Modelling and Optimal Design of a Shunt Active Power Filter

Power electronic converters are widely being used to mitigate harmonics in
power systems. Active power filters have been proven to be effective in voltage and
current harmonic compensations in the power systems. A shunt active power filter
that uses low voltage components can be used in a medium or high voltage system to
compensate for the distortions that affect power quality. This project investigates the
optimal designs of a shunt active power filter and static compensator. The
investigation is performed on the system with non-linear load and a bus network
power system, respectively. The shunt active power filter provides the current
harmonic compensation for a nonlinear load on a single bus network while static
compensator provides voltage harmonic compensation to the load bus in a network.
A p-q theory controller is implemented to compensate current harmonics. This is
achieved by keeping the source current as a fundamental while injecting current to
neutralise the load current harmonics. This injected current is equal in magnitude but
phase shifted by 180° to the current harmonics. The simulated results of this project
proved that a shunt active power is suitable for use in current harmonic compensation
and static compensator is suitable for use in voltage harmonic compensation.