A new controlled active front end based on voltage processing and supply current reaction

In this paper, a new multifunctional active front-end (AFE) is presented. It is an innovative and flexible solution for four quadrants and variable speed drives applications. The proposed AFE ensures the unity power factor, but with its switches oversizing, it can compensate current harmonic distortions, reactive power and/or voltage unbalances produced by external loads. It is based on a new control strategy, which utilizes the supply current regulation and a new robust compensation algorithm which ensures the active front-end performances do not decrease in presence of unbalanced and distorted supply voltage conditions. Numerical simulations show the advantages of the proposed solution with respect on active front-end based on synchronous control technique present in literature.