Design and performance of an active power filter for unbalanced loads

Active power filter is an advanced power electronic device, which can be used for integrated compensating harmonic, reactive and negative sequence currents. This paper proposes the design of a shunt active power filter under the condition of unbalanced and nonlinear loads. The active power filter, which can be used under the condition of unbalanced or distorted source voltages, can be applicable to compensate the harmonic, reactive and negative sequence currents. Besides, an experimental active power filter is developed, and some computer simulations and experiments of the active power filter are carried out under several conditions. The results of the simulations and experiments show that the active power filter has excellent performances.