Performance improvement of id-iq method based active filter using particle swarm optimization

At present the inevitable usage of large number of non-linear power electronic loads has raised severe electric power quality issues. Therefore, it is always desirable to get superior compensation capability by the active power filter (APF). In this paper Particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique is proposed to be employed in shunt APF and a comparative evaluation of the APF performance using conventional and PSO methods under ideal and distorted conditions of supply source is presented. The id iq method of reference filter current generation has been used here, as it yields better end result in compensating the harmonics and unbalance in source current under non-ideal mains conditions. Extensive MATLAB simulations are carried out in order to compare the APF responses. The results reveal that, PSO based APF yields more optimized result in terms of harmonics compensation capability as well as faster convergence to optimum solution.