Effect of condensers on harmonic propagation in AC power system

There has been an increasing interest in the subject of harmonic generation and its effect on power systems. The effects of harmonics are becoming a growing problem facing the utilities now and in the future. This is attributed to the extensive use of nonlinear load power electronic devices and power plant components capable of producing considerable harmonic distortion in the network. As the tendency in the use of more and more nonlinear power component increases, the need for the AC and DC side voltage and current calculation becomes an important matter in power system planning and analysis. In this paper, the propagation of harmonic currents in a 15-bus power system is analyzed by first considering a specific nonlinear load, which is known to inject harmonics into the system. Six different system configurations are considered by placing the condensers at different buses. The harmonic power flow program HARMFLO is used to predict the propagation of harmonics caused by three phase AC/DC power electronic converter on the power distribution system. The result shows that the condensers have a direct effect on harmonic propagation in the system lines and the level of voltage distortion on each bus