Supraharmonics in Power Grid: Identification, Standards, and Measurement Techniques

Abstract

In the electric power distribution system, power electronics technologies associated with renewable energy systems (RES) and smart grids have gained growing interest. The power electronics devices are used to convert, control, or transfer electric power from RES to the power grids. However, the continuous increase in switching frequencies resulting from these power electronics technologies has led to the emergence of new emissions in the range of 2-150 kHz, outside the classical frequency range for power quality. These emissions are known worldwide as supraharmonics (SH). These emissions negatively affect the power quality of electrical distribution systems and reduce their efficiency and lifetime. Thus, the supraharmonics emissions have been investigated in the literature, and several methods were developed focusing on identifying, measuring, and setting new standards to mitigate the impact of these emissions on the power quality. Although these individual studies have been well documented, a comparative overview of its identifications, current standards, and measurement techniques had not been described so far. Therefore, this study extensively reviews the related techniques and standards for identifying, measuring, and mitigating SH emissions. Moreover, the current research gap in this important field is highlighted, and an illustration on how this problem was tackled in the past few years is presented. Additionally, the SH characteristics alongside insights into the mitigations and measurements are highlighted and analyzed accordingly. Finally, some important recommendations to mitigate SH emissions are suggested. This review will hopefully strengthen the efforts toward the development of SH domain by providing the necessary groundwork for further mitigations, standards, and measuring techniques improvement.