Evaluating Harmonic Voltage in Electric Distribution Systems due to Six-Pulse Static Power Converter

The circulation of harmonic currents in power systems, caused by particular nonlinear loads, leads to harmonic voltages which depend on the circuit and on the load it drives. Harmonic currents in the system also contribute with a portion of the system technical losses and produce a series of undesirable effects. This paper presents an alternative approach based on an efficient harmonic load flow algorithm in order to evaluate harmonic voltages along distribution systems due to nonlinear loads, more specifically a six-pulse static power converter. The proposed methodology uses frequency-domain formulations which allow dealing directly with voltage and current phasors. Tests were carried out on 04 and 34 bus distribution systems in order to evaluate the proposed technique performance.