Assessing the Collective Harmonic Impact of Modern Residential Loads—Part II: Applications

This paper studies the harmonic impact of modern residential loads on the secondary power distribution systems. Several issues of concern to utilities, such as the neutral-to-earth voltage rise, the overloading of service transformers, the impact of compact fluorescent lights (CFL), and the benefits of adopting IEC 61000-3-2 limits, have been investigated. A bottom-up probabilistic harmonic assessment method proposed in the companion paper was applied to conduct the study. Several interesting results have been obtained. For example, the adoption of CFLs based on market trend could result in an increase of voltage total harmonic distortion by about 10% per year over the next couple of years. Adopting the IEC limits on CFLs will drop the growth rate to 2% per year. In addition to the results of interest to utility companies, this paper demonstrates the usefulness and necessity of a bottom-up-based approach to conduct harmonic assessment for residential loads.