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his article details a new transfer function

approach in passive harmonic filter design
for industrial and commercial power system applications Filter placement along with six
common filter configurations are presented. Harmonic impedance, voltage division and current division transfer functions are derived and used in a
practical filter design procedure that incorporates
IEEE-5 19distortion limits directly into the design
and component specification process. A simple
four-step filter design procedure is outlined and
used in a variable speed motor drive pumping
plant application
Several factors need to be considered before a filter design is undertaken. In all cases, there will be a
number of reasons why filters are required. These
may include utility-imposed distortion limits,
telephone interference complaints for existing
drive installations, parallel resonance and system
problems, poor power quality resulting from one
or more motor drives or rectifier loads sharing a
common coupling, engineering specification requirements, or simply that the drive manufacturer
is just a nice guy. (Although this last example is
rare in industry ) Drive manufacturers notoriously
do not want to deal with harmonic distortion unless they are forced to by other political or economical factors, since i t increases the cost and
complexity oftheir product and tends to make each
installation specialized However, harmonic distortion is quickly becoming a very hot topzc
throughout the power industry-especially with
the new version of IEEE-519 Since the drive
manufactures tend to be slow to change their basic
designs incorporating new technology such as
high-quality rectification 111,and since active filter systems still appear to be a few years away from

Thzs artzcle uppeared zn zts orzgznalfirm at the 1995

Petroleum C Chemzcal Industry ConJrence The authvr,
an IEEE Member, zs aprznczpal with Peak Power Engzneerzng, Golden, Colo.

IEEE Industry Applicufians Muguzine 1 Murch/April I997

being readily available on the market, passive harmonic filter systems are being used extensively to
interface both existing and new large motor drive
converter systems Therefore, the need for an effective filter design procedure is justified
Currently, passive harmonic filter application is
the method practiced most often and is readily
available to power system engineers and designers
for reducing harmonic voltage and current distortion through alternate circuit path operation Several IEEE transaction papers have been written and
published that introduce the theory and implementation of advanced techniques for controlling
harmonic current flow such as magnetic flux compensation, harmonic current injection, dc ripple
injection, series and shunt active filter systems, and
pulse-width modulated static var harmonic compensators However, practical systems have not
been extensively developed and are not yet available on the market It may still be some time before
these advanced techniques are fully developed and
are readily available so as to successfully compere
with passive harmonic filter systems, by the time
they can compete, advanced rectifiericonverter designs that use active line current-shaping techniques will reduce the need for large-scale
harmonic filtering systems in new installations, assuming industry implements the technology
Hence, the life expectancy and success of these advanced harmonic control techniques may be limited Until that time arrives, if it even does, passive
harmonic filters can be designed and applied alone
or in combination with transformer phase shifting
and/or higher pulse number rectifier configurations to control waveform distortion on the power
system
This article deals exclusively with passive harmonic filter design Six common filter configurations are presented Possibly for the first time, a
transfer function approach to filter design and system modeling performance is presented that can he
setup to account for harmonic distortion control
limits directly in the filter design process The
1077-2618/971$10.000 1997 IEEE

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Harmonic
Locations

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L- -'y-J

Infinite
Source

Equivalent
System
Impedance

Power
Transformation

Finite
Load

One or More
Non-Linear
Harmonic
Sources

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Fig. 1. Practical filter locations.

ANSUIEEE-5 19 harmonic distortion limits and

guidelines are incorporated into a practical filter
design procedure, and a simple example that applies these steps is presented.

Filter Placement
As shown in Fig. 1, there are two practical locations
where passive harmonic filters may be effectively
applied. Similar to power factor correction capacitor placement, the optimum location results in
maximized harmonic reduction performance and
minimized equipment costs and system losses.
Many times, placing the filter system as near to the
nonlinear load as possible (i.e., at the same voltage
level, preferably at the motor drive terminals) results in the greatest attenuation of harmonic distortion for a given filter reactive power rating.
There are both advantages and disadvantages for
either filter location as well as several economic alternatives to consider. In any case, however, the
analysis begins with the generalized frequencydependent filter system impedance representation
ZfiThis impedance can take on several forms depending on the desired response, and it is the basic
building block on which several useful filter system design transfer functions can be defined.

Fiher Transfer Functions [Z]

There are a number of important transfer functions
that can be derived for filter design and system
modeling purposes. As in all three-phase power
system analysis, one of the main design goals is to
maintain balanced voltages and currents in the network and to maintain reliability and efficiency.
With these in mind, the following transfer functions are based on single-phase equivalent circuits
assuming that the system is designed and operated
under balanced conditions. Although it is beyond
the scope of this article to discuss unbalanced harmonic systems, ifthe system were to operate unbalanced, symmetrical component harmonic models
and transfer functions could, with moderate effort,
be derived and used in addition to a complete
three-phase computer simulated model to approximate the unbalanced conditions and system re-

Zf(S)

'I-1

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If(@

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VfW

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Fig. 2. Filter impeddnce representation.

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Fig. 3. FilterlSystem impedance representation.

sponses. When filter systems are used in unbalanced loading conditions, the basic single-phase
design relations can still be used to calculate the
initial component values. Those values can then be
inserted into a full three-phase unbalanced model
for further analysis and design refinement. Fortunately, the application of single-phase rectifier
loads that cause unbalanced harmonic systems are
of the low power type and, therefore, represent only
a small fraction of harmonic producing loads in
general. Therefore, the need for unbalanced harmonic analysis and filter operation is much less
than it is for balanced operation.

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Filter Impedance Transfer Function

This transfer function is the basic building block

on which the modeling begins. It is defined to be
the complex impedance frequency response of the
filter system expressed in the s-domain of the individual filter circuit elements. As shown in Fig. 2, if

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lfff hdusfiy Applicafionr Magozhe m Marrh/Aprill997

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a general filter branch is defined at its terminals,

(1)can be defined as follows:

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where
H f (si = Filter impedance s-domain transfer
function
Z f ( s ) = Filter s-domain complex impedance
Vf(s) = Single-phase equivalent filter s-domain
voltage
I f ( s ) = Filter branch s-domain current

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As mentioned above, Zf(s) is considered to be a

single phase equivalent impedance when used to
model a three-phase system. If the actual filter is
configured in a delta connection, care must be
taken not to confuse line-to-line and line-to
neutral impedances when using (1) For balanced
three-phase systems, (2) is used as the wye-delta
transform.
1

Z"=-z
3 A

where

Zy

20

Line-to-neutral, Wye, impedance

Line-to-line, Delta, impedance
H f ( s ) can be used to design and tune the filter as a
separate system before it is modeled in the power
system network Depending on the type and complexity of the filter configuration, Zf(si can be factored into a combination of denominators (poles)
and numerators (zeros) substituting

to derive the parcicular tuning and damping relations between component variables.

FilterlSystem Impedance Transfer Function

After the filter system is configured and Zf(J-) is
known, this impedance can be connected to the
power system network to derive the filterlsystem
impedance transfer function Hfi(s) where Zs(s) is
represented as the system Thevenin equivalent system network impedance.
Fig. 4. First-order high-pass.
I

-20dBlD
+20dB/D

If other energy storage elements such as capacitances and/or inductances exist in the power system network, they will affect the overall
performance of the filter system when it is installed HfiS(s)is a powerful tool that can be used to
gain insight into the combined frequency response
of the filter connected to the system.

Current Divider Transfer Function

There are two types of the current divider transfer
functions that can be derived for the filter system
connected to the power system network. Referring
to Fig. 3, Hcds(s)is the ratio ofsystem current to injected current and H.df (s) is the ratio of filter current to injected current.

Fig. j.,First-order damped high-pass.

I

IFIndustry Applications Magazine = March/Aprill997

Fig. 6. First-order damped high-pass filter behind a series reactance.

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Transfer functions (9) and (10) are very important because they serve two roles When the filter
system is being designed, the impedances of the
transfer functions can be used to assess the overall
system performance After the filter system is installed and operational, the harmonic current flows
can be measured and the appropriate current divider ratios can be computed and plotted on the
same graph for a filter performance comparison of
designed vs measured response Equation ( 5 ) is
useful for designing and determining harmonic
current distortion limit compliance with IEEE5 19 limits [31
As discussed later, the IEEE-5 19 current distortion limits can be used in conjunction with
the expected harmonic current injection from
the converter rectifier to compute the minimum
current divider ratios required to meet the imposed limits These ratios can then be used to define the minimum filter attenuations for which
Hcds(l)is based.

Voltage Divider Transfer Functions

A similar class of transfer functions can be developed for systems where harmonic voltage sensitive
loads exist and the designer is mainly interested in
developing filter systems to provide frequency detuning or voltage distortion control. This class of
transfer functions is based on a voltage division between an equivalent harmonic voltage source and
harmonic sensitive loads. The nomenclature for
this class of transfer functions is typically expressed
as Hods (s), where vds refers to the harmonic voltage
division with respect to the source. A typical use
for this type of system representation is in solving

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Fig. 7. Second-order series resonant filter.

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Fig. 8. Second-order filter impedance transfer

function.

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shunt power factor capacitor parallel or series resonant amplification effects of voltage distortion at
locations where harmonic sensitive loads exist or
high power quality is desired.

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First-Order High-Pass Filter

A first-order filter consists of a capacitor bank con-

nected directly to the power system bus and it is

typically intended to filter high frequency harmonics from the system as shown in Fig. 4, with
the system impedance assumed to be a simple inductance, Z,(s) = sL,. The order of the filter, in
IEF Industry Applications Magazine

March/April

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I997

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this case the lst, is takenas the highest exponent of

the characteristic s-domain polynomial of H f i s ) .

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When used intentionally, the primary application of this type filter is to attenuate highfrequency harmonic current components that
cause telephone interference and reduce the voltage
notching caused by SCR rectifier commutation as
well as provide partial power factor correction of
the fundamental load current When used unintentionally, as in the case of 60 H z power factor
correction capacitor banks, the system natural par-

allel resonant frequency may fall near one or more

critical driving harmonic current frequencies, and
significant voltage distortion may result.
For the plot shown in Fig. 4 , the construction of
Hcds (10)
consists of evaluating the function at
both low and high frequencies Starting with
1

(12)

and considering low frequencies,

and

For high frequencies,

I \\

and

\ ';i

As shown by (16), the roll-off of the high frequency

2
components is 1/0 or -40 dB per decade when
(12) is expressed in dB form. If the system impedance is assumed to have some resistance, Rs, then
the maximum can be found as follows:

Fig. 9. Second-order t r a n s f e r f u n c t i o n with L, > L.

and

WC

with

.-

L
L+L,

Therefore,
1
__

1 --b-

Fig. 10. Secondorder t r a n s f e r f u n c t i o n s with L,

L.

/FE Industry ApplicationsMagazine I Murch/Aprill997

I

Hrn,=

Q,

(20)

When the transfer functions contain a few simple terms, as in the case shown above, the algebra

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required to derive analytical closed-form expressions for the asymptotes and local maxima and
minima is fairly straightforward.

O+

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First-Order Damped High-Pass Filter

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As shown in Fig. 5 , a series connected resistance is

sometimes used to provide a damping characteristic to the high-pass filter.
H f (s) =

sc

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5-

+R

Fig. 11. Second-order damped series resonant filter

showing the connection of and inductor bypass
resistance.

As shown in the previous section, H,,

can be
determined analytically by evaluating the transfer
function Hc&O) at the resonant frequency. Assuming the source impedance is a simple inductance, the following equations can be written:

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Z$)

SL,

(22)

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and

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RbpC

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Fig. 12. Second-order damped series resonant filter

impeddnce transfer function.

where
Q=-

'P

The high-frequency asymptote is found by considering

since
[%)2

>> 1

As shown by (27), the roll-off of the high frequency components above the frequency 1/(RC) is
only liO or -20 dB per decade Hence, the application of the series damping resistance significantly
limits high frequency performance over that of the
undamped first-order high-pass This tends to
make it less desirable for telephone interference reduction applications
In certain instances, when the parallel resonant
frequency resulting from the cancellation of the
system inductive reactance by the high-pass filter
capacitive reactance falls on or near a critical har-

monic frequency, a high-pass damping resistance

can be connected in series with the capacitance to
control and reduce the amplification Such a resistance, however, increases the fundamental frequency power loss and reduces the effectiveness of
the high-pass attenuation above the frequency
lI(RC)as shown by Hcds(s) In applications involving several second-order series resonant filter sections connected in parallel and tuned to increasing
discrete harmonic frequencies, a first-order
damped high-pass filter is commonly used as the
last filter section in the bunch The damping resistance then serves to reduce the highest order parallel resonance formed between the high-pass filter
capacitance and the effective equivalent inductive
reactance resulting from the parallel combination
of the utility system inductance and the secondorder filter branch inductances
In certain power factor correction applications,
when a capacitor bank is connected behind a series
inductance from a harmonic generating source, a
series resonant circuit will be formed between the
filter capacitance and the series inductance (I e ,
the inductive leakage reactance of a power transformer, for example) as shown in Fig 6 If this resonance falls on a driving harmonic, unwanted
harmonic current may flow through the capacitance and cause overheating or excessive system
voltage distortion A damping resistance can then
be added to limit the harmonic current flow.
IffIndustry ApplicationsMagazine m March/Aprill997

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filter is entirely resistive Obviously, the lower the

filter resistance, the more attenuation. However,
there are practical limits to R.
H,(s)=R+sL+-

Fig. 13. Second-order damped series resonant filterlsystem impedance and

current divider transfer functions.

Fig. 14. Third-order filters.

r Series Resonant Filter

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The single most used harmonic filter topology is,

perhaps, the second-order series resonant type. It
consists of a series combination of a capacitance, inductance, and small damping resistance as shown
in Fig. 7 and is typically used to filter a single discrete harmonic frequency such as the third, fifth,
seventh, eleventh, etc. The damping resistance is
usually set by the physical limitations of the
equivalent series inductor resistance and the
equivalent series capacitor resistance and no external resistance is added to the circuit
The representation of the second-order series
resonant filter can be expressed in an equation form
as given by (29) and (30),or it can be expressed
graphically as shown in Fig. 8. Both forms show
the classical series resonant circuit At low frequencies, the filter is dominantly capacitive and, therefore, provides reactive power to the system. At
high frequencies, the filter is inductive and provides little attenuation for high-frequency distortion At the resonant frequency, the capacitive
reactance cancels the inductive reactance and the
/ lndusfry Apphtions Magazine

MarchvApril1997

sc

where
A = Gain coefficient
a0= Series resonant frequency
Q = Filter quality factor
For high-voltage applications with a given filter
reactive power rating, the current flowing in the
filter is typically of low RMS magnitude and does
not require large current carrying conductors or
gapped inductor cores with an abundance of iron
In fact, air-core inductors are regularly used. In
these cases, filter quality factors of 50 5 Q 5 150 are
Low-voltage applications, on the other
typical [4].
hand, usually require gapped iron inductor cores
and large current carrying conductors. The result is
2
higher I R and core losses with increased heating
and a higher temperature rise These factors tend to
raise the effective series resistance and lower the
quality factor Hence, for low voltage applications,
filter quality factors of 10 5 Q 5 50 are typical.
The 2nd-order series resonant type filters are
commonly applied at practically all power system
voltage levels: transmission, distribution, and
utilization For example, large HVDC transmission converters typically use several second-order
filter sections tuned to discrete frequencies and
connected in parallel at the ac terminals of each
converter to provide both reactive power and the
desired harmonic filtering On distribution systems, second-order filters are typically used to provide filtering for applications where several harmonic producing loads share a common coupling,
or, they are typically employed where power factor
capacitor banks require detuning to control the natural system parallel resonant frequencies from landing
on a critical driving harmonic in which case the capacitor bank is configured into a detuned filter The
most common location, however, is mostly at the
utilization voltage level since individual converter
loads often exist alone and economic and operating
constraintsdo not justify filter applicationsor costs at
the higher voltage levels.
The filterisystem current divider transfer function Hcds (s) can be evaluated at high and low frequencies to determine the asymptotes similar to
the above discussion for the first-order filters (13)
and (15 ) . Those expressions are indicated in Fig. 9
for the case where the system is considered to be a
simple inductance and L, > L. Fig. 10 shows the
case for L, < L To find the local maxima of I Hcds
(10)
I or I Hfi (si I requires much more work, how-

ever. Because of the interaction between the capacitive reactance and the filter inductive
reactance, Hmdx does not occur at the parallel resonant frequency formed by the filter capacitance and
the system inductance.

As defined in (30), the normalized polynomial

coefficients of ( 3 3 ) can be equated to find the gain
coefficient A, the series resonant frequency &, the
quality factor Qbp, and the simple pole frequency
03,. Also, noting the typical case where R < < Rbp,
the approximations given in (34) can be made.

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A = -1

,L

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A numerical method is, therefore, recommended

for this estimate. Two possible solutions exist: ( 1 )

the transfer functions can be evaluated numerically

and plotted graphically to determine the approximate maxima, or (2) the derivatives of the functions can be evaluated numerically to determine
frequencies where the maxima occurs. These frequencies can then be back substituted and a short
iterative procedure can be used to gain any numerical degree of precision desired. It should be noted
that finding a closed form expression for these
functions involves finding ( 3 2 ) .

While ( 3 2 ) may look innocent as shown above,

the evaluation proves to be quite laborious indeed!
Hence, numerical methods become very attractive,
especially when the system and filter impedances
increase in complexity. Fortunately, the minima of
the transfer functions is very close to the series resonant frequency and typically only tends to increase
by a few percent worst case when Ls < L.

Second-Order Damped Series Resonant Filter

Another popular topology of the second-order series resonant filter is to provide an inductor bypass
resistance as shown in Fig. 11. Using a little algebra, the filter impedance transfer function can be
expressed in normalized form by ( 3 3 ) .

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Depending on the value selected for the inductor bypass resistance, many different transfer function characteristics are possible. The main
application of this filter is to provide attenuation
for harmonic frequency components over a wide
frequency range. The tuning ofthis filter is accomplished similar to the second-order series resonant
filter using (34) for a0.The series resistance R is
typically chosen based on practical values for the
second-order series resonant filter quality factor;
and the bypass resistance is chosen based on the desired high-pass response and the series resonant attenuation. Bypass quality factors of0.5 < Qbp 4 2.0
are typical E>]. Higher Qbp factors allow more series resonant attenuation and less high-pass; by
contrast, lower Qbp factors provide less series resonant attenuation and greater high-pass response.
Hence, a tradeoff between the series-resonant and
high-pass responses exists, with the final design
being based more on art than science.

Hluher-Order Filters
Higher-order filters are possible and used where
the economics and desired harmonic response justify their applications. As shown in Fig. 14(a), a
third-order filter can be made by adding a series capacitance C2 to the inductor bypass resistance to
2
reduce the fundamental frequency Ibp losses; or, as
shown in Fig. 14(b), C2 can be connected in series
with L and sized to form a series resonant branch at

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Fig. 15. Nth-order filter configurations.

Fig. 16. Line reactance placement for a "harmonictrap."

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IffIndustry Applicotionr Mogozine Morch/April I 997

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Fig. 17. S t e p #1: S y s t e m i m p e d a n c e and c u r r e n t

source h a r m o n i c spectrum representation.

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The mathematics describing multiple-order

filter systems is very detailed and complex when
trying to derive factored closed form expressions of
poles and zeros Hence, the numerical transfer
function design approach becomes very attractive
and justified As shown in ( 3 5 ) , any number of filter branches can be combined numerically to define H f (si The solution can then be plotted
graphically and an iterative design procedure can
be used to optimize the configuration

-ttz0
vsFq+l
z, ,PCC
,PCC

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Fig. 18. S t e p #2: D e f i n i n g t h e PCC.

Fig. 19. S t e p #3: Representation of HrPec

the fundamental frequency to reduce the Ibp2

losses Other than increasing the filter energy efficiency, the application of C2 does not provide any
significant increase in filter performance or the filter transfer function since it is typically sized to optimize the filter losses at the fundamental
frequency and not the tuning harmonic frequency.
It should be noted that these type filters are not
commonly used for low-voltage or mediumvoltage applications since the economic, complexity, and reliability factors do not normally
justify them
As shown in Fig. 15, several second-order series resonant filters are connected in parallel and
individually tuned to selected discrete frequencies to provide filtering over a wide frequency
range The order of the resulting filter is then
taken as the total number of energy storage elements in the combined filter system For example, a fifth and seventh filter system would be
fourth-order, a fifth, seventh, eleventh, thirteenth
and high-pass filter system would be ninth-order
Multiple second-order filters are only applied
where the even-order harmonics generated by a
nonlinear load are very small since a parallel resonance will occur between any two adjacent series
resonant filter branches and cause amplification of
distortion energy in that range.

where
LLR = line reactor inductance
When external line reactors are used in combination with shunt harmonic filters as shown in Fig
16, the application is commonly referred to as a
harmonic trap One of the obvious disadvantages
to using line reactors is higher costs since they are
sized to carry the full-line current of the load
However, since the filter requirements are lowered
along with the resultant equipment costs, there is
an economic crossoverpoint which can justify their
existence
When harmonic filtering is viewed from the
line reactor application standpoint, the benefits
and additional justification of applying filter systems to low voltage loads is clarified Since large
rectifier loads are commonly connected to the
power system through isolation step-down transformers, some additional line inductance is automatically added to the system in the form of the
transformer leakage reactance By selecting transformers with fairly high impedances (1 e , padmount with Z > 5 % ) , the filter size can be reduced
and the additional expense of external line reactance can be eliminated

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H spec

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(35)

fine Reactors and Harmonic Traps

One method for controlling harmonic current flow

is to provide a low impedance at a certain frequency
so that a high current division is obtained with the
system The higher the current division, the lower
the filter system impedance has to be This equates
to larger filter reactive power ratings and higher
equipment costs A simple and practical method
for obtaining the same current division ratio while
using a smaller filter system is to increase the series
line reactance of the system impedance as shown in
Fig. 16. With the addition of the line reactance,
the filterisystem current divider transfer function
becomes

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I /ndusfry Apphfions Maguzine Morch/Apri/ 1997

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Now that some of the system transfer functions

and filter configurations have been discussed, the
question of how much filtering is required needs to
be answered.

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A Passive Harmonic Filfer Design Procedure

One of the main goals for outlining an engineering
design procedure is to keep it simple $it is going t o be
zls&l. With this in mind, and assuming that harmonic filters are required, the following procedure
basically consists of obtaining the system information and building the filterisystem current divider
transfer function Hcds(s) based on the applicable
IEEE-5 19 distortion limits and harmonic current
source spectrum of the rectifier load. Once the filter system impedance transfer function H f ( s ) is optimized to the system and the design control limits, the last step consists ofwriting an engineering
specification for the final design. The following
steps detail this procedure, and one example is
given to show how it can be used in a real-world
application.

Step #I: System Data

The first step consists of gathering the system impedance information and motor drive current
source harmonic spectrum. As shown in Fig. 17,
the system can be represented as a single-phase
Thevenin equivalent and the harmonic spectrum as
a simple lumped current source equivalent for a
first-order approximation. If more complexity is
required in the analysis, the power system can be
modeled as a network of impedances taking into
account power factor and cable capacitances, and
the harmonic sources can be modeled as one or
more Norton equivalents connected to a common
bus or distributed throughout the network. The
detail to which the system is modeled is ultimately
a function of the particular engineering requirement. The main goal is to control the distortion so
that when actual field measurements are taken they
meet the limits and no adverse system distortions
result.

Step #2: Define the PCC

If the IEEE-5 19 limits are to be used as the design
guidelines, the PCC where the limits are to be applied needs to be defined. As shown in Fig. 18,
once the PCC is defined, the short circuit ratio
(lSc/h,)
of the system and harmonic generating
source maximum demand load current can be calculated from (37) and (38). The filter system current has been included to account for its
contribution at 60 Hz.

(37)

Fig. 20. step #4: Fitting Hcds t o H, for a 5th

harmonic filter.
where
Isc = system short circuit current
IL = maximum fundamental demand load current
I 1 = fundament drive rectifier current
I F = fundamental filter system current

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The motor drive current contribution has been

approximated as a constant current at 60 Hz. Depending of the type of motor drive control, this
representation may overestimate the drive current
when the filter system is applied due to the system
voltage rise resulting from the filters capacitive reactance shown in Fig. 18 as an equivalent capacitance. If the drive current remained constant with
an increased system voltage rise, this would mean
that more real power was being delivered to the
load, and as a result, the motor would accelerate to
account for the difference. If constant motor speed
control is used, the rectifier firing would be phased
back and the fundamental frequency component of
the drive current would tend to reduce in magnitude and lag further in phase from the fundamental
voltage. This would change the harmonic spectrum as well. Under these conditions, the motor
drive would act as a constant power type load and
an iterative power flow procedure would be required to find a value of IL. This result alone helps
justify the need ofa harmonic load flow model of
the system. However, based on the defined
goalof this procedure, this level of complexity
is omitted.

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Step #S: Calculate Filter Design Template

The next step in the process is to determine how
much filtering is necessary based on the system established in Step #1 and the IEEE-519 limits established in Step # 2 . The minimum filter
attenuation ratios required to meet the established
distortion limits can then be calculated and given
by Hspecas defined by (39) and shown graphically
in Fig. 19.

where

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March/Apri/ I997

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I I E E E - ~= ~Applicable
~
IEEE-5 19 current distortion limit spectrum
I = Harmonic current spectrum based on I L
The maximum and minimum levels in Fig 19
are intended to indicate a design range based on
changing system conditions and filter component
tolerance variations The maximum design is based
on both filter overloading and system impedance
changes (i.e , an increased system impedance) The
minimum design is based on meeting the IEEE519 limits. It should be noted that when using
(39),if the harmonic spectrum is scaled in percent
based on I L as calculated in (37),then Hspeccan easily be calculated directly from the IEEE-519 current distortion tables It should also be noted that if
the filter size is changed during the design process,
as is usually the case, I L and Hspecwill both change
Since the IEEE-5 19 current distortion limits
are based on the maximum demand load current
IL, the distortion current a harmonic producing
load is allowed to inject into the power system is
not constant It is dynamic, and it changes with
load This tends to make the application of IEEE519 tedious to work with from a modeling and
compliance standpoint because the actual system
loading tends to be composed of several random
variables all ofwhich cannot be accounted for during design When compliance is verified by actual
harmonic measurements, the maximum demand
can be measured and the applicable IEEE-5 19
limits can be applied However, the actual maxi-

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mum load will usually be different from what was

modeled during the design process Therefore,
common sense and experience are both required
when applying the IEEE-5 19 current distortion
limits for the purposes of filter design and measurement compliance

Step #4: F i t Filter t o System, H f und Hcds

Step #4 consists of configuring a filter system by
building a filter impedance transfer function Hfir)
using a combination of first, second and thirdorder filter sections H f ( s j is then used to build
H,ds(s) and plotted graphically with the filter design template H,pec to determine IEEE compliance
under both ideal and component tolerance variations An iterative procedure is used to optimize H f
(s) and Hcds(s)based on the consideration ofpractical operating conditions and economic alternatives. For example, if a single fifth harmonic filter
was being designed, Fig 20 shows graphically how
the transfer functions can be used together

Step #5: Check Loadings a n d Modeling

As a last step in the design process, after the filter
system is optimized and fit to the system, actual
components need to be selected based on available
and practical power system apparatus At that
point, the filter component ratings need to be compared to the harmonic loadings calculated from the
model and appropriate design margins applied.
This last step is typically done using a computer-

PRIMARY
SOURCE

ALTERNATE
SOURCE

CONDUCTOR TYPE

A 6"

750MCM AL UNDERGROUND
DUCT BANK

A ~ ~ ACSR
~M
OVERHEAD
cM
n 3 9 7 M C M AL OVERHEAD

FAULT LEVELS
PROVIDED BY

4'4'

;i:
VFD

FUTURE

Fig. 21. P u m p i n g plant one-line d i a g r a m .

/ElndusfryApplicutions Muguzine I Murch/Aprili997

I

FUTURE

FUTURE

simulated model of the system considering various

worst-case harmonic loading conditions and component tolerance variations to verify proper operation VHARM, HARMFLO, and PSPICE are
typical software packages which can be used for
this purpose.
This completes the filter design process as far
as meeting the current distortion limits are concerned There are still many other factors that
need to be considered before a technical specification can be written, but their detailed discussion
here is beyond the scope of this article. Some of
these include (1)filter reliability, (2) 1 T product
calculations for telephone interference, (3) voltage distortion conditions, ( 4 ) filter equipment
standards, ( 5 ) quality control, (6)filter configurations and switching sequences, (7) filter system
switching control, (8) system voltage rise considerations, (9) allowable component tolerance variations and design margins, (10) overcurrent and
overload protection and indication, (11) voltage
and current imbalance protection, (12) component materials, ratings, and construction, (1 3)
mechanical and physical considerations such as
component layout and cooling, (14)commissioning and acceptance testing, (15) damping and
tuning adjustments and methods, (16) grounding
and zero sequence performance, etc.

A Transfer Function Application Example

As shown in Fig 2 1, a pumping plant is served by
two 12 47 kV distribution feeders through an
automatic transfer switch (ATS) arrangement with
a weaker primary source and a stronger alternate
source from two separate utility substations. The
plant has facilities for six 600 hp variable frequency
motor drives (VFD), with three planned for the future. A typical current waveform and harmonic
spectrum of a single VFD is shown in Fig 2 1 Each
drive is connected to a separate step-down power
transformer, each with alternating wye/delta secondary winding configurations to achieve harmonic component cancellation between VFDs
The operation of the plant can have any one pump
on at a time so the benefits of harmonic reduction
from the transformer phase shifting is dependent
on the coincidence of the loads It has been requested by the utility that the waveform distortion
be controlled so that IEEE-519 limits are met
when the primary source feeder is in operation Because of the characteristics of the plant, one pump
is normally operated alone during light load conditions As the loading increases, the other two
pumps are used as needed
In this particular example, because of the opetation of the individual pumps, separate filter systems applied at each VFD are being considered as
one possible solution The main objective is to design an individual filter system for each VFD rectifier and estimate the equipment costs

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800.

ik
-

0
-

-800
0

0.0166

.3

linl
li, I

-n
0
0

80

Fig. 22. Current waveform and harmonic spectrum of one VFD

shown i n Fig. 21,

Essentially, Step # 1 has been completed and the

data is shown in Fig. 21 and 22. As shown in the
one-line diagram, the utility primary meter defines the PCC and this point is where the IEEE-5 19
current distortion limits are to apply.
For Step # 2 , considering only the operation of
the primary source, and if one VFD operates alone,
the short circuit ratio is in the 50 to 100 range of
the IEEE-519 limits. This assumes that the pump
is operated at its full-load nameplate rating of 600
hp. As a first approximation, the full-load current
at the PCC from one VFD is approximately 28
amps at 12.47 kV using 1 kVAIhp with no filters
on-line. Next, using the IEEE-519 cuttent distortion limit spectrum along with the harmonic spectrum shown in Fig. 22 and assuming the pump
typically operates at 80% load or 600 amps at 460
volts fundamental with a lagging displacement
factor of 7 7 % ,Hspecwas calculated by (39) and it is
shown graphically in Fig. 23 as agroup ofx's at the
harmonic frequencies.As shown, positive x's are
taken to mean that amplification is required before
the limits are exceeded, or the existing harmonic
components at those frequencies are below the limits and filtering is not necessary. The negative x's
are taken to mean that attenuation is tequired to
meet the limits, or that the existing harmonic components at those frequencies are above the limits
and filtering is necessary. Remember that if the existing harmonic components are equal to the limits, the ratio given in (39) would be unity and
20.L0glo(Hspec)= 0 dB. It should be noted that the
majority ofx's less than zero occur at the characteristic harmonic frequencies corresponding to a sixpulse rectifier load as expected. The seventh, thirteenth, nineteenth, etc. harmonic components are
Iff IndustryApplicationsMagazine March/Aprill997

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40

301

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20
10
HsPecn 0
ty
-10
-20
-30 1
-404

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Hcds(f1)

-30\

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' I ''''I
10

I IIIIIII
100

_
fl -f 2 , n

fa'fb
Fig. 24. Hcdiand H,, as a function of the harmonic
index with a 147 kvar equivalent filter branch.

30
20

10

WS(f2)-, 0

100

Hcdm,0
Hspec,
x
-20

I I IIIII

20
10

Hcds(f1)

30

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1 1 ' ' 1 110
1

Fig. 2?. Hspcgiven in dB as a function of the

harmonic index n for one of the VFDs in Fig. 21
and with the harmonic spectrum shown in Fig. 22
assuming 80% loading.

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first-order high-pass sections until an acceptable

design is achieved. Using this approach along with
practical components which are readily available
(i e , there is an experience factor at work here), the
following sequence of figures illustrates the iterative nature to the design process
Fig. 24 shows the application of a second-order
series resonant fifth harmonic filter branch tuned
to the 4 8th harmonic using a 240 kvar three-phase
capacitor bank rated at 600 volts (1768 pF wye
equivalent) with a series tuning inductor of 173
m H and quality factor of 20 (15 6 mQ) At 60 Hz,
the equivalent reactive power rating of this filter is
147 kvar, taking into account the 460 volt application and the inductive reactance cancellation as
given by (40). Low voltage filter costs typically
range from $5O/kvar to $iO/kvar for a complete
package depending on the size and complexity of
the system. Based on a conservative $65/kvar, this
would total nearly $9,600

Hspec,
)r

-20

-30;

'

I I IIIIIII
10
_
fl _
f2

100

fb,fb,n

Fig. 25. Addition of an 18 kvar 1 Ith harmonicfilter

t o Fig. 24.

small for this particular VFD and are, therefore,

nearly equal to the limits at zero dB. The majority
of x's above zero dB are even-order and zerosequence-order harmonic components. This tends
to indicate that the rectifier waveform has a high
degree of negative half-wave symmetry with very
insignificant even-order harmonic components as a
result.
The objective for Step #4 is to configure a filter
system transfer function Hfand insert it into Hcds
so that, when it is plotted with Hspec,its transfer
function plot will be somewhere below the IEEE519 limits. The design process from now on becomes more of a creative art than a defined science
since an almost infinite number of filter possibilities exist This is one aspect to filter design that
makes it very challenging and quite enjoyable'
It is customary to start with the lowest order
harmonic component, in this case the fifth, and
work up in frequency using combinations of
second-order series resonant filter branches and

/E lndustry ApplicutiunsMuguzine m Murch/Apri/ I997

,WY

jWC

(40)

The detuning frequency of 288 Hz (i e , 4 8 60

Hz = 288 Hz) is used to compensate for capacitive tolerance variations over time Basically, as
power capacitor cells age, they tend to lose capacitance as the dielectric material degrades and
the series resonant frequency of the filter increases as a result. As shown inFig. 24, the limits
are met at the fifth harmonic but not at some of
the higher-order harmonics
In Fig. 25, an eleventh harmonic filter section
was added to the system In this case, a 30 kvar
600-volt rated capacitor (221 pF) was used with a
283 m H inductor so that a 10 6th harmonic tuning characteristic was obtained using a quality factor of 20 (57 mQ). Using (40), the equivalent
reactive power rating is 18 kvar at 460 volts and 60
Hz The configuration of Fig 25 nearly meets the
limits except for one or two of the high-frequency
components. At $65/kvar, this combination would
cost approximately $11,000
Instead of an 11th harmonic filter, say a 150
kvar high-pass was used. As shown in Fig. 26, this
configuration consists of a 150 kvar rated at 480
volt (1727 mF) and has good high-frequency attenuation, but the eleventh and thirteenth harmonic components are over the limits Also, a
significant parallel resonance is formed right at the
eleventh harmonic This resonance would produce
significant voltage and current distortion in the
high-pass capacitance and the utility system inductance and is, therefore, considered unacceptable It should be obvious that the larger the highpass capacitance is, the lower the parallel resonant
frequency becomes. Straight out power factor cor-

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rection capacitors for 480 volt systems average

around $5lkvar to $12/kvar. Therefore, a 150 kvar
bank would cost $1,500 at $10/kvar. To control
the parallel resonance, a 100 mi2 series damping
resistance was added to the high-pass filter and the
result is shown in Fig. 27. While good highfrequency response is still attained, the 11th harmonic component remains over the limits. Adding
the 11th harmonic filter back into the system results in Fig. 28. As shown, this filter system meets
all of the IEEE-519 limits and totals approximately 165 kvar of tuned 2nd-order filter sections
with a 150 kvar 1st-order damped high-pass. The
total cost is now on the order of (4 12,500per VFD.
To be conservative, a small seventh harmonic
filter section could be added, as shown in Fig. 29,
just in case the drive characteristics changed and
produced a more significant seventh harmonic
component than what was mcasured in Fig. 22. In
this case, a 20 kvar rated 600 volt capacitor bank
(221 pF) tuned to the 6.7th harmonic using an
1064 m H inductor and an assumed quality factor
of 20 (134 m a ) . Using (do), this filter would have
an equivalent 60 Hz reactive power rating of 12
kvar at 460 volts and would add approximately
$1,000 to the overall design.
If Fig. 28 was adopted as the final design, the
total reactive power rating of the filter at 60 Hz and
460 volts would be approximately 3 15 kvar. This
would produce a system voltage rise of nearly 3% as
approximated by (41) and correct the 60 Hz power
factor to near unity as given by (37).

(41)
where

V,;, = per-unit voltage rise resulting from the

reactive power flow
Qeq = equivalent 60 Hz filter power rating (var)
s b = system base apparent power (VA)
X , = system per unit inductive reactance to the
point of connection
As the last step in the design process, the filter
component ratings need to be checked along with
the resulting voltage distortion at the PCC. While
a computer model should be used to check ratings,

20
10

Hcds(f1)
HcdW,0

Hspec,
8
-20
-30;

idea of the filter component loadings as well as to

double-check the computer. For example, consider
the total worst-case RMS current flowing in the
fifth harmonic filter section. To a first-order approximation, it consists of a 60 H z component and
a fifth harmonic component. At 60 Hz, the equivalent reactive power flow in the fifth harmonic filter
section is around 185 amps corresponding to 460
volts and 147 kvar. Assuming the filter section is
tuned right to the fifth harmonic and -15 dB of attenuation results while the VFD is operating at
600 amps full-load, approximately 133 amps of
fifth harmonic current would flow in the filter section. The true RMS equivalent current would then
be 228 amps. Therefore, the fifth harmonic filter
inductors should be rated for at least 228 amps. Assuming the filter carried 100% of the 5th harmonic current would yield nearly 246 amps. Since
a 240 kvar, rated 600 volt, capacitor was used for
the filter section, the full load RMS current rating
at 600 volts is 23 1 amps. Capacitor banks are typically rated to carry 135% full-load RMS current;
hence, the fifth harmonic filter appears to be adequate. This same technique can be used to approximate the minimum ratings for each filter
component in the system.
There are many more practical engineering factors which need to be considered for this design.
This example was presented to illustrate some of
the details of using the transfer function approach
with the IEEE-5 19 current distortion limits.
With more and more large nonlinear power
electronic converters being utilized, power system
waveform distortion has warranted the development of stringent harmonic distortion control limits by several agencies around the world. In the
United States, the development and application of
the IEEE-5 19 guidelines and standards has necessitated the need for sound engineering and design
of voltage and current waveform interfacing between rectifier loads and the electric power source.
The transfer function approach to passive harmonic filter design presented in this article is a
generalized approach that can easily be applied to
rvrryday engineering problems. ILis intended to
be used both as an analytical formulation based on
the Laplace transform solution to linear circuit dif-

''

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INlllll
100

f l f2,,

~~

fi' fi
Fig. 26. Addition of a 150 knar high-pass to Fig. 24.

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WS(f2)-, 0

30
20
10
Hcds(f1)

30

a quick approximation can be used to get a rough

Hspec,
-20
8

-30

10

_
fl _
f2,,
fh'fb

100

Fig. 27. 100 rnW dumbing resistance added to the

1,50 kvar high-pass filter of Fig. 26.

/E industry Applications Mogozine Morch/Apd I997

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Hcds(f1)
Hspec,

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20
10

-20
-30;

'

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' '

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Fig. 28. Addition of an 18 kvar 11th harmonicfilter

t o the system of Fig. 27.

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20
10

Ws(f1)
Hcds(f2)-, 0
Hspec,
x H-O
2t-

-30

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_
si _
f2$

fb' fb

10

Fig. 29. Addition of a 12 kvar 7th harmonicfilter to

Fig. 28,

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into poleizero form, it is very time-consuming and

prone to algebra mistakes; therefore, a practical
and effective harmonic design procedure was developed. This procedure uses the transfer function
approach in conjunction with the new IEEE-S 19
harmonic distortion limits. The philosophy that
governs the design procedure is based on a numericaligraphical iterative solution (i.e., trial and error
with visualization feed-back based on "algebra on
the graph").
In an effort to make this article useful, a practical example was given that directly incorporate the
presented theory. Due to the usual time constraints
and the limited scope of this article, many of the
finer details associated with the example and the
theory were not covered. There are so many interesting facets to this material that this article could
not cover them in the quality and detail which Ehey
deserve; however, the material given has made a
significant advance toward an optimistic future.

ferential equations using the theory of superposition and as a graphical formulation so that a
visualized insight into the interaction and response
of individual filter and system elements can be attained It cannot be stressed enough that having a
graphical picture in your mind (I e , "doing algebra
on the graph" [b])when designing filter systems
can go Izght-years beyond trying to think of filter
design only in terms of symbolic equations with
multiple poles and zeros. While it may be somewhat challenging to factor the Laplace equations

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/E Industry App/ications Mugazine m Murch/Apri/ I 997

References
[l] E.H. Ismail, "Three-phase High Quality Rectification,"
Ph.D. thesis, University of Colorado at Boulder, 1993.
121J.K. Phipps, PhaseShrfting TransfomzersandPassiveHarmonrc
Filters: Interfucmg for Power Electronic Motor Drive Converters,
MSEE thesis, University of Colorado, April 1993.
131 "IEEE Recommended Practices and Requirements for Harmonic Control in Electric Power Systems," IEEE Std 5 191992.
[4]J . Arrillaga, D.A. Bradley, P.S. Bodger, Power system Harmonia, 1st ed., John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1985.
[ 5 ] R.C. Dugan and M.Z. McGranaghan, "Electric Power,System Harmonics Design Guide," 2nd ed., McGruw-Edison
Pwer Systems, Bulletin 87011, September 1988.
161R.W. Erickson, "Power Electronics 1," ECEN 5797 Course
Notes (Fall 1991), University of Colorado at Boulder,
August 1984.