Active power-line conditioners

Abstract

Nowadays, the active power filters, APFs, can be used as a practical solution to solve the problems caused by the lack of electric power quality, EPQ. The emerging technology of power-electronic devices and the new developments in digital signal processing, DSP, have made possible its practical use. These power filters can fully compensate the nonlinear loads of electrical power systems: harmonics, reactive power, unbalances, etc. So, they can be called active powerline conditioners (APLCs). There are many configurations of APLCs, from shunt and series connection to hybrid passive-active filters. The target is to optimize the design using the advantages of each filter with the different load configurations. In this chapter, the more common APLC configurations will be presented. The usual power blocks, the control strategy and the modulation control method will be shown. In particular, a shunt APLC design will be detailed. In this case, the goal is to inject, in parallel with the load, a compensation current to get, e.g., a sinusoidal source current. At the end of the chapter, practical design considerations will be presented. The APLC parameters will be justified. The proposed filter will be issued in a simulation platform to adjust the component values. Finally, a laboratory prototype will be probed to contrast the final design.