A Novel Control of Series Active Power Filter

without Harmonics Detection

Yuan Chang, Liu Jinjun, Wang Xiaoyu, Wang Zhaoan
Xian Jiaotong University, Xian, Shaanxi Province, P. R. China
Abstract- The main idea of conventional control methods for
series active power filter (SAPF) is to control the SAPF as
frequency-selective impedance or voltage source. In these
conventional control methods, a real-time instantaneous
harmonics detection algorithm is essential and comparatively
complex, which is usually implemented with a digital signal
processor (DSP) therefore makes the control circuit complicated
and high cost. Furthermore, the time delay caused by the
harmonics detection and its digital implementation will
deteriorate harmonics compensation performance. In this paper
a new control method for SAPF is proposed. The idea of the
proposed control is to control the compensation voltage injected
by SAPF to trace the multiple of whole line current to achieve
current harmonics suppression. Since the control reference
signal directly utilizes the detected line current without
calculating harmonics, the proposed control actually eliminates
the harmonics detection process. In addition, the DC-side
voltage control is indispensable in this control to maintain the
active power balance for the proper operation of the SAPF
system. Compared to traditional control methods, the proposed
control is therefore much simpler and easier to implement at low
cost. And the time delay caused by complicated harmonics
calculation does not exist any more.
Simulation and
experimental results are presented to verify the validity of the
proposed control method and the performance of the SAPF.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Harmonics contamination, due to the increasing use of

nonlinear loads, such as large thyristor power converters,
rectifiers, and arc furnaces, has become a serious problem in
power systems for a long time [1, 2]. Following with the
conventional passive filters, the active power filter (APF) was
produced to solve harmonics problems. Series active power
filter (SAPF) was first proposed at late 1980s with hybrid
topology to suppress the current harmonics generated from
rectifier with large filter inductor [3-4]. As shown in Fig. 1, at
late 1990s series connected pure active power filter topology
was used to suppress the current harmonics drew by voltagesource type harmonics-generating loads, such as capacitor-

Fig. 1 System configuration

1-4244-0655-2/07/$20.002007 IEEE

filtered diode rectifier circuits, so that the current flowing into

the electric power network could be almost sinusoidal.
Control is a key issue for the performance and
compensation characteristic of SAPF, and has been hot
research spot ever since the proposal of SAPF[5- 9].
Conventional controls of SAPF need harmonics detection, in
which the SAPF works just like frequency-selective
impedance. It presents zero impedance for the fundamental
frequency and acts as a resistor with high resistance of K []
for harmonics frequencies. If the ratio K [] is large enough,
the line current will be close to sinusoidal. How to detect the
harmonics from the line current quickly and exactly is a focus
in this kind of control scheme. Lots of harmonics detection
algorithms were proposed such as fast Fourier transform
algorithm (FFT), p-q transformation method based on
instantaneous reactive power theory. The implementation of
those algorithms need much calculation, which usually
implemented with digital signal processor (DSP), hence the
cost of the control system is high. Moreover, the digital
implementation will bring extra time delay which will
deteriorate the compensation performance. These shortages
limit the applications of the conventional control methods.
This paper presents a novel control method for series active
power filter. The proposed control method prevents the
harmonics detection to achieve simple implementation. The
clear physical meaning makes it easy to understand. After
detailed analysis, simulation results are obtained to validate
the proposed control method. To demonstrate the performance
of the proposed control method further, a hardware prototype
is developed and tested.
II.

CONVENTIONAL CONTROL METHODS OF SAPF

Conventional control methods of SAPF need harmonics

detection, based on harmonics detection-and-compensation
strategy. In those controls, the SAPF acts as frequencyselective impedance. It presents zero impedance for the
fundamental frequency and acts as a resistor with high
resistance of K [] for harmonics frequencies. Fig. 2(a)
shows the system equivalent circuit and Fig. 2(b) shows its
corresponding control method. With a high pass filter (HPF),
the controller detects the line current is and calculates its
harmonics ish. The waveform of current harmonics multiplied
by K is selected to be the compensation voltage reference of
SAPF. Following this reference, the SAPF is controlled as
frequency-selective impedance. To maintain a constant DCside voltage of the power converter, the DC-side voltage
feedback is introduced to control the active power flow of
SAPF.

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(a) Equivalent circuit

(b) Control block diagram

Fig. 2 Conventional control methods of SAPF

The performance of the high pass filter (HPF) is very

important, and there are currently lots of algorithms proposed,
such as fast Fourier transform algorithm (FFT), p-q method
based on instantaneous reactive power theory, etc. Most of
them need large computation workload, and commonly
implemented with high-cost DSP. Although the calculation
speed of DSP is very high, its impossible to achieve an ideal
high pass filter. The non-ideal filter will bring phase delay into
the filtered signal and deteriorate the compensation
performance. As the harmonics source in many applications is
fixed, the signal to be filtered is periodic, therefore, its
common to use the information from previous period to
achieve a phase leading. This shift can compensate both the
non-ideal characteristic of the HPF and the time delay resulted
by digital control. But the line current harmonics are varying,
so the validation of these control methods is doubted. The
compensation performance will be decreasing rapidly, even
the stability of whole system is not guaranteed.
III.

The whole circuit will operate in an ill state and the DC-side
voltage of SAPF will boost rapidly. So we add on active
current signal to obtain active power balance.

uc '' (t ) = h(t )(uDC u DC * )sin(t + )

where the h(t ) represents the time domain

expression of the compensator

the sin(t + ) represents the unity sinusoid in-phase
with utility voltage
This control signal keeps the DC-side voltage of the SAPF
constant. So the SAPF does not consume the average power
from the source and can operate normally.
Fig. 3 shows the control block of the proposed control
method.
The whole control law is:

PROPOSED CONTROL METHOD

To resolve the problem mentioned above, there are two

different ways:
Design a better filter such as adaptive filter, neutral network
control, etc [10,11] .
Cancel the HPF from the control system.
The front strategy often means more system cost for the
complicated filter. This paper presents a novel control method
based on the latter idea.
In the proposed control method, the reference of
compensating voltage is composed of two parts:

uc * (t ) = u c ' (t ) + uc '' (t )

Firstly, introduce the multiple of the whole load current to

be the first part of the control signal (Equ.1). In virtue of the
cancellation of the HPF, the SAPF has a simple controller.

uc ' (t ) = K is (t )

If the SAPF can generate compensation current equal to

first control signal, then theoretically the load current
harmonics will be compensated. However, if the
compensating current is identical to the load current, the load
will absorb active power from SAPF rather than utility source.

Fig. 3 Control block diagram of proposed control method

uC* (t ) = K iS (t ) h(t )(uDC uDC * ) sin(t + )

IV.

SIMULATION RESULTS

Based on the configuration of SAPF shown in figure 1, a

simulation system is built to verify the proposed control
method. Fig. 4(a) shows the line current before compensation
and Fig.4(b) shows the frequency spectrum. Fig. 4(c) shows
the steady state compensation performance using the proposed
control method. Fig. 4(d) shows the dynamic response when a
DC voltage disturbance happens at the 0.2s. The simulation
results verify that the proposed control method can suppress
the current harmonics effectively under steady state and
dynamical state.

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(a) The line current before compensation

(b) Spectrum of the line current before compensation

(c) Steady state compensation performance

(d)When a DC voltage disturbance happens

Fig. 4 Simulation results

V.

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

To demonstrate performance of the proposed control

method, a hardware prototype was developed. Fig. 5 shows
the photo of the experimental system. Fig. 6(a) shows the load
voltage and line current before compensation. Fig.6 (b) shows
the experimental result of SAPF employing proposed control
method.

(a) Without SAPF

(b) With SAPF in proposed control

Fig. 6 Experimental results

Fig. 5 Experimental prototype

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VI.

CONCLUSIONS

[4]

After reviewed the conventional control methods of series

active power filter, a novel control method is proposed based
on the idea of removing the high pass filter to get simple
implementation. If directly use the line current to be the
control reference of the compensation current, the SAPF can
also suppress the line current harmonics efficiently. The
simulation results show the proposed control method is
effective under different test conditions. A hardware prototype
is developed to verify the proposed control method.
Experimental results of the SAPF system for steady state are
presented. The results show that the proposed control method
exhibits a good performance. So the SAPF with the proposed
control method provide a simpler and low cost scheme for
harmonics suppression and power quality improvement.

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