Managing the responsibility for harmonic distortion in power networks

A method to manage the responsibility for harmonic distortion is presented in this paper. The method can determine the contributions to harmonic distortion at the point of common coupling between a customer and a utility. The proposed approach is based on network representation with the Norton equivalent circuits where customer and utility sides are represented with the reference impedance and an equivalent harmonic source. Resistance is introduced as the customer side reference impedance. With this approach any customer deviation from the ideal resistance can be penalized, for example, according to an incentive based scheme. The resistance value is calculated directly from the measurement data. The presented method allows real-time harmonic contribution determination without knowing the actual harmonic customer impedances and enables the evaluation and diagnostic for harmonic distortion also in resonance conditions that cause an amplification of harmonics.