Power quality surrounding Variable Speed Drives

Author

Abraham, Ajith ; Cronje, Willem A.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. & Inf. Eng., Univ. of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

fYear

2012

fDate

9-13 July 2012

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

7

Abstract

Variable Speed Drives (VSDs) cause power quality problems, one of the major generators of harmonics within power systems. The growing popularity of VSDs as a key driver of energy efficiency, requires more effective means to mitigate harmonics. This paper presents research surrounding harmonics and various ways to mitigate harmonics. Particular attention given to Reduced Harmonics Technology (RHT). It offers an excellent performance in terms of harmonics without any additional form of harmonics mitigation. The RHT solution produced a Total Harmonic Distortion of the line current (THDi) of 33% as compared to a standard VSD with no harmonic mitigation which produced a THDi of 80%.

Keywords

electric generators; harmonic distortion; power supply quality; variable speed drives; RHT; THDi; VSD; harmonic generators; harmonic mitigation; line current; power quality; reduced harmonics technology; total harmonic distortion; variable speed drives; Harmonics; RHT; THDi; VSD;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Power Engineering Society Conference and Exposition in Africa (PowerAfrica), 2012 IEEE

Conference_Location

Johannesburg

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-2548-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PowerAfrica.2012.6498640

Filename

6498640