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Passive Filter for Harmonics Mitigation In

Standalone PV System for non Linear Load

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 Passive Filter for Harmonics Mitigation
In Standalone PV System for non Linear Load
Mouna TALI, Abdellatif OBBADI*, Abdelkrim ELFAJRI, Youssef ERRAMI
Laboratory: Electronics, Instrumentation and Energy Team: Exploitation and Processing of Renewable Energy
Faculty of Science University Chouaib Doukkali Department of Physics
Route Ben Maachou, 24000 El-Jadida, Morocco
natalimou@hotmail.fr obbadi.a@ucd.ac.ma elfajri@hotmail.com
AbstractSeveral studies have been presented regarding the
harmonics mitigation by using different types of filters. Passive
filter is one of them and is employed due to his simplicity,
economical cost and high reliability in power system. This paper
presents an analysis and study of three types of passive filters to
minimize harmonics distortion caused by non linear loads in
standalone PV system. In order to achieve the certain filtering
effect, it is necessary to combine different filter topologies;
generally these topologies can be divided into two categories:
series AC reactor and shunt passive filter such as tuned filters
and high pass filters. This paper presents firstly the basic design
and components of PV system, secondly describes the causes of
harmonics and their effects and presents the means to improve
power quality and to protect the equipment in our power system.
The proposed system is verified by the simulation using
Matlab/Simulink environment.
Keywords- Passive Harmonic Filter; Total Harmonic Distortion
(THD); Photovoltaic cell; PV inverter; LC filter; Non Linear Load.
I. INTRODUCTION
The global energy demand is constantly increasing, and the
pollutant nature of fossil energies has increased the interest of
the development of renewable energies.
Solar energy is plentiful worldwide, and the best way to
produce electricity without pollution[1].We can use solar PV
systems for domestic use and store excess electricity in
batteries for later use this is a Standalone PV System, or feed
into the electricity grid to reduce the electricity bill [2-3].
In standalone PV system power electronic equipment and non
linear loads are widely used and resulted serious harmonic
problems. Normally, standalone PV system is designed to
operate at frequencies of 50Hz. Although certain types of
loads produce current and voltage signal with frequencies that
are integer multiples of the 50Hz fundamental frequency [4].
These higher frequencies are called electrical pollution that is
known as power system harmonics. Harmonics causes
obstruction to the normal operation of the equipment or the
system. Harmonics are generated by various reasons such as
saturation, switching like thyristor/diode rectifiers, cyclo
converters can interact adversely in the PV system. It is
imperative to analyze, quantify and reduce these harmonics to
a level which meets the IEEE 519-1992 standard [5]. A large
number of filter topologies and filtering techniques are
errami_y@hotmail.com
proposed in literature including passive, active and hybrid
filters [6].
This paper focuses on the analysis and design of harmonic
passive filters for a single phase standalone PV system, single
tuned filter for low order frequencies and high passive filter
for high order frequencies [6-7]. This work is organized as
follows section discusses in brief the modeling of the
standalone PV system; section describes the passive filters
design for the harmonics mitigation in the standalone PV
system. Figure 1 shows the block diagram of the proposed
standalone system.
Boost Inverter Non Linear
Converter DC/AC Load
PV module
Passive
Filter
Figure 1. Bloc diagram of PV system
The system comprises of a PV module containing a number
of PV cells connected in series to obtain a desired DC voltage,
a DC/DC boost converter is used to generate a higher DC
voltage, a DC/AC inverter is necessary to provide an AC
output voltage. For the standalone application and non linear
loads, Passive Filter must be used for harmonics mitigations.
II. MODELING OF STANDALONE PV SYSTEM
A. PV Cell
Photovoltaic cell generates electricity by converting
sunlight, due to the fact that the voltage and current output of a
signal PV cell can be too small, PV cell is connected in series
or parallel combination to obtain the voltage and current level
suitable for practical use. The PV cell can be modeled as a
current source Iph in parallel with a diode, shunt resistor Rsh and
series Rs resistor as shown in figure 2.

vd
Figure 2. Model of a PV cell
By applying Kirchhoffs law in the equivalent circuit of
solar cell, the current generated I can be obtained as:
I = I I I (1)
Where Iph is the light generating current which depends on
the solar irradiance, Id is the current flowing through the diode
which depends on the solar cell temperature; Ish is the current
flowing in the equivalent shunt resistance of the solar cell [2].
V = V + R I (2)
I = (V + IR )R sh (3)
qV
I = I [ exp( ) 1 ] (4)
nKT
n : ideality factor of p-n junction of cell.
Vd: voltage across the diode.
q: electronic charge: 1,60210-19 C.
K: Boltzmanns constant: 1,3810-23.
T: solar temperature in Kelvin scale.
Is: rated short circuit current of solar cell.
B. DC/DC Boost Converter:
A Boost converter is proposed and preferred of DC/DC
converter in standalone PV system because he can step up
small DC voltage produced by PV panel to a higher level
suitable for the DC/AC inverter [2].
C. Full-Bridge Inverter:
Single phase Full-Bridge inverter is used to convert the DC
output voltage of the DC/DC Boost Converter into AC voltage
required for an AC loads, in the standalone PV system. Pulse
Width Modulation (PWM) is used to create proper gating
signals for switches. The gate signals are pulses obtained by
comparing a reference sinusoidal signal Vref with a triangular
signal Vc [2-3-4].
In general, there is much harmonic component in output
inverter voltage, thus by choosing a high value of the carrier
frequency facilitates filtering of current and reduces the
harmonic output voltage but power switches have a limited
time of conduction then its necessary to find a compromise,
hence a LC filter is designed and used to filter the high
frequency harmonic in output inverter voltage.
The most commonly used indices to quantify voltage and
current distortions are voltage and current THD that can be
calculated as follows.
hh=2
max 2
Xh
THDX = (5)
X1
Where x can be the voltage or the current.
D. LC filter:
To reduce harmonics contained in output inverter voltage
and to create a clean output sinusoidal voltage the LC Low pass
filter is used. It is placed between the inverter and the load in a
standalone PV system. The LC filter chosen is a second order
which eliminates all high order harmonics; the filter inductance
value L is calculated such that the voltage drop across the
inductor is less than 3% of the inverter output voltage Vo [2].
2. f. L. ILmax < 0,03. 0 (6)
Where ILmax is the maximum RMS (Root Mean Square)
Load current, f is output voltage frequency 50Hz and Vo is the
RMS value of inverter output voltage, the filter capacitance
value C is then calculated from the resonance relation as given
in:
1
C= (7)
(2f0 )2 L
Where f0 is cut off frequency.
III. HARMONIC PASSIVE FILTER
A. Non linear loads:
Non-linear loads consisting of components such as rectifiers,
lighting electronic ballasts, fluorescent lights generate and
inject current and voltage Harmonics in the power system. The
main problems are additional power losses in the electrical
equipment, errors in measurement. Therefore mitigation is
required to maintain Power Quality and improve energy
efficiency and reduce the potential for device failure by using
Harmonic Passive filters [8].
B. Seriesconnected AC Reactor :
Series AC Reactor is constituted of an inductor connected
in series with the non linear loads, this type of configurations
is considered as a low pass filter. Figure 3 illustrates the basic
configuration of series-connected reactor in the power system.
It has the ability to pass low frequency harmonics and
provides high impedance to high frequency harmonic currents
to limit their proliferation into the power system. The merit of
this filter is in its low cost, small size and provides no system
resonance condition.
The value of the inductor is set to a voltage drop of between
3% and 5% of the nominal voltage of the network [9].
Li
Non linear
Voltage
load
source
Figure 3. Series AC Reactor
C. Shunt Passive Filters:
Shunt Passive filters always been considered as a good
solution to solve harmonic current problems [10], shunt
passive filters can be classified into three basic categories as The quality factor Q determines the sharpness of tuning.
follows: Usually, a value of Q ranges between 20 and 100. High Q-
1. Band pass filters (of single or double tuned). value filter gives the best reduction in harmonic distortion.
2. High pass filters (of first, second, third-order or C-type). The interaction of the filter with the source reactance Ls
3. Composite filters. always creates a parallel resonance condition addition to the
Shunt passives filters as shown in figure 4. series resonance frequency of the filter [11].
1
fp = (13)
Rf 2(Lf + Ls )Cf
Rh Lh
E. High pass filterdesign:
Lf
Higher order filter is a single-tuned filter where the Lh and Rh
Ch elements are connected in parallel instead of series. This
Cf connection results in a wide-band filter having impedance at
high frequencies limited by the resistance Rh.
(a) Tuned filter (b) High pass filter Its total impedance is given by:
Figure 4. shunt passive filters
R h + L h S + R h L h Ch S 2
Zh (S) = (14)
D. Single Tuned filter design: R h C h S + L h Ch S 2
The single tuned filter consisting of inductor Lf, capacitor
Cf and small damping resistor Rf are connected in parallel with The values of capacitor Ch and reactor inductor Lh can be
non linear loads to provide low-impedance paths for specific calculate with formula (9) and (11).
harmonic frequencies, thus resulting in absorbing the dominant
harmonic currents flowing out of the load. Furthermore it also The value of resistance is calculated for a specific quality factor
compensates reactive power at system operating frequency. [12] as given by the equation (15):
The impedance versus frequency of this filter is shown:
R h = Q. Lh h with 0,5 < < 5 (15)
1 + R f Cf S + Lf Cf S
Zf (S) = (8)
Cf S Value of Rh should be Low to have Less Power Loss.
Where = 2 F. Analysis and description of system :
Generally the filter capacitor is sized for a known reactive The previous descriptions imply that the passive harmonic
power compensation Qc required to improve power factor, Cf filters can be characterized by their impedance variation with
can be expressed as: frequency. The harmonic currents and voltage of a system with
a non linear load and a harmonic filter can be analyzed
Qc 1 approximately by using the model shown in figure 5.
= 2
(1 2 ) (9)
2f1 U Li (a) (b)

Where U is the supply voltage, n is the harmonic order and f1 is Is If

a fundamental frequency. Zs Zf Vs
At the harmonic frequency f = n. f1 the filter reactor provides Voltage Non Ih
a series resonance. Source Linear
Load
Passive filter
1
Lf 2fn = (10) Figure 5. Harmonic circuit model of a system with a nonlinear load and a
Cf 2fn harmonic filter.
The inductive value of the filter can be obtained from equation
Where the non linear load is modeled as a current source of
(11) as:
harmonic Ih, passive filters are modeled as impedance
elements. The harmonic currents to system source and
1 harmonic filter, and harmonic voltage in the system can be
Lf = (11)
(2fn )Cf found as:
The value of the low-impedance Rf for each single-tuned filter
is affected by the quality factor of the filter Q. Zs = Zsource + ZLi (16)

Lf Zf
R f = 2f1 n (12) Is = .I (17)
Q Zf + Zs h
 Zs The transfer function can be evaluated at low and high
If = .I (18)
Zf + Zs h frequencies. For low frequencies, it has a 0dB gain from 0Hz to
the parallel resonant frequency in passive filter r. Hence, the
Zf . Zs
Vs = .I (19) harmonics filtering is divided between the two filters: the low
Zf + Zs h order harmonics are compensated using the tuned filters, while
Zfs . Zfh the high-order harmonics are filtered by the high pass filter.
Zf = (20)
Zfs + Zfh IV. SIMULATION RESULTS:
Is 1 The standalone PV system with passive filter connecting to
H(S) = = (21)
Ih 1 + Zs Yf a full wave bridge rectifier with RL Load is proposed and
1 1 1 simulated using Matlab/Simulink in this paper as shown in
Y = = + (22) figure 8, the simulation is carried out as series AC reactor
Zf Zfh Zfs alone, and combination of series reactor and two single tuned
Where Zf is the equivalent impedance between tuned filter filters to the 3rd and 5th harmonics and a high pass filter to
impedance Zfs and high order filter impedance Zfh. Equation compensate higher order harmonics.
(17) and (19) show that the harmonic current Is and voltage Vs
can be reduce by the harmonic filter. In the composite passive
filter, combination of two lower order filters 3rd and 5this
designed to suppress lower harmonic frequencies, and one
second order high pass filter is used for eliminating the high
order frequencies.
1
= is the equivalent admittance of the composite passive

filter is shown in figure 5: Voltage source Passive Filters Non Linear Load
1 Cf3 S Cf5 S Figure 8. Passive filter in standalone PV system with non linear load.
= +
Zf 1 + R f3 Cf3 S + Lf3 Cf3 S 2 1 + R f5 Cf5 S + Lf5 Cf5S 2
The harmonic spectra and THD for source voltage and source
R h Ch S + Lh Ch S current are analyzed with no filter, with a series AC reactor and
+ (23) with composite filters.
R h + Lh S + R h Ch Lh S
Figure 9 illustrates the voltage waveform were sinusoidal after
LC filter connecting.

Figure 9. Output voltage of the inverter with LC passive filter.

Figure 6. Impedance frequency plot of passive filters combination
Figure 10 (a) and (b) show the source current and source
Figure 6 shows the impedance modulus plots for 3rd, 5th voltage waveforms before filtering.
harmonics and after 7th harmonics high pass filter provides low
impedance to attenuate high frequency harmonics.
(a)
The bode magnitude of transfer function of combination of
filters H(s) shown by equation (21) is plotted to assess the
overall filter performance as shown in figure 7.

(b)

Figure 10. source current and source voltage before filtering.

Figure 11 (a) and (b) show harmonic spectrum of source

Figure 7. Bode magnitude diagram of the transfer function for the passive current and source voltage before compensation.
filter.
 Figure 11. (a) Current Harmonic Spectrum without passive filter.
Figure 11. (b) Voltage Harmonic Spectrum without Passive filter.
(a)
Figure 12 (a) and (b) show the source current Is and source
voltage Vs wave forms after the first solution: series inductor
installation, as a result is much closer to sinusoidal one.
(a)
(b)
(b)
Figure 12. source current is and source voltage Vs with series inductor.
Figure 13 (a) and (b) show harmonic spectrum source
current and supply voltage after series inductor installation.
Figure13. (a) Current Harmonic Spectrum with series inductor.
Figure 13. (b) Voltage Harmonic Spectrums with series inductor.
After series inductor installation THD in current was
reduced to 8,31% from 17% whereas voltage harmonic
distortion is reduced to 6,63% from 14,1%, it is clear that is an
acceptable mitigation, through it is not coming with the limits
specified by the std IEEE 519, its advantage is also that it does
not cause the problem of resonance.
Figure 14 (a) and (b) show the source current and source
voltage waveforms after combination of shunt passive filter
and series inductor.
Figure 14. Source current and source Voltage with composite filter.
Figure 15 (a) and (b) show harmonic spectrum source
current and supply voltage after Passive Filter combination.
The source current THD is drastically improved by use of
Combination of passive filters to 1,09% and also the supply
voltage is reduced to 2,03%.
Figure 15. (a) Source current spectra after filtering.
 V. CONCLUSION:
This paper has presented a harmonic mitigation study in the
standalone system, using three types of passive filters namely,
series reactor and shunt passive filters: single tuned and high
pass filters in eliminating harmonics. Line reactor offers the
advantage of his simplicity and low cost it provides no system
resonance condition and its can achieve a significant reduction
in harmonics but the total harmonic distortion cannot be below
to 5% that is why use of shunt passive filters was necessary to
improve system quality.
Figure 15. (b) Source Voltage spectra after filtering. The proposed solution allows a better performance
compensation of the source current and source voltage at a high
TABLE . TOTAL HARMONIC DISTORTION FOR CURRENT AND
VOLTAGE.
level THDI = 1,09% THDV= 2,03% in the simulation. Our
results meet the IEEE 519 recommended harmonic standard.
Total harmonic Distortion THD
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