A novel active power filter for harmonic suppression

In this paper, a novel active power filter is proposed and implemented by using a voltage-source power converter with a series connected inductor and capacitor set. The power converter is controlled to generate a compensating voltage that is converted into a compensating current via the series connected inductor and capacitor set. The compensating current flows into the power feeder in order to suppress the harmonic currents generated by nonlinear loads. The salient advantages of the proposed active power filter are lower voltage rating of dc capacitor and power switching devices, smaller filter inductor, smaller dimension, light weight, better filter performance and low electromagnetic interference (EMI). A three-phase 100 kVA active power filter is developed to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method. The results show that the proposed active power filter has the expected performance.