ISSN 2249-6343

International Journal of Computer Technology and Electronics Engineering (IJCTEE)

Volume 2, Issue 4, August 2012

Power Quality Improvement in a PV Panel connected Grid

System using Shunt Active Filter
Chandani M. Chovatia, Prof. Narayan P. Gupta, Prof. Preeti N. Gupta
 It is anticipated that Photovoltaic system will be major
Abstract— This paper describes improved methodology of source of energy fulfilling global energy needs.
power quality at utility end in a grid system connected with Photovoltaic system has been increasingly used in medium
renewable source of energy for power generation. With sized grid with domestic utilities. PV panels are connected
development of new functionalities solar energy based in series and parallel to generate usable amount of voltage
Photovoltaic cells are upcoming energy source with higher and current. By series connection voltage level can be built
efficiency. Solar cells are more preferred as renewable source
up and by parallel connection current density can be
of energy. Solar energy being naturally available in
abundance and non- polluting is one of the most promising increased. In addition to that Converter configuration
sources. Excessive use of power electronics devices lead to should be efficient and cost effective.
power quality problems. Effects of poor power quality like There are many topologies available for DC/DC step up
sag, swell distortion in waveform, harmonics, reactive power and DC/AC conversion. For maximum power transfer DC
generation has affected both grid as well as utility sectors.
Voltage is stepped up. Boost converter, cuk converter
Harmonics are major problem diminishing the power quality.
Active Power filter are powerful tool for mitigation of
cascading convertor topology. Boost convertor is more
harmonics. Active filter suppress harmonic current and preferable due to less no of devices and simple control.
compensate reactive power simultaneously. This paper Inverters connected to output of dc/dc converter which
presents the performance of Shunt active filter with VSI incorporated a Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT)
topology using synchronous reference frame theory. By this which continuously adjusts the load impedance to provide
methodology harmonic suppression is possible within maximum power from PV panels.
permissible standards as defined by IEEE-519.
Sinusoidal waveform of AC voltage is highly distorted by
Index Terms—Inverter, PV cells, Power quality, Shunt current due to non linear load at common point of coupling
active Filter, Synchronous Reference Frame Theory. (PCC). Due to this other load on same grid systems are
affected. This creates unbalancing effect on transmission
and generation side. Active filters are the solutions to these
I. INTRODUCTION problems of unbalancing, harmonics and reactive power.
This paper presented here shows unique and effective For Harmonic mitigation passive filters were used
methodology for planning a grid connected to renewable traditionally, but due to certain drawbacks of resonance due
source of energy as solar energy and Harmonic Mitigation to matching with line impedance, can compensate single
in system using Active Filter on utility side. Solar power is harmonic at a time, bulky in weight they are not much in
harnessed through PV panels and harmonic distortion is use. With development of semiconductor devices active
filtered using Shunt Active filter. harmonic filters with different current control strategies are
Age of fossil fuel as source of energy is constantly getting extensively used. Shunt Active filter can be formed from
extinct. Demand of fuel and energy is exponentially rising topologies like CSI, VSI.. There are many current control
with time. At the same time energy cost is also continuously methods used in active filters. Hysteresis current control
increasing. To overcome these critical situations we can use method, synchronous reference frame, direct control
renewable resources at our disposal from which energy can method, fuzzy logic, dead beat control are used for PWM
be tapped; Photovoltaic cells converts solar energy to direct generation.
electric energy. Other virtues of solar energy are: Grid connected to Solar panels with inverter and active
1. It requires less time to install and start up new unit for power filter for compensating harmonic current of non
generation. linear load is shown in fig.1
2. It has no rotating parts, hence no noise, no
maintenance and long life with less maintenance.
3. Solar energy is abundantly available on earth.
4. Problem of low efficiency and higher initial cost can
be overcome by advance technology solar PV panel.
5. This energy source is non-polluting and available
continuously free of cost. [1]

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 ISSN 2249-6343
International Journal of Computer Technology and Electronics Engineering (IJCTEE)
Volume 2, Issue 4, August 2012

If solar panels of high rating are implemented then

requirement of boost converter can also be relaxed and
switching loss in converter can be saved.
PV Panels generate DC Voltage and to connect panels to
grid DC power has to be converted to AC Power. We
require inverter to convert DC to sinusoidal AC before
connecting to grid. Output voltage and frequency should be
same as that of grid voltage and frequency. Many inverter
topologies are available. In proposed scheme PWM (pulse
width modulated) Voltage Source Inverter is selected d-q
theory with phase. [3] Output of the Inverter is near to
Sinusoidal. 6 switches are used and its switching is
controlled by discrete PWM signals. Electrical diagram for
inverter is shown in Fig. 2. [4]

Fig. 1. PV system connected to grid with non linear load

and Active Filter.

II. PV PANELS
Solar cell is basically a photovoltaic cell form of p-n
junction. It when exposed to sunlight absorbs some energy
greater than band-gap. This creates some hole-electron
pairs proportional to incident radiations. These carriers are
affected by internal electric fields of p-n junction and forms
photo current proportional to solar insolation. PV cells have
non linear characteristics which vary with radiation
intensity and temperature. Fig. 2 PWM 3 phase inverter with passive filter
PV cells produces less than 3W at 0.5 to 0.6 Volts, so cells
are connected in series to produce enough power.[2] The
terminal equation for the current and voltage of the array of IV. ACTIVE FILTERS
PV panels are given as under:[2] Harmonics results in voltage distortion which is a major
problem on utility side. Other problems related to
(1) harmonics such as line loss reactive power, resonance
problem, heating of equipments leads to reduction in
(2) stability of system. Active filters provide a fair solution to
mitigate problems encountered due to harmonics on utility
(3) side. Harmonic resonance is not an issue with this type of
filter. The active filters are used for nonlinear load having
time dependent harmonics.
(4) There are several topologies are considered to meet IEEE
519 harmonics standards at plant-utility PCC interface.
Ip = Light generated current Shunt active filter, series active filter, hybrid active filter
Vpv = Terminal voltage of the cell with CSI and VSI inverter topologies are available. These
ID = Diode current filters are sized based on how much harmonic current is to
Io = saturation current be filtered. The filter consists of a VSI or CSI with a special
Ish = shunt current electronic controller which injects harmonic current on to
q = electron charge the system 1800 out of phase to the system harmonics. This
k = Boltzmann constant results in a cancelling effect of the harmonics. For example
T = Temperature if the non linear load creates 100 amps of 5th harmonic
Rs = Series Resistance current and the active filter produced 75 Amps of 5th
Rsh = shunt Resistance harmonic current, the amount of 5th harmonic current
exported to the utility grid would be 25 Amps. [5]
III. BOOST CONVERTER AND INVERTER Shunt active filter is cost effective for low to medium
Boost converter increases voltage level for inverter and industrial load. It does not create power factor displacement
control MPPT. Output voltage of boost converter is higher problem. Supply side Inductance does not affect harmonics
than input voltage. Input current is same as inductor current compensation capability of active filter system. It requires
and hence it is not discontinuous as buck convertor and simple current control implementation.[5] It provides
hence input filter requirements are relaxed in boost immunity against ambient harmonic load.
convertor.

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 ISSN 2249-6343
International Journal of Computer Technology and Electronics Engineering (IJCTEE)
Volume 2, Issue 4, August 2012

In active filter protection and sequencing is relatively easy

and does not require expensive isolation and switchgear.
Shunt Active filters are scalable for higher KVA loads by
paralleling units [6]
A. Shunt Active Filter
Shunt active filter is based on the principle of injection of
load harmonic current and is characterized by non
sinusoidal current reference tracking. Shunt harmonic filter
requires suitable current controller for extraction of load
harmonic current. [5] Proposed model of Shunt Active filter
includes switching ripple filter of rating which filters
current. The shunt Active filter constitutes of IGBT inverter
with switching frequency of 20k Hz and rated current Fig. 4. Vector representation of synchronous reference
200A. Active filter has output voltage Vp = 380 V and frame
current rating of Ip = 170 Amp. DC bus voltage of Shunt
Active filter is Vdc = 620 for nominal supply voltage of Reference frame theory based d-q model for SAPF
415V. The dc bus capacitance is 1.5mF. Inverter output presented. Instantaneous voltages and currents in the RYB
filter inductance is Lf = 350μH. [6] coordinates are transformed to two axis coordinates
In Proposed model of Shunt Active filter, shown in Fig.3 represented by α and β. [4]
load harmonic current is injected with 1800 phase shift.
Synchronous reference frame theory is implemented as (5)
control logic for controlling and extraction of load
harmonic current and generating pulse for inverter. (6)

By Clarke Transformation

[ ] [ ] (7)

[ ] [ ] (8)

√ (9)

[ ]

[ ] √ [ ][ ] (10)

[ ] [ ] (11)
Fig. 3. Shunt Active Filter connected to non linear load
B. Synchronous Reference Frame Theory [ ] (12)
In this paper synchronous Reference frame theory based
d-q model for SAPF is discussed. Instantaneous voltage and In three phases balanced system neutral current is zero,
current in three phase circuit it is mathematically expressed and zero sequence current does not exist. Voltage and
in space vector form. [8] These three vectors R, Y, B are currents in α and β reference frame is express as shown in
displaced by an angle of 1200 from each other is shown in equation. Both current and voltage equations of three phase
fig.4. are transformed to 2 phase called alpha and beta as shown
in vector diagram fig. 4.

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 ISSN 2249-6343
International Journal of Computer Technology and Electronics Engineering (IJCTEE)
Volume 2, Issue 4, August 2012

The Voltage in α and β reference frame is further transform FFT analysis results are shown in Fig.13. and Fig. 14.
in rotating reference frame with ωr as angular velocity in This shows harmonic reduction before and after using shunt
d-q reference frame. Transformation from α, β to d-q active filter. Here fundamental frequency is 50Hz. THD
reference frame can be similarly obtained. Unit vector reduces from 27. 32% to 3.94% which is in range of IEEE
generation for this transformation is generated by step 519 standards.
down grid voltage. [9]

[ ] [ ] [ ] (13)

[ ] [ ] (14)

[ ]

This control scheme shown in Fig. 5 consists of inner

current control loop and outer voltage control loop. The PI
controller of the voltage control loop gives a current
command required to maintain the DC bus voltage to set Fig. 6. Simulink model of Grid connected SAPF
value. This is added to the AC component of d axis of the
load current. This gives the current reference for d axis. The
reference for q axis is obtained after the orientation of load
current. [8]

Fig. 7. Simulink model of current control scheme of SAPF

Fig. 5. Block diagram of closed loop current control scheme

using synchronous reference frame theory
Fig. 8. Load current waveform before filtering
V. MAT LAB SIMULATION AND WAVEFORMS:
Matlab is very powerful tool for the simulation. Here
simulation of Shunt Active filter in Matlab is shown in
Fig.6. Here three phase AC source is supplied to load.
Simulation of PV panels connected with inverter is not
shown. Control circuit for active filter is shown in Fig.7.
Simulation results and waveforms are shown. Waveforms
of Load current and Source current before and after filtering Fig. 9. Source current waveform before filtering
are shown in Fig.7 and Fig.8. After implementation of
Shunt Active harmonic Filter source current has become
nearly sinusoidal this is shown in Fig. 11 Compensating
harmonic current which is to be injected in source current is
also shown in Fig.12.

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 ISSN 2249-6343
International Journal of Computer Technology and Electronics Engineering (IJCTEE)
Volume 2, Issue 4, August 2012

VI. CONCLUSION
PV panels are connected in series and parallel to match
with grid voltage. Parallel connection increases current
level. This DC power is converted to AC using inverter.
Inverter is control to feed active power to the grid using
discrete PWM signals. There is harmonic injection in the
Fig. 10. Load Current waveform after filtering grid due to non linear load on utility side. To mitigate this
harmonics to IEEE 519 standards Shunt active filter with
VSI topology is used. Synchronous reference frame for
current control scheme is implemented for better results.
Active filters operation rating and control is briefly
analyzed. Important terms like switching frequency, ripple
suppression dc bus voltage are addressed to meet systems
performance objective. Harmonic level in Supply current is
27.32% without active filter implementation, which is
Fig. 11. Source current waveform after filtering
improved to 3.94% with Shunt active filter
implementation.

REFERENCES

[1] S. P. Chowdhury, “Mathematical Modeling and Performance

evaluation of a Stand- Alone Polycrystalline PV plant with MPPT
facility,” IEEE 2008.
[2] R. M. Hudson, M.R. Behnke, R.West, JerryGinn, “Design
Fig. 12. Compensating harmonic current Considerations for Three Phase Grid connected Photo Voltaic
Inverters” IEEE 1998.
[3] Salem Rahmani, Kamal Al-Haddad, Farhat Fnaiech, “A New PWM
Control Technique Applied to Three Phase Shunt Hybrid Power
Filter”, IEEE 2002.
[4] Jawad Faiz, Ghazanfar Shahgholian, “Modeling and Simulation of
Three Phase Inverter with rectifier type nonlinear Loads”, Armenian
Journal of Physics, September 2009.
[5] S.Bhattacharya, D.M. Divan, “Active Filter Solutions For Utility
Interface of Industrial Loads”, IEEE Cont on Power Electronics
Drives G- Energy Systems For Indiatial Growth (PEDES), pp
1078-1084, Jan 1996, New Delhi, India.
[6] S Bhattacharya, T. M. frank, D.M. Divan, “Active Filter
Implementation” IEEE Industry Application Magazine, September
1998.
[7] N. P. Gupta, P. N. Gupta, Dr. D. Masand, ”Performance Evaluation
of Hybrid Active Filter” International Conference On
Communication System and Network Technologies, June 2012
[8] K. Vinoth Kumar, G. Surendar, M.P. Selvan, “Performance
Comparison of Shunt Active Filter and Hybrid Active Filter,”
XXXII National Systems Conference, December 2008.
Fig.13. FFT analysis of source current before filtering [9] T. Narongrit, K-L. Areerak* and K-N. Areerak,” The Comparison
Study of Current Control Techniques for Active Power Filters”,
World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, June
2011.

Fig.14. FFT analysis of source current after filtering

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