Cancellation and attenuation of harmonics in low voltage networks

Increasing numbers of various power electronic equipment, used both as passive devices (e.g. front-end rectifier loads) and as active devices (e.g. inverter-interfaced generation), is one of the main contributing factors to the higher harmonic distortion levels in low voltage distribution networks. The analysis and results presented in this paper discuss and demonstrate how modern power electronic devices interact with each other and with the low voltage network. To represent the effects of harmonic cancellation and harmonic attenuation, different types of power electronic equipment are analysed for several characteristic system impedance values and typically distorted voltage waveforms.