A modified harmonic current vector method for harmonic contribution determination

This paper deals with the determination of customer contributions to harmonic distortion at the point of connection to the utility network. The approach proposed in this paper is derived from the common power factor practice where a load should be fully compensated at the fundamental frequency and therefore seen as resistive from the network. This principle can be expanded to the whole frequency spectrum claiming the load to be resistive at all harmonic frequencies. The presented solution is based on the harmonic current vectors method where resistance is introduced as the customer reference impedance. The resistance value is calculated from measurements data. The presented method allows calculation of customer side harmonic sources without knowing the actual impedances; it enables the evaluation of unsuitable impedances, e.g. resonance conditions causing the amplification of harmonics.