions. It is seen that load
current THD level decreased significantly and it meets the
IEEE 519-1992 standard (3.61% < 5%).
Fig. 9. The voltage and current waveforms of the power system
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