Study of the direction of the harmonic injections in the electrical power systems

A simple measurement of a harmonic current in an unspecified point of the network cannot detect the transit direction of this current. The characterization of the harmonic currents flow direction harmonic currents requires a solid criterion, which will easily identify the real direction of these currents, consider their effects and then attenuate them. The criterion which seems to satisfy these requirements is that of the harmonic active P/sub h/ or reactive Q/sub h/ powers. In this paper the criterion of the harmonic active power P/sub h/ is developed. It arises from the results obtained that the harmonic active power consumed by a non pollutant consumer is positive (P/sub h/>0), whereas it is negative for a polluter one (P/sub h/<0). The criterion is also investigated using case studies and mathematical analysis. To validate the computation results, simulations were carried out under Matlab/Simulink. The results obtained during simulation show that P/sub h/ is positive whatever the harmonic currents intensity in the network is for a clean consumer whereas it is negative for pollutant consumer.