Practical applications of active filters for power conditioning in distribution networks

Active filters are widely used for the various purposes, such as harmonic current compensation, reactive current compensation, voltage flicker compensation, etc. Now, they become indispensable for solving power quality problems in distribution networks. For effective application of active filters, their control parameters have to be chosen adequately because the active filter performance is greatly affected by those parameters. In this paper some instances of active filter application for the above purposes are given, how to determine optimum control parameters for respective purposes is discussed, and the operating characteristics of active filters, along with a comparison between analyzed and measured compensation characteristics are presented